Paris, 03/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - To lead "an impulsive Presidency, Portugal, who now wants a stronger voice for proposals in the European framework, must not adopt an timid attitude on the themes of the IGC (…) In certain fields, notable defence, Portugal is capable of being at the forefront. It is necessary that he also does so with regard to EU reform." This is the conclusion of the study "Portugal 2000: the European way" published by "Notre Europe", the think-tank headed by Jacques Delors, and carried out by Alvaro de Vasconcelos, who since 1980 leads the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) of which he is one of the founders.
In the preface, Jacques Delors underlines that the "very original approach to Europe" that Portugal has, "small country," "but who wants to be at the centre of the joint building," "Mediterranean country," but "historically turned towards the great ocean," "country of cohesion," "but who wants to be on the forefront of the search for a new social model that conforms with the European model." At the same time Alvaro Vasconcelos notes, as significant stages for Portugal's attitude towards Europe, the Portuguese quarter as EU Presidency in 1992, which "marked the beginning of the discovery of a political Europe' (since that time, he noted, Portugal "gradually showed greater presence in Community question and more distance with regard to British positions") and the change of government in 1995, with "the tone that the new Prime Minister gave to speeches and politico-diplomatic actions" (Mr. Guterres, in asserting that Portugal "wants and must be at the centre of the European building process," has "to do this ended the Portugal/Britain alignment and gave priority to relations with Kohl's Germany, the engine of European construction," observed Mr. Vasconcelos).
Portugal, who, in the first phase of integration, chose Portuguese speaking Africa as "main priority in terms of European foreign policy," learned that its membership of the European Union is not incompatible, it is the contrary, with the "extra-European dimension" of its foreign policy, Mr. Vasconcelos notes, in remarking that the positive impact of this position on "extra European relations" is "evident in the case of East Timor" (Lisbon, he notes, succeeded, "despite initial opposition from most of its Community partners," to put this issue on the agenda of the CFSP). The author, in underling that one of the characteristics of Portuguese "anti-Europeanism" is the idea that Portugal must not take part in "continental" conflicts, and also notes that the first member of the Portuguese government clearly asserted "the Bosnian priority compared to Angola" occurred, in January 1994, Mr. Durao Barroso, then Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Vasconcelos feels that the participation of the Portuguese Military in Bosnia is "an important step in the "Europeanisation" of Portuguese defence policy.
As for what he refers to as "the European democratisation process," Mr. Vasconcelos signalled in particular the emergence in Portugal of a "wave" defending the creation of a European senate, with Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins as advocate, the present Education Minister, who called for, from 1995, the creation of a second chamber in the European Parliament, directly elected by the citizens.
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