Ukraine's accession to the EU will help solve the food problem - Portuguese Foreign Minister
Kyiv • UNN
Portugal's Foreign Minister said that Ukraine's accession to the EU is of fundamental importance to Portugal because of potential economic opportunities, solving the food problem, and because Ukraine is a pro-Atlantic ally.
Ukraine's accession to the EU "is of fundamental importance for Portugal," Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Wednesday, citing possible economic opportunities and the solution of the food problem, UNN reports citing Euractiv.
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Rangel voiced Portugal's position during a hearing at the Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs on Wednesday.
"The Portuguese government's stance on enlargement is very supportive for strategic reasons, and for that reason, it doesn't have the same reticence or reluctance that the previous government had," Rangel said.
Ukraine's accession "is of fundamental importance for Portugal" because it will be "an economic opportunity - every time there has been an enlargement, there has been economic dynamism" and because it is "clearly a pro-Atlantic country," the minister continued.
"We need Atlantic allies in Europe," Rangel said, rejecting the idea that enlargement would be a "pivot to the east.
"Ukraine's accession will solve the food problem," he said, noting the "strategic importance of Ukraine's accession" but also acknowledging that farmers will have "many problems" and will have to be compensated.
"It's about Moldova, it's about the Balkans, it's about Georgia," Rangel added, referring to the other candidate countries, which include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
Commenting on Russia's recent attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine, the minister said he expects "a new wave of migration of 8 or 9 million people" as the lack of energy "makes everyday life impossible.
Speaking about possible institutional reform at the EU level, Portugal's foreign minister said that Lisbon would prefer not to revise the EU treaties - because "it would be faster and less divisive" - but admitted that perhaps a "better way" would be through a "surgical amendment" to the treaties.
