"The position of the Portuguese Government regarding the enlargement is a highly favourable one, for strategic reasons and, therefore, it does not have the reticence or reluctance that the previous Government had", stated Paulo Rangel today, during a hearing at the parliamentary committee on European Affairs regarding the European Council of 21 and 22 March 2024 and the extraordinary European Council of 17 and 18 April.

Ukraine's accession "is fundamental for Portugal", because it will be "an economic opportunity - whenever there have been enlargements, there has been economic dynamism" and because it is "a clearly pro-Atlantic country", continued the minister.

"We in Europe need Atlantic allies", said Rangel, contradicting the idea that the enlargement will be "a turn to the east"

"It is exactly the opposite: they are highly pro-Atlantic countries that will be partners of Portugal, possibly of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. In this opening to the Atlantic, they give the Union strategic Atlantic depth", he defended.

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are officially candidate countries for accession. Kosovo submitted its application in 2022 but its independence is not recognised by five EU Member States (Spain, Romania, Greece, Slovakia and Cyprus).

On the other hand, "Ukraine's entry will allow the food problem to be solved", said the head of Portuguese diplomacy, highlighting the "strategic importance of Ukraine's entry".

Pointing out that farmers will have "many problems" and therefore will have to be compensated, he commented that, "if there is a conflict of another scale, the European Union has access to these means that it would not otherwise have".

"This applies to Moldova, to the Balkans, to Georgia", he stressed.

In mid-December 2023, the European Council decided to open formal EU accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Ukraine has had the status of an EU candidate country since mid-2022.

Regarding a possible institutional reform, responding to the socialist deputy José Luís Carneiro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that Lisbon preferred that it would not be necessary to revise the EU treaties - because "it would be faster and less divisive" -, but admitted that perhaps "the best way" would be through a "surgical alteration" of the treaties.

Regarding the current situation in Ukraine, after new Russian attacks on energy infrastructures, the minister said that there is a "great risk" of "a new wave of migration, of 8 or 9 million people", because the lack of energy "makes daily life impossible".

Rangel revealed that the "agreement on guarantees" to be negotiated between Lisbon and Kyiv is "quite advanced" and that it contemplates "obviously military, financial and humanitarian support".

Leia Também: Ex-colónias? MNE fala em relação "muito madura" e "equilibrada" (Portuguese version)