The Council of State has not deviated one millimeter from its object: the enlargement of the European Union. None of the fourteen councilors present at the meeting on Tuesday was against the accession of Ukraine, but they warned that this expansion of the community space must be preceded by reforms from the institutional and financial point of view. “We have to be more careful than in the 2004 enlargement,” said one of the directors, sources present at the meeting told the Observer.
In the initial speech, according to the same sources to the Observer, António Costa explained that the Portuguese government is “favorable to enlargement”, but it must be taken into account that it is necessary “to resolve the institutional and financial issues in advance”. The Prime Minister later specified that, from an institutional point of view, it is necessary review treatiess so that the EU does not fall into a situation of ungovernability???????? already from the point of view financialIt is necessary to review issues such as the leverage of own resources.
None of the other advisers spoke out against enlargement, or against Ukraine’s accession in particular. However, warnings were issued, such as that enlargement to the east would make “Portugal even more peripheral” and the threat to EU funds that Kiev’s accession would pose. “Ukraine is not a small country – imagine what that would be like in terms of funds,” said one of the advisers. There was also divergence among directors as to the pace of this adherence.
Despite the corruption scandal affecting the European Parliament, the advisers ignored what is one of the biggest crises of the most democratic of the institutions of the European Union.
At the end of the Council of State, as is customary, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa summarized what was discussed at the meeting during a 15-minute intervention, in which he promised that the issue would be dealt with again in the Council of State.
At the end of the meeting a note was issued which, as usual, says very little. It simply says that the Council of State “began to analyze the enlargement process and its inevitable connection with the process of financial and economic reforms in the European Union.”
Source: Observadora
