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LISBON, May 9 (Xinhua) – Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Antonio Costa called for unity and solidarity among EU member states to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic in the Europe Day, which is celebrated on Saturday.
The president said the current situation requires “a real start in the European soul” and a European Union with “de facto solidarity” to fulfill the dream of its founders, the Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported.
In marking the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration of the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on May 9, 1950, who set forth his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, the President said in a statement titled ” Europe will be united or not “that the demonstration of” solidarity “will be decisive in the future of the European project.
The Schuman Declaration contained “a premonitory and yet decisive declaration that Europe would be built, not at once, not based on the realization of a predetermined global project, but through concrete achievements and the creation of de facto solidarity,” he cited the president as saying
He stressed that this solidarity is urgent “in a moment of insecurity and uncertainty, which imposes a real start on a European soul, capable of realizing the dream and ambition” of those who laid the first stones of what would become the EU .
“It is this solidarity that today, more than ever, we expect and demand of Europe,” he added.
Also on Saturday, Prime Minister Antonio Costa highlighted the importance of the unity of the EU member states facing the pandemic.
“Today, as in 1950, only united and with a common response, Europe will guarantee its reconstruction, strengthening itself as a Community of values, an area of shared prosperity and a leader in responding to the main world challenges,” he tweeted.
“Reuniting with history 70 years after the Schuman Declaration. We have not experienced a crisis of this magnitude in society and in the economy since World War II,” he added, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The European Union is a community of values. It is the largest economic area of shared prosperity and it is our strength to face global challenges,” Costa said in a video speech of 27 EU leaders, published on the Twitter page of the President of the European Union. Charles Michel Council. Final product
