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Who says Witold Waszczykowski is: Portugal sided with Hungary and Poland in their criticism of the European Commission proposal that aimed to make budget policies dependent on countries’ respect for the rule of law. According to this Sunday’s edition of “Public”, the former Polish Foreign Minister reveals that the Portuguese Government has opposed the implementation of this mechanism.
The Visegrad Group, Slovenia, Latvia and Portugal “played on our side”, confirmed Waszczykowski, currently elected MEP by Law and Justice (nationalist and conservative party to which President Andrzej Duda belongs), in an interview with “Público” / Investigate Europe.
Although the European Council does not publish the minutes of the preparatory meetings, a source had access to the official documents of the German delegation, which provided “Public” with additional evidence that Portugal was “very critical” of the safeguard mechanism of the State of right.
On November 12, 2018 – long before, therefore, the pandemic and the discussion about the now famous financial ‘bazooka’ – Ana Paula Zacarías, Secretary of State for European Affairs, made an important intervention, behind closed doors, in which questioned the European Commission’s proposal, “including the lack of connection between the rule of law and the budget.”
Along with Portugal, also Italy, then governed by a coalition that included Viktor Orbán’s political ally, Matteo Salvini, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia expressed doubts and criticized the executive’s initiative. Community level.
The Ministry of Foreign Relations responded to “Public” in writing. Augusto Santos Silva’s office assured that respect for the rule of law “has always been a red line” for the government and said that it is not true that Portugal has abandoned that position of principle.
However, he also pointed out that during the negotiation “the government’s position was always willing to seek a solution that would allow reaching a global agreement in which all member states would review each other, respecting the balance of consensus, always difficult in a Union”. to 27 “.
