Luís Montenegro challenges entrepreneurs to invest in defence
Portugal’s prime Minister Luís Montenegro has today defended the production of equipment, “even weapons and ammunition”, in Portugal – challenging Portuguese entrepreneurs to invest in the defence industry as part of the European Union’s (EU) deterrence strategy.
“From technology research, equipment, even from the point of view of the textile industry, to weapons and ammunition, we must take advantage of our potential,” said the head of government, speaking to Portuguese journalists in Budapest, at the end of an informal meeting of the European Council in which strategic autonomy for the EU to be more competitive was discussed.
“I know we’re not used to talking about this so clearly in Portugal, but if weapons and ammunition are not produced in Portugal, they will be produced in another European country and we will pay for the purchase of those weapons and ammunition, both within the EU and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization),” he explained. “I am not making a warmongering appeal that the Portuguese state now wants to go to war, no”. This is more the “policy of deterring violence” and to “a pedagogy that is not a pedagogy of war” but more of deterrence.
“If we in Europe are oblivious to this movement, in order to feel safe we will need to turn to someone outside ourselves to guarantee that safety,” he added (leaving the unspoken ‘reality’ that that someone might not be prepared to guarantee the safety).
Meeting in the Hungarian capital for Hungary’s rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, all heads of government have today approved the Budapest Declaration, which calls for “significant investments, mobilising public and private funding”, particularly in the sector of defence.
Driven by the war in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion, and recent geopolitical tensions, Europe’s defence priority will have to be supported by investment needs in the order of €500 billion over the next decade, according to recent calculations, writes Lusa.
As the Portuguese prime minister stressed: “We are going to have to increase investment and it is, I believe, opportune that we can increase defence investment (…) to leverage more jobs (…) and that is what I basically want to signal to Portuguese entrepreneurs, so that they look at the opportunities that the defence area is opening up”.
Montenegro also proposed that Portuguese companies “reinvest part of their productive capacity and possibly even restructure some of their businesses” within the scope of this “supranational strategy” of the EU, in partnership with NATO.
“I would like Portuguese industry – the technological know-how, the productive know-how – to be aware,” he said.
In the Budapest Declaration on the New Pact for European Competitiveness, the EU heads of government and state pledge to “increase defence readiness and capabilities, including by strengthening the defence technological and industrial base accordingly”.
“In this regard”, they urge, “the High Representative and the Commission will present developed public and private financing options without delay”.
Source: LUSA
