The enlargement of the European Union is “fundamental for Portugal”, minister of foreign affairs Paulo Rangel has argued today. “The Portuguese government’s position on enlargement is highly favourable, for strategic reasons, and for this reason it doesn’t have the reticence or reluctance that the previous government had,” he said, during a hearing in the European Affairs parliamentary committee. Ukraine’s accession is also fundamental for Portugal (another issue the last government wasn’t overly keen on) because it will be “an economic opportunity – whenever there have been enlargements, there has been economic dynamism”, explained Rangel – and because Ukraine is “a clearly pro-Atlantic country (…) We in Europe need Atlantic allies”.
