More Portugal, More Europe
Current times are challenging for the country and for Europe. The pandemic has exposed the set of historical mistakes that were continued, opening the way for the current increases in the prices of raw materials and processed materials and, consequently, for the inform.
The oblivion or devaluation of the industrial process in the name of a so-called innovation only created the perfect scenario for a strong emergence of countries that participate in the world-system with competitive distortions, clearly accepted tolerantly by the West, which, at the same time, declares to abhor them . We are once again confronted with a shortage of raw materials and with rising prices for works, transport, services and even technology. We facilitated de-industrialization, we gave in to productive outsourcing in the name of low prices, cheap labor and the most distant environmental footprint, and we reinforced a clearly unequal globalization process.
The pandemic only accelerated trends and reinforced the difficulties for European countries. The threat of information, the ever-present ghost as the harbinger of the economic crisis, demands an intervention from the European institutions.
This vision was materialized by António Costa, with an exemplary negotiation of the PRR, capable of assuming itself as the most powerful instrument of social cohesion and economic reconversion in countries in general and in Portugal in particular.
In fact, if that is not the case, I can always suggest that the European institutions will fall into crisis and description. Countries cannot have an instrumental vision of Europe, but the current moment, in which populism and retrograde nationalism are taking the lead, it is time to deepen the social cohesion of citizens who tend to lag behind or those who, living on the thread of razor, they fear the social and economic fall in the structure. This launches into democracy, development and Europe.
It is therefore important to renew ethical, political and institutional commitments. A policy that defends as people and outlines the right paths for the future. A justice that does not acquire assert itself by easy exhibitionism. A group of responsible and defended against populism. That by the institutions, which also depends on the institutions and the way in which they organize and respect each other. And a Europe that does not receive disaggregation, knowing that it has many of the instruments to prevent it, through its deepening and the deepening of European policies as the matrix of development and sustainability.
This implies, almost paradoxically, more country and more Europe. More country to manage as trends and improve development instruments. And more Europe to strengthen the bonds between different potentials, different sensitivities, but common challenges. It is not enough to look at Europe’s role every seven years when we discuss funds. Europe will be political, or it will not be. And, if not, it tends to wither away. Hence the importance of Portugal’s role.
* President of CM Gaia / Porto Metropolitan Area