The new government of Portugal, led by Luís Montenegro, supports Ukraine's accession to the EU. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, Paulo Ranhel, at the end of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, as reported by Euractiv.
"Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has given a clear signal that he is in favour of EU enlargement. This is something that I think needed to be clarified because Portugal had some hesitations, especially when it was being given candidate status last year," Ranhel said.
According to him, the previous socialist government led by António Costa was "fully on Ukraine's side," but regarding EU enlargement, "there were some reservations, which always created ambiguity."
"Now there is no ambiguity," the Portuguese minister stated.
The former prime minister warned on several occasions that EU enlargement must be accompanied by a reform of the EU bloc’s structures, including its budget, to avoid imbalances in, for example, the distribution of European funds, the representation of countries in the European Parliament and even the decision-making rules between member states.
Responding to these warnings, the Foreign Minister acknowledged that enlargement “of course implies financial and treaty reform”.
