Lisbon, June 18, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro on Wednesday supported the European Union (EU) trade agreement with Mercosur, saying that Europe would set a “bad example” if it failed to implement an agreement negotiated over 25 years.
The agreement, he argued, “opens up a commercial space with more than 700 million consumers” and gives Europe “the advantage of being able to demand reciprocity in the rules applicable to companies on both sides of the Atlantic”.
“We set a bad example if we fail to implement an agreement that we ourselves negotiated,” Montenegro argued in parliament during the preparatory debate for the European Council meeting, which will take place on June 26 and 27 in Brussels.
“It weakens our economy and our position as a bloc if we are not consistent with what we ourselves advocate," he said.
Responding to the right wing Chega Party, which criticised the “harmful effects” of this agreement on Portugal, Luís Montenegro considered that the MPs from that party “are not seeing the full scope of this agreement”.
The agreement, he stressed, “guarantees and safeguards” “equal treatment and reciprocity for producers, particularly agricultural producers, on environmental rules, procedural rules and trade rules”.
“If we don’t have the courage to implement it, we will expose our market to the situation we have today, with shelves invaded by products from that region that don’t have the same controls as our producers,” he said.
The prime minister also argued that Europe should “reflect deeply” on this, particularly countries that have shown the greatest resistance, such as Italy and especially France.
“I had the opportunity to tell the French President [Emmanuel Macron] that they are also looking at it from the wrong angle,” he said.
“No agreement is perfect, it will not be 100% satisfactory, but in essence, it aims to protect, within this free market, equal treatment and opportunities,” he reiterated.
The EU-Mercosur agreement covers the 27 EU member states plus Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, equivalent to 25% of the global economy and 780 million people, almost 10% of the world’s total population.
During the debate in parliament, and in response to MP Rui Tavares of the left wing Livre party, Montenegro insisted on the Portuguese position on the need to increase each member state’s contribution to the EU budget, currently 1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“It’s an issue that must be on the table, it’s not an easy discussion,” he acknowledged.
“We cannot be accumulating collective debt as the only source of financing for the European Union,” he argued, suggesting other initiatives such as participation in the bond market, the completion of the Capital Markets Union and the Savings Union and making European savers’ savings more profitable.
Another issue that Montenegro anticipated as a “difficult negotiation” is that concerning the new multiannual financial framework.
“The challenges are more than many. We have accumulated 40 years of support in cohesion funds,” he said.
At a time when new EU enlargements are on the horizon, member states will have to face “the need to stimulate the economy directly and the defence economy”.
On this issue, the prime minister heard criticism from Communist MP Paula Santos about the “diversion of cohesion funds to war” and the “mobilisation of resources that belong to the people for the arms race”, so that the government can “present itself as a good student” at the NATO summit to be held in The Hague on June 24 and 25, where Portugal is expected to commit to raising defence spending to 2% of GDP this year.
“The Communist Party is repeating fallacious arguments and seeing everything backwards,” Montenegro responded.
“We support a security and defence policy. Our goal is not war or weapons,” but this policy is “the basis of security and defence for Europe to have stability and economic growth,” he maintained.
JH/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
