Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

We are very pleased to welcome President Joachim Gauck, Mrs. Daniela Schadt and their retinue on this State Visit to Portugal.

I hope, Mister President that you feel at home amongst us, in this Your Excellency’s first visit to our country, and that it becomes a prime marker in the relations between Portugal and Germany.

Our two countries are well acquainted with each other. They are linked by secular and friendly bonds, which are nowadays expressed within a framework of a wide and intense bilateral cooperation. In the more recent decades we have shared the common project, more than ever central, of the European Union, to which we are both firmly committed.

Portugal and Germany have an excellent political relationship, based upon close cooperation and a vigorous mutual confidence. Our bilateral relations, however, are well ahead of the political dimension, and are also based on economic, trading, cultural, social and educational features.

Germany is, simultaneously, the second largest customer and supplier of goods to Portugal and one of its largest foreign investors. In its turn, Portugal is a country that, due to its international presence and its historical and cultural ties, is thus a natural partner for joint initiatives in third markets, namely in Africa and South America.

I am very confident, especially due to past experience, on the contribution that German companies may deliver to the Portuguese economy, in terms of investment, employment, trade and tourism. But I equally believe in the existing potential for the expansion of Portuguese companies and products in Germany.

Strengthening of bonds between countries is also the result of reciprocal knowledge of the respective cultures, heritage and arts. Germany is a country with great cultural eminence and its people are alert to knowledge and new experiences. I hope that more Germans than ever visit our country and become better acquainted with Portuguese culture, gastronomy, wines, music and literature.

There is a large Portuguese Community residing in Germany. This Community, well integrated and respected, is also an inestimable factor in the promotion of relations between our two countries.

Mister President,

The last three years have been, as is well known, particularly difficult for my country. But nowadays, with the conclusion of the very demanding Programme for Economic and Financial Aid with which we were committed, Portugal recovered access to the international financial markets and the Portuguese economy is now seen as more competitive, sustainable and integrated in the global economy. Now emerging from this adjustment process are signs of recovery of economic activity, with effects already felt in the reduction of unemployment, and with an outstanding record in exports.

We are conscious that it is essential to keep up the rate of the ongoing structural reforms and that economic growth must be fundamentally based on national and foreign private investment and on exports.

Mister President,

Europe has been facing heavy challenges in the last few years. The international financial crisis exposed structural weaknesses and imbalances in the economies of several Member States, and brought out the high degree of economic and financial interdependency between member States and particularly in the Euro zone. It is the result of the level of integration we have achieved.

Throughout this period I have defended the importance of, in parallel with the strengthening of the process of budgetary discipline and supervision, to advance more decidedly to a European agenda guided towards growth and employment. I have equally called out for the need to guarantee our companies, particularly the small and medium sized enterprises, financial conditions comparable to those available to their European counterparts. Deriving naturally from this is the importance of a real Banking Union becoming swiftly operational.

The decisions taken in the European institutions have a more than ever direct impact in the lives of the peoples. It is essential that their voice, their legitimate concerns and ambitions, are duly listened to. This will surely be a feature to take into account in the aftermath of the last European elections.

Portugal and Germany are partners in the European Union, but equally share objectives and interests with respect to multiple themes in the international agenda, an agenda which continues in a high degree of volatility and uncertainty, as the recent developments in the Ukraine have shown.

The changes that are now being operated in relations of power at international level more than ever evidently demand a cohesive and determined European Union. If Europe has changed since the end of the Cold War – and the enlargement and the euro are corollary to it – Germany has also changed. Germany, that in 1990 launched itself in a reunification process that stamped our Continent and the World itself, assumes a central role in the context of the deepening of the process of European integration, not only being its main economic engine, but also a fundamental political player.

Mister President,

Your Excellency’s visit is the confirmation of the wishes of the people who are politically responsible to deepen still further the friendship and cooperation between Portugal and Germany. It is equally revealing of our commitment towards a strong, ambitious, cohesive and unified European project.

In this spirit I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health and happiness of President Joachim Gauck and Mrs. Daniela Schadt, to the prosperity of the friendly people of Germany and to the future of the relations between our countries.