Welcome to the page of the Official Visit to Chile

Honourable Executive Secretary of ECLAC
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I was very pleased to accept your prestigious invitation to include, in my official visit to Chile, a meeting with ECLAC, one of the more reputable regional Commissions of the United Nations.

Throughout its more than fifty years of existence, ECLAC has asserted itself as a reference in the analysis of social and economic development projects of Latin American and Caribbean countries and as an important mustering and support pillar for coordination and for regional and international cooperation.

Portugal is, since 1984, an ECLAC Member State, such as other European countries, geographically distant but maintaining strong historical, economic and cultural links with this region of the world. Links which are the basis of a natural convergence between Europe and Latin America made up of languages and cultures, affinities, values and even friendship. Made, in short, of a great heritage which must be valued and interpreted as a truly strategic partnership.

The adhesion of Portugal and Spain to the European Union, in 1986, brought increased interest and renewed regard towards the relationship between Europe and Latin America. It was not by chance that the first ministerial meeting between the European Union and Mercosur was held during the first Portuguese presidency of the Union, in 1992. And it was very recently that, under the current presidency, the first EU-Brazil Summit took place in Lisbon.

Far from having inhibited, as some feared, the privileged relations it maintains with various regions of the world, specifically with Portuguese speaking countries and with Latin America, Portugal’s membership of the European Union has largely been a lever for the strengthening of those relations.

After more than twenty years since adhesion, Portugal can provide proof of the benefits of European integration. The results were visible, not only in terms of stability and democracy, but also in the increase of economic and social development, as had never been seen in our recent history.

The need to adapt ourselves to the acquis communautaire at the date of adhesion, to compete in the single market and to create the convergence conditions for the adoption of the euro, implied deep alterations in our juridical and administrative institutions and in the operational model of our economy. Throughout that period of demanding challenges and intense change, Portugal has been an endeavouring, exerted and active partner in the process of European construction.

European integration is a fifty year old process, made up of great successes, but also marked by some hesitating and sceptical phases. This is a unique construction in history, difficult to reproduce in its specific dynamics, but that must and can continue to be the source of inspiration to other movements of regional integration, particularly in the case of Latin America.

Allow me this opportunity to underline some of the factors which I consider crucial for the success of the European experience in integration.

I would start by emphasizing the sharing of values common to all – freedom, democracy Human rights, Rule of law. This matrix of values is the most solid pillar of European construction.

Secondly, the fundamental principles adopted, specifically the subsidiarity-equity binomial. On the one side it clarifies the different levels of responsibility between the Union and the Member-states and, on the other, it ensures the trust of the States and the People in the deepening of integration, and strengthens the sense of belonging to a true community.

Economic and social cohesion, one of the more expressive instances of the concrete application of equity principles, firmly anchored in common interest, has in fact become a distinctive mark of the European integration process and a powerful lever for economic convergence and social progress.

Thirdly: the respect for diversity. Europe is an extremely diverse continent, very pluralistic, probably with even more diversity than Latin America. Notwithstanding, it was possible to go ahead with an integrating process, respecting diversity as a precious and inalienable value. There lies the reason for the complexity and sensitivity of the deepening of the European integration process. There also lies its wealth and peculiarity.

The European Union is, mainly, a construction of sovereign States that decide to share the management of sovereignty in areas where common interests are dominant. Portugal, which has a strong and ancient identity of almost nine centuries, views European diversity as a value and not as an impediment.

The institutional architecture of European integration is another of the factors of its success. It is an original model which, although containing some federalist components, does not correspond, in effect, to a conventional federal model. It is largely based on an independent and supranational institution – the European Commission – on which was conferred the duty to defend the common interest, and to which the exclusive to the right of initiative was wisely attributed.

Small, medium and large Member-states, differentiated cultures, languages and traditions, and even ancestral rivalries coexist in the framework of the European Union. I am convinced that, without the Commission – currently presided by a Portuguese national – it would not have been possible to guarantee consistency, coherence and sustainability to the European integration process.

A long way has been trodden from the Treaty of Rome to the recently agreed Treaty of Lisbon. I believe I do not exaggerate when saying that the idea of European unity is a utopia which is being pragmatically carried out.

The priority of European construction was, initially, economic integration, which took it from a Customs Union to the current Economic and Monetary Union. The euro, the single European currency, was the crowning of an intense integration process, based upon the achievement of a true single market in a borderless area with approximately 500 million inhabitants, that is, the world’s largest integrated and competitive market.

Now, specifically with the Lisbon Treaty which will be signed next December, the aim is to deepen the political dimension of economic integration, improve the efficiency, the transparency and the democratization of the community decision procedures, and strengthen the effectiveness of the European Union in the international scenery. In 50 years, an Economic Community of six States became a 27 Member Union, undeniably proof of the attractiveness of the European integration project.

This path is also proof of an increased conscience that the challenges of globalization can easier be faced from a framework of regional integration, which takes advantages from synergies of scale and provides power to the capacity for action in multilateral forums.

Regional integration contributes decisively to provide consistency and balance to global economy. Multilateralism itself benefits from regional integration projects. Gone is the thesis, which at one time was almost accepted, that globalization was incompatible with regional integration. On the contrary, it is now very clear that globalization, to be consistent and balanced, not only requires an effective frame of multilateral discipline, but also the support of multi-regionalism.

European experience shows well that economic integration, when balanced, consistently and gradually carried out, and with recourse to adequate institutional instruments, can be a decisive factor of economic and social development and of stability and security. This is apparently where a challenge is placed before Latin America.

From a European view, and taking into account the affinities and convergence of interests of Latin American countries, there seems to be a great but as yet relatively unexplored potential, in matters of cooperation and regional economic integration. This is, naturally, a challenge which can only be answered by the Latin American peoples.

Both Europe and Latin America are interested not only in a multilateral order, but in a multi-polar world which forestalls hegemonic temptations. Bilateralism and lack of rules in international economic relations are contrary to the interests of both regions.

Apart from sharing with Latin America and the Caribbean undeniable historical, cultural and linguistic affinities, the European Union is one of its biggest trading partners and its main direct foreign investor. However, the potential of economic, political and trading relations between the European Union and Latin America is not yet sufficiently made use of, in spite of the clear complementariness which is characteristic of both regions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The reasons that recommend the narrowing of the links between Europe and Latin America are very strong. I believe that divergences in negotiation, particularly with respect to trade, which exist in the Doha framework, cannot put a stop to carrying out the ample strategic agenda of interests common to these two regions of the world. The mutual benefits of such a strategic convergence justify a renewed effort of all the parties concerned to overcome persisting disagreements.

For Portugal, it is particularly clear that it is time to reassert the strategic priority that Latin America represents for the European Union. Latin American States are States near to Europe, in the widest sense of the word. In the global era in which we live, it would be unpardonable not to give value and not to take all possible advantages of the singularity which unites us.

Thank you very much