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

Royal Highnesses,
Honourable Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My Wife and I are greatly pleased to welcome Your Royal Highnesses in this your first State Visit to Portugal. I am well aware of the fondness which You reserve for Portugal, a country with which You are well acquainted, the origin of Your Royal Highness’s recent forbears and where You have family connections and many devoted friends. We hope that, amongst us, you feel as if at home.

Such is what we felt, my Wife and me, during the Visit we undertook to the Portuguese Community in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, in March 2007. We shall never forget the gestures of regard and friendliness shown us on that occasion, in spite of the painful hours that a then recent bereavement caused in the Family of Your Royal Highnesses.

This proximity between our two countries is the reflection of a secular friendship and one of the best mainstays for the future of a relationship that we both wish to see reinforced.

Our political relations are excellent. We are partners in the European project, our cooperation is ample, and the respective applications of our countries to bodies in international Organizations have benefited from a steadfast mutual support.

These results owe much to the extraordinary link between our two countries represented by the presence, in Luxembourg of a well integrated Portuguese Community, which numbers in excess of eighty thousand citizens and, as such, is a significant part of the active population of the Grand Duchy.

During the meetings I held with the Portuguese and Luso-descendants resident in Luxembourg, in March 2007, I was able to witness their extraordinary attachment to the welcoming country and their wish to proactively contribute towards the economic and social development of Luxembourg. But I was equally able to ascertain that this determination coexists with the love for their traditions, with their historical and cultural roots. It is thus not surprising that they welcomed enthusiastically the constitutional changes which allow their achieving the Luxembourg nationality without the need to renounce their nationality of origin.

I firmly believe that the continued success of the integration of the Portuguese community depends upon the compatibility between these two values – the Portuguese and that of Luxembourg – specifically with respect to culture. In this sense, I hope that solutions may be found that will guarantee a better integration of the teaching of Portuguese language in Luxembourg’s educational system, an old and well known aspiration of the Portuguese community. I am certain that any progress achieved in this issue will become a relevant contribution towards the educational training and success of the young Portuguese resident in Luxembourg.

The current economic and financial crisis that did not spare any of our countries was naturally reflected in the concerns of this working Community. I am well aware of the efforts being undertaken to develop a greater bilateral cooperation in the issue of employment and am certain that we shall be able, jointly, to identify paths that further the training and professional re-qualification that circumstances demand.

The framework of the relationship we enjoy allows us to face the future confidently and ambitiously.

I believe that the Protocol for the Update of the Convention to Avoid Double Taxation and Tax Evasion, which will be signed tomorrow, the entrepreneurial meetings held today, as well as the Economic Seminar, will be relevant contributions towards intensifying and diversifying our trade exchanges, to develop a greater investment flow and to promote new partnerships between our entrepreneurs, including in third countries, specifically those where Portuguese is spoken.

In this respect we are aware of the growing interest with which Luxembourg is accompanying the work of CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries), as shown by its presence, as an invited guest, in the recent Luanda Summit, or its participation, with Portugal and Belgium, in the project to set up the Cape Verde Common Visa Centre.

Portugal and Luxembourg are today, active partners driven towards the materialization of the ideal of European integration. We both want a stronger, more prosperous and fairer European Union. A European Union better capable of asserting itself as a credible performer in the international stage.

We live demanding times. To the challenges already faced by Europe are added those imposed by the effects of the world economic and financial crisis, and which require a substantial strengthening in the coordination of the economic policies of Member States. A coordination that, while promoting an increased control of the deficit and of public debt, will not be oblivious that the prime objective is the creation of conditions for Europe’s sustained economic recovery, which requires the strengthening of its competitiveness and cohesion.

A united and cohesive European Union that is capable to overcome the current difficulties with solidarity will become the stronger and more credible Union that we crave. Let us thus not squander this opportunity.

Royal Highnesses,
Honourable Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am certain we shall know how to continue taking advantage of the friendship that links us, increasing it through material undertakings, currently and in the future. It is with this confidence that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health of Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg, to the friendly People of Luxembourg and to the prosperity of the relations between our countries.

Thank you very much.