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

I was very pleased to accept the invitation to take part in the opening of this Conference organized by the European Commission. I did so, first of all, due to the crucial relevance of the debates covering the themes “Portugal: On the Route to Growth and Employment. European Funds and Programmes: Solidarity on behalf of the Portuguese Economy”. At a time when the negotiation of the 2014-2020 Partnership Agreement, between the Government and the European Commission is being held, the importance of this opportunity cannot be denied.

I am also very pleased to record the significant and high level participation of the European Commission – I could almost say that we are practically facing the College of Commissioners... – as well as the large and diversified nature of the audience.

Europe has faced many great challenges in the last few years. The financial crisis in the Euro zone has uncovered structural weaknesses and imbalances in the economies of several Member States, showing, at the same time, the difficulties encountered by the Union’s institutions in providing an adequate and timely answer to an unprecedented situation.

The correct execution of the 2014-2020 Multi Annual Financial Framework is an opportunity for European citizens to perceive that the rules of budgetary discipline and supervision of economic policies – that bind all Member States – aim, above all, to guarantee that economic growth, employment and the peoples’ living conditions are better and more sustainable than if such rules were absent.

Budgetary discipline is not, in itself, an objective of economic policy. It is part of the complement of instruments and it is important to avoid that it becomes, in the view of the citizens, a restriction that absorbs and conditions everything else. Budgetary discipline is a means, not an end. Its demand at European level is a logical consequence of the correlation between the economies of the Member States.

The Multi Annual Financial Framework may, in some Member States, be used to correct or lessen a wrongful perception of the European rules of budgetary discipline and of supervision of economic policies, an error that, in these days, revives and promotes euroscepticism.

It was in this context that I recently wrote that budgetary discipline and supervision of economic policy by the European institutions that, in the terms of the legal standards in force, will be a fixture in the post-troika period do not mean – rather the contrary – that the Portuguese economy will not grow and that there will be no improvement in the citizens’ living conditions. I could state the same with respect to other countries in the Euro zone.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the last three years Portugal has been placing a great effort in macroeconomic and financial adjustment, within the framework of the programme agreed with the international institutions which, as you know, will be finalized next month.

Throughout this time I have defended the importance, simultaneously with the process of budgetary consolidation, of advancing more decidedly in the pursuit of a European policy guided towards growth and employment. I was particularly clear with respect to this matter in the speech I delivered last year, in the European Parliament, during my visit to the European Institutions.

The topics dealt with in this Conference, and their context, are critically relevant for our country. It is important that routes are chosen for the following years that allow us to maximise – in terms of economic growth, job creation and social cohesion – the impact of the new framework of community financing for the period 2014-2020.

When this new stage is begun, deep reflection and strict analysis of the choices made is obligatory. But a renewed ambition is equally demanded.

We require a strategic and global vision of the future of the Country, and a route that provides sustainable economic and financial development, without losing sight of the social dimension of the European democratic model. We must be well aware of the decisive role that SMEs play in Portugal.

The Partnership Agreement put forward by the Government last January establishes the financing priorities for European funds in the 2014-2020 period. These funds are crucial instruments to strengthen the competitiveness of the economy, enhance growth and correct regional distortions, and Portugal must be capable of efficiently taking advantage of them. Thus proving that these are also the revelation of a stronger Europe, with greater cohesiveness and solidarity.

If a year ago I praised the Commission and the European Parliament for having a more ambitious view than the Council with respect to the Multi Annual Financial Framework, it is now Portugal’s turn to show its capability to implement and manage these funds, in order that they constitute an effective opportunity and an investment for the future. The Portuguese so demand.

The correct and effective use of European funds will be decisive in order that the following years are featured by the rediscovery of a convergent path towards an average level of development for the European Union. For the purpose a very clear and firm stake must be placed on investment in the sector of goods and services that compete with foreign products.

The increase in the production of marketable goods and services, internationalization of companies, improvement in competitiveness and the conquest of new markets represent strategic guidelines that must be pursued and consolidated.

I would refer, in this context, two other equally important points, which are comprised in the more general European framework. On the one hand our companies, mainly the small and medium sized, must be guaranteed financing conditions comparable to those provided for their European counterparts. On the other hand, it is fundamental that a swift advance is achieved in the operational performance of a true European Banking Union.

European funds surely have a fundamental role to play. In addition to the Structural and Investment European Funds (ERDF, ESF, ECF, EAFRD and EMFF), the Union nowadays has a number of very relevant funds, either financial or related to the areas covered.

This is the case with Horizon 2020, the European Union research and innovation framework programme, which endeavours to contribute towards the enhancement of a European economy based on the production of knowledge through its more efficient incorporation in new goods and services.

The IX Meeting of COTEC Europe was recently held in Lisbon, dedicated to the reindustrialization theme. Several pertinent facts were considered in this Meeting, such as the awareness that the more successful companies are, visibly, those that invest more in research, technological development and in the professional training of their human potential. Thus particular relevance is given to the areas of information and communication technologies, of nanotechnologies, of advanced production technologies, and of robotics and biotechnologies, rightly defined as priorities in the Horizon 2020 Programme.

In more general terms, it is important to pursue the coordination between the several funds and programmes and to guarantee that their use is carried out by following a simplified plan, together with swift proceedings, thus reducing, as far as possible, bureaucratic obstacles and providing an adequate disclosure with potentially interested parties.

On another hand it is also important to provide permanent and rigorous measures to supervise the application of the funds and also to strictly ensure the responsibility of the several bodies involved in the proceedings. It is essential that the use of these funds results in a significant impulse to the Country’s medium and long term economic and social development.

Before ending, I would like to address a few words to the President of the European Commission, Dr. José Manuel Durão Barroso. I want to thank him for the drive he has placed on the holding of this Conference. But, above all, I wish to emphasize that, throughout these 10 years at the head of the Commission, it was gratifying for Portugal to have a figure with his prestige and knowledge of the realities of our Country and of the World, exercising such enhanced duties. His contribution towards Europe’s overcoming the Euro crisis was decisive.

I am able, as few can, to testify the regard that Dr. Durão Barroso always placed on the Country’s problems and his valuable contribution to find solutions, lessen costs, ease supports and open opportunities for development.

Portugal and the Portuguese, such as other Member States, are much in debt to him.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish you all a fruitful reflection. This Conference is an opportune and very relevant contribution for the discussion over the European project, in what it has that has greater importance: the deepening of an area of cooperation between millions of human beings that are hopeful to live in freedom and security, enjoying cohesion and citizens’ rights that only development is capable of ensuring.

I expect that this initiative may contribute towards the clarification of the concept of community funds, an issue that not only relates to those present here today, but that concerns all the Portuguese, due to its impact in their lives and in the Country’s future.

Thank you very much