Will Portugal Be a Headache for Europe?

[Aptrgangr]

Will Portugal Be a Headache for Europe?
[Opinion] Assessing Lisbon's proposals on acceding the rotating EU presidency

Portugal formally launched its six-month rotating presidency of the European Union last week by detailing proposals that are considered to be both difficult and complex. Reaching an agreement on the European Union's reform treaty is at the top of Portugal's list of priorities. Ironically, other member states such as the U.K. and Poland have already expressed their worries, calling for said treaty to either be watered down or forgotten altogether.

Other issues on the Portuguese agenda includes energy innovation, migration and development as well as the strengthening of relations with areas of the world such as Africa and Brazil, with the first EU-African submit in seven years scheduled in December this year -- but not without controversy.

Lisbon has definitely angered many of its EU allies by indicating that the Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe will in fact be on the guest list for the conference, despite a travel ban to the EU on him and members of his government, because of his poor human rights record.

Turkey

To say the least, there is a feeling in Europe that the Portuguese presidency may cause quite a few headaches on the continent, not only because of its memo, but also as a result of the contentious problems it's inheriting from the presidency of its predecessor -- Germany. There is still a heated debate over Turkey's aspiration to join the EU club.

The new French president Nicolas Sarkozy, for example, who openly opposes Turkish membership has even suggested that it would be more proper for Turkey to ally with North African states to form a Mediterranean Union rather than seek to join the EU. In fact, there is still some debate as to whether Turkey can be genuinely included as part of Europe. Portugal, which has on her part endorsed Turkish membership, will be expected to use its new position to push its position on board.

Strengthening Relations With New Areas of the World

As mentioned, Portugal is set on using its position to strengthen relations with areas of the world such as Africa and Brazil. Already thanks to lobbying by Portugal during last week's EU summit with its former colony Brazil, the latter is set to become the continent's new strategic partner.

But it's the issue of relations with Africa that has sparked one of the biggest controversies when Portugal revealed its intention to invite Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe to the proposed EU African summit later in December, the first in seven years. The first-ever such summit between the two continents was hosted in 2000 by Portugal, with a follow-up summit scheduled for 2003, but that was postponed indefinitely after a row between leaders of both continents on the question of Mugabe's attendance.

African leaders, many of whom were themselves dictators, insisted that all must be invited to the summit, hence upon consideration, the EU -- not wanting to make such compromises -- decided to call it off.

The paradox is that the same Mugabe question has come once again, seven years later, to haunt the two continents on the eve of the long-awaited summit. This time around, the same Portugal that hosted the pioneering event was smart to exploit a major loophole in the ban on Mugabe -- which does not extend to conferences to discuss human rights.

A summit with all the African leaders is particularly crucial given the wave of illegal migration to the EU, an issue which both sides would be expected to work out some solution together. The EU will be expected to persuade African countries to take back their deported nationals in exchange for assistance in the form of security training, economic development aid, schools, etc.

Human Rights

There are many within European circles -- including Amnesty International -- who fear that judging from Portugal's usual soft stance, she may fail to put the issue of human rights on its agenda when dealing with countries outside the European Union. Many EU members would like the club to send a clear message to Russia of its disapproval over its poor human rights record.

But like in the past, many countries who accede to the EU presidency rather prefer to shy away from the issue than confront it. Portugal is not expected to do any better on the issue.

Will Portugal Be a Headache for Europe? - OhmyNews International

[Vasconcelos]

Terrible. They're going completely in the wrong directions. Support for Turkey? Drawing further ties between Africa and Brazil? What is this garbage? Anyone with a shred of intelligence should be able to see the anti-European nature of these interests.

[Gil]

Yet another blunder, yet another reason to replace our government with sane people, yet another reason to revert to a parliamentary monarchy and kick out the foreigners (yes, rather blunt and non-specific but this is getting tiresome.).