Security and defence relate to “the essential core of national sovereignty” and as such “great prudence and great caution” is required in analysing them, he told MPs this week. That, he added, is the position that Portugal’s Socialist executive has taken in inter-governmental meetings in Brussels.
Santos Silva and the Minister of Defence, José Azeredo Lopes, were testifying before parliament’s committees of foreign affairs and Portuguese communities, of European affairs and of national defence, on the plans to develop an overarching EU security and defence strategy that were tabled in June by the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini.
“This would be the worst moment for us to add to the nationalist drive that we’re already seeing in Europe,” said Santos Silva. Suggesting that moves now towards creating an EU security strategy might do just that, he said that Portugal has been arguing in Brussels for the need to “take time and reflect well on the practical implementation” of such a strategy.
In any case, he said, Portugal believes that there should be no move to “hurriedly open a new drawer of European integration, when there are absolutely decisive drawers that still need to be closed” such as free movement within the Schengen area, the single market and the economic and monetary union.
Finally, Portugal has also warned of the need to assess “with care the economic and financial effort involved” in any EU security and defence strategy.
Earlier, Azeredo Lopes said that the project has been budgeted at €5.5 billion, of which €500 million is to come from European Commission funds - despite its not being clear from which pot - and the rest from member states.
Portugal also stresses the need for the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to be complementary and avoid duplication.
“The strategic autonomy of Europe, implicitly in relation to NATO, is an imprudent expression given these days,” warned Santos Silva - a view that was backed by members of the committee from the right-of-centre opposition.
António Filipe of the Communist Party, meanwhile, described the EU proposals as revealing “an imperial ambition” and that “nothing has been learned” from past conflicts. He noted that the plan does not address “the very serious refugees crisis... what is happening in Turkey and its complicity with the Islamic State ... what is happening in Libya, in Mali, in Syria.”