Lisbon (AFP)

Portugal took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union from Germany on Friday, a role that promises to be demanding for a semester that will remain marked by the response to the health crisis.

With the release of the post-Covid recovery plan and the conclusion in extremis of the post-Brexit agreement with the United Kingdom, the German presidency ended with several successes in matters which cast a shadow over the plans of the Portuguese presidency.

"The next stage is no less demanding," nevertheless warned the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Socialist Antonio Costa.

"It is time to take action, to put on the ground the instruments with which we have acquired: the vaccination plan on a European scale and the national recovery plans", he said in a forum published Thursday by the weekly Expresso.

In coordination with the European Commission, led by the German Ursula von der Leyen, Lisbon will have to continue to coordinate the health measures of the 27, which react in dispersed order to each wave of the epidemic despite the progress made since the arrival of the coronavirus .

The veto of Poland and Hungary having been overcome at the last summit of the German presidency, the Portuguese presidency will tackle the implementation of a massive plan of 750 billion euros financed by an unprecedented common loan .

The first priority of the Portuguese semester, this objective will first pass through the adoption of the various national recovery plans which, according to Lisbon, should promote "an economic and social recovery which will be driven by climate and digital transitions".

- "Social summit" in May -

In order to "guarantee that this double transition is an opportunity for all", Portugal wishes to organize a "social summit" on May 7 and 8 in Porto, the large city in the north of the country.

If the health situation allows it, this face-to-face gathering must lead to a commitment by the member states to develop the social rights of Europeans.

This "central event" of the Portuguese presidency must be followed by an EU-India summit, also in Porto, supposed to mark the third Portuguese priority, devoted to the "strengthening of the strategic autonomy" of the EU.

For Lisbon, this meeting between European heads of state or government and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will testify to the 27's ambition to "diversify" their partners in a context of growing rivalry between China and the United States.

If the Portuguese presidency could benefit from the arrival at the White House of Democrat Joe Biden, less hostile to the EU than Donald Trump, it will have to transform the test after the conclusion on Wednesday with China of an agreement "in principle" very controversial about investments.

It will also have to support the implementation of the free trade agreement concluded between the EU and the United Kingdom to frame their trade relations after Brexit.

Another thorny issue that Portugal must at least take forward concerns the new Migration Pact presented by the Commission in September and which deeply divides front-line countries, such as Italy, Greece, Spain or Cyprus, and countries hostile to the reception of migrants such as Poland and Hungary.

© 2021 AFP