The European Commission today concluded that everything in Portugal is going swimmingly well, despite a few structural reforms to deal with and the odd economic imbalances.In the most positive endorsement yet of the Socialist government’s anti-austerity strategy, today was a day to highlight what has been achieved and that question as to whether the glass was half full or half empty, can be answered with a statement that it is three-quarters full.
At a Brussels press conference, presenting the "winter package" for the Coordination of Economic and Budgetary Policies of the EU, the Vice-President of the Euro, Valdis Dombrovskis and the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, agreed that Portugal's macroeconomic imbalances were no longer considered "excessive."
"First of all, what I want to emphasise is that there has been extremely substantial progress in Portugal's situation, in the trend that the country follows, and this is what we want to underline and encourage," said Moscovici, adding that when a country is going through a crisis and comes out of an assistance programme, as Portugal has, and whose situation is better "on all fronts," we have to recognise it - and that is exactly what the EU executive has done today.
Noting that "of course there are still efforts to be made, "even though Portugal is no longer considered a member state with "excessive imbalances, but continues with imbalances, like other European Union countries," the French Commissioner argued that now is the time to underline the progress achieved.
Brussels is still urging the government to continue its sterling efforts, and noted the challenges of "the financial sector, labour productivity, wage inequalities, which remain high, labour market fragmentation, as well as the level of investment that, despite having improved, remains very weak."
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, today welcomed the recognition by the European Commission of the positive evolution of the Portuguese economy, considering that this is an important step towards restoring external credibility and endorses the government’s approach.
