"Mankind desperately needs an international treaty on pandemics"

The Portuguese Prime Minister highlighted the urgency of creating an international treaty on pandemics during his speech at the Ibero-American Summit, in Andorra-a-Velha, Andorra.

"The common challenge that is Covid-19 will not be overcome unless we have cooperation and solidarity. And the main international lesson learned from this year of pandemic is that mankind desperately needs an international treaty on pandemics, so that in the future we won’t have to improvise or react in an emergency as we have been doing, at great cost, over this year", he noted.

António Costa highlighted the need to "join efforts to speed up vaccination on a global level" and stated that Portugal is associated with these goals "through the joint EU contribution to Covax [Global Access to Covid-19 vaccines], as well as directly supporting the Portuguese-speaking African Countries and East Timor, to which the country is sending 5% of the vaccines procured".

The Portuguese Prime Minister also said that "the creation of a European vaccination mechanism has been driven, through which Member States can channel vaccines to third party countries, whereby Latin America has been defined as one of the priority regions". This is being done under the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

He added that "the Andorra Declaration Commitment and the action programme we will approve today show the common commitment to fight the pandemic and recover our societies and our economies".

A modern economy based on climate and digital transitions

António Costa stated that the financial recovery will focus on the "investment that needs to be made for a more modern economy, based on the dynamics imposed by the digital and climate transition".

He said that "in this context, the opportunities for investment and opening markets between Europe and Latin America take on particular importance. Accordingly, among the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union one finds the modernization of the friendship agreement with Chile, the trade agreement with Mexico, and the agreement on the complementary document to the Mercosul agreement, which will be the trade agreement with the greatest economic impact on a world level.

The Prime Minister added that "the commitment of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union to seal these agreements is an example of the advantage of, at the same time, defending the deepening of the European integration and ensuring the growing bilateral and multilateral relations between the countries with which we don’t have deep historical and cultural ties, as the case with the Ibero-American countries".

António Costa stressed that Latin America is a priority in Portugal’s foreign policy and noted that 260 of 600 the 600 million people in the Ibero-American sphere are Portuguese speaking. "Deepening the Portuguese-speaking dimension will enrich our organization and, as such, we applaud the movements to come closer in both directions, including the application to be associated observer of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries at the Ibero-American Summit, and the application of the Portuguese-Speaking Community to be Advisory Observer at the Ibero-American Summit.

"In this sense, Portugal has committed to the level and quality of its participation in the Ibero-American project, focusing on the areas that set the theme of this conference and which will surely be the driver of our economic recovery: innovation. That is why we are honoured to host in Lisbon the office of the Organization of the Ibero-American States for education, science and culture, and became more engaged in the sector programmes in this field", he added.

Work Mobility Agreement

The Prime Minister also noted "with great satisfaction" the signing of the work mobility agreement by eight countries, including Portugal, to make it easier to have territorial mobility for researchers, businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and students to foster the exchange of knowledge and scientific and intellectual creation.

"Knowledge and culture cannot have borders and must have the freedom to circulate among all of us", he stated.

The agreement was signed by Portugal, Brazil, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala.