Portuguese Prime Minister Costa and Commission President Von der Leyen, in October in Brussels.Thierry Monasse / Getty Images
After the big agreements come their difficult deployments.
Portugal, which on January 1 assumed the rotating presidency of the EU for the next six months, proposes that throughout the first semester the economic and health recovery plans be specified to prevent the return to the long-awaited normality from derailing .
The Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, wants to emphasize the social character that the exit from the worst crisis that the Union has been going through since its foundation must have with a summit in May to relaunch the so-called European pillar of social rights.
At the end of his 2007 presidency, the then Portuguese ambassador in Brussels handed an astrolabe to his Slovenian counterpart.
Since then, the permanent representatives to the EU have been passing on that old navigation instrument in order, with greater or lesser success, to keep the Union's course.
The object now returns to Lisbon, which has set itself the objective of ensuring the deployment of the great agreements reached under the German presidency: the recovery fund against the pandemic, the new climate goals or the new directives to deal with the technological giants.
Angela Merkel leaves the presidency with an impressive list of accomplishments.
Among them, the EU managed to overcome the austerity debate and put forward a recovery package of 750,000 million euros.
Now comes the time to comply.
Hence the Portuguese motto:
time to deliver
.
When they return from the holidays, the Twenty-seven must line the final stretch of their recovery plans, with investments and structural reforms that must get them out of the hole.
It is not a mere formality.
The quality of these programs will also depend on whether investors continue to support the huge issue of European bonds that the European Commission is preparing.
The economic recovery, however, will also depend on the success in containing a possible third wave of infections in the EU.
The Foreign Minister, Augusto Santos Silva, announced in an
FT
interview
that his country intends to promote "the full development of the EU strategy of free and universal vaccination."
The task is essential as well as complex.
The first week of the vaccination campaign has highlighted the logistical or organizational problems that the countries face.
However, from Paris or Rome the certainty is growing that the recovery fund will fall short if restrictions on economic activity persist for a long period.
After the Twenty-seven have assumed that it will take months - perhaps several quarters - until the EU can regain normalcy prior to the pandemic, the Portuguese socialist government also wants to promote campaigns in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
The arrival of the vaccine in these countries not only responds to humanitarian criteria, but it will be difficult for the EU to regain its pulse if its external border remains tightly closed.
However, that is not the only matter in which Portugal will have to put itself thoroughly.
Berlin reached an agreement on raising the carbon dioxide emission reduction targets until 2030, breaking Poland's reluctance.
In return, the countries admitted that they would meet again when the Commission had to translate those goals into concrete measures next June.
Portugal, which has effusively supported that Europe dispense with fossil fuels by 2050, must ensure that the so-called Visegrad Axis - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - does not put the wheels back on the EU's plans, putting even its world leadership in the fight against climate change at risk.
Foreign policy
The Portuguese presidency, which presents itself as an “honest mediator”, should also begin to guide the processing of the Commission's proposals on the Digital Services and Digital Market laws.
No one expects both legal texts, which have intensified
lobby
activity
in Brussels, to go ahead in just six months.
However, Portugal will have to make sure that they embark on a path, both in the European Chamber and in the Council, which seems tortuous.
The last great challenge that Portugal sets itself has to do with the so-called European strategic autonomy.
Lisbon has already organized the first and second summits of the EU with Africa and the first of the bloc with Brazil.
After the investment agreement with China that Angela Merkel leaves as a legacy to Europe, the Government of Costa will organize a large EU-India meeting.
After realizing the dependence of its supply chains on China, the EU looks to other corners of the world to diversify its portfolio of essential products, especially pharmaceuticals.
And India is the world's largest generic exporter, in addition to developing vaccine candidates for covid-19.
The arrival of Joe Biden to the Oval Office this month, in addition, will be the occasion for the EU to give a push to the multilateral institutions, in particular the WTO, blocked by the US refusal to renew its judges.
In addition to returning Washington to world governance, Portugal wants to re-launch its eyes on Latin America in the EU, especially Mexico and the Mercosur countries, to accelerate the implementation of these treaties.
The great hot potato that the country receives is the Migration Pact, which is on the list of failures of the German presidency.
Some diplomats believe that the results on that front - described as the "most toxic" debate of all - could take years, given the deep divisions that exist today between the EU's partners.
Neither the tragedy of Moria (Greece) nor the episodes in Arguineguín, in the Canary Islands, have caused any movement among the Twenty-seven.
Without high expectations in this regard, the EU partners hope that Portugal will do a little more effort to achieve some progress in that portfolio.
A social summit in Porto
The socialist government of António Costa wants to give his presidency a social character.
For this reason, it has called a Social Summit in Porto for the month of May to give a “political impulse” to the implementation of the so-called European Pillar of Social Rights.
Specifically, Portugal is thinking of providing social content after the crisis and tackling the three major challenges of the EU from that point of view: climate, digital and demographic.
The Portuguese presidency plans a summit in two phases: one at a high level, with broad participation, and a meeting of political leaders that addresses especially the areas of employment, professional qualifications and social protection.
Among other issues, the establishment of a European minimum wage will be discussed, albeit modulated by country.