The President of the European Council, António Costa, considered this Monday, March 23, at the University of Porto, that the next European Union budget framework 2028-2034 “opens a historic opportunity for Portugal to position itself in a new championship”, especially in research and development.
“The next budget framework of the European Union (EU), for the period 2028-2034, currently under negotiation, opens up a historic opportunity for Portugal to position itself in a new championship”said António Costa in a speech at the Rectory of the University of Porto, at the solemn session of the institution’s 115th anniversary.
The former Portuguese Prime Minister also highlighted “the creation of the European Competitiveness Fund”which “doubles the amount of Horizon Europe, establishing a close partnership between fundamental research, the translation of knowledge to the business sector and innovation in four strategic areas”.
These are the “energy transition, digital leadership, health and biotechnology, and defense and space.”
For Antônio Costa, “Increased investment in science is essential to reinforce competitiveness in an economy driven by innovation”something he considered “an essential condition in the defense of democracy, when the freedom to investigate is threatened, and not only in authoritarian regimes” and “when the veracity of facts is questioned and science is so often ignored”.
“The prospect of doubling funds allocated to research, development and innovation in the 2028-2034 programming cycle is a great opportunity to, in partnership with the business community, Portugal increases investment in Research & Development as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also reinforce the volume of funding per researcher”, he highlighted.
António Costa also recalled “the experience of mobilizing agendas, born in the European response to the covid-19 pandemic”, which created “a new model of cooperation between universities, research centers, companies and public bodies”, which he called “virtuous collaborations that established themselves as a model of European investment oriented towards sustainable development”.
“In the new European fiscal framework, this model will tend to become the rule”said the president of the European Council, which “will allow Universities to position themselves even more as vital elements for the competitiveness of the Portuguese and European economy”.
For Antonio Costa, “this is the indispensable path for the national economy to produce goods and services with greater added value that allow it to surpass the average income and create the quality jobs that the country’s new human resources require and that can be decentralized, in a cohesive way, throughout the national whole”.
In a speech in which he highlighted several indicators of the country’s development since joining the European Union, Costa recalled that “European funds did not only support investment in road infrastructure”, but “did much more”, having provided “the country with institutions, equipment and infrastructure that structurally transformed the economy and society”.
“But we cannot ask from cohesion policy what cohesion policy cannot give. We may even believe that a hen can give us golden eggs, but we know that only dragons, eagles or lions win championships”, he warned, using a metaphor with the so-called ‘big three’ of Portuguese football (FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting).
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