European Parliament President Roberta Metsola welcomed Spain’s King Felipe VI and Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to a formal sitting marking 40 years since the two countries joined the EU.
Metsola said Spain and Portugal “took their place in the European family” four decades ago, and described the EU as “always a work in progress”, as cited by the parliamentary press service in a statement on Wednesday.
King Felipe said Spain had undergone major change over 40 years of EU membership and argued that work on Europe’s defence and “strategic autonomy” – the EU’s ability to act independently on security and other priorities – “cannot be postponed.”
He also called for preserving a transatlantic link “based on respect and loyalty”, warning that without it “we would be bound to a more uncertain, more unstable and more dangerous world.”
King Felipe began by thanking people for messages of support after a train disaster in Adamuz, and said the EU was “a project of coexistence” that had made Europeans “freer, more prosperous, and even stronger.”
Portugal stresses alliances and European integration
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said EU membership brought benefits for his country and stressed the role of international alliances and partnerships in addressing global problems, according to the statement.
“There is no one today who can remake by force the division of hemispheres from the past and control their hemisphere, or solve universal problems on their own,” Rebelo de Sousa said.
He noted that European integration, which for Portugal culminated 40 years ago with accession to the European Communities, “has changed the history” of both Europe and Portugal, and he said Portugal would “never, ever give up on Europe.”
