The Special meeting of the European Council of 6 March confirms the European Union's (EU) warmongering course, committing itself to continuing the war in Ukraine, encouraging the escalation of arms, continuing to hinder peace and collective security in Europe and failing to respond to the pressing problems affecting the workers and people.
Instead of improving wages and pensions, instead of guaranteeing the right to healthcare, education, social security and housing, instead of promoting the improvement of living conditions, instead of contributing to peace and collective security, the EU just wants more arms, more missiles, more cannons, more ammunition, more military drones, more confrontation, more sanctions, more war.
Instead of promoting dialogue with a view to reaching a political solution to end the war in Ukraine - which has been going on since 2014 - and to ensure a fair and durable peace and collective security in Europe, the EU insists on prolonging the conflict, encouraging its immediate escalation and determining conditions that ignore its causes and hinder the necessary and urgent dialogue and negotiation.
The EU raises pretences of external threats in order to impose arms escalation and a ‘war economy’, ignoring the fact that the real and most dangerous threat to the peoples of Europe and the world lies in the warmongering policies of the EU, NATO and the US.
In this regard, the European Council validated the package of measures proposed by the European Commission, such as the activation of the escape clause under the Stability Pact, excluding spending on armaments and war when calculating public debt and the deficit, aiming for an increase of 650 billion euros in spending on militarism; and a new borrowing instrument via the EU budget mobilising up to 150 billion euros.
If the EU's announced intentions to increase military spending were to be followed in Portugal, it would mean an additional expense for the Portuguese people of almost 4.3 billion euros, around 1.5% of GDP.
Insatiable, the European Council insists on finding additional sources of funding to feed the arms spiral and the war, encouraging each country to use the EU's financial means at its disposal and urging the European Investment Bank to facilitate loans for the arms industry.
Peace and security are not about increasing military spending and militarising the EU and turning it into a military bloc. Peace and security are achieved with more diplomacy, more dialogue and political solution of conflicts, with more respect for the principles of international law.
Portugal must not align with the EU's warmongering policy, which is contrary to the interests of the Portuguese people and the peoples of Europe. War, arms escalation and sanctions only serve the major powers and their economic and financial groups, especially those linked to arms.
Portugal and its Armed Forces must not be an instrument of the warmongering strategies of the US, NATO or the EU. Portugal is a sovereign country that, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic, must promote peace and cooperation, not militarism, the arms race and war.
The construction of a fair and durable peace requires taking into account the causes of the conflict and demands that the US, NATO and the EU put an end to their strategy of instigating and prolonging the war and that negotiation channels be opened urgently to achieve a political solution to the conflict, a response to the problems of collective security and disarmament in Europe and the fulfilment of the principles of the UN Charter and the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference.
