Portugal wants EU air links with all Africa resumed by February summit

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Portugal wants EU air links with all Africa resumed by February summit

9:11 CAT | 16 Dec 2021

File photo: Lusa

Portugal has argued for the importance of the European Union resuming air links with the entire African continent as soon as possible, not least to ensure the success of the next joint EU-African Union summit, according to its minister of foreign affairs, Augusto Santos Silva.

Speaking to journalists after taking part in a meeting of EU foreign ministers to prepare for the EU-AU summit, which has been postponed from 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is now scheduled take place in Brussels in February 2022, Santos Silva said that the ministers were fully aware of “how penalising for the preparation of the summit would be the perpetuation of the current suspension” of flights.

“It is very important that we can get to the summit with the African Union with our links, including air links, with the entire African continent re-established and normalised,” Santos Silva said, reiterating the view that the decision to suspend them was an “extreme” measure, but of a provisional nature, and that Portugal considers it is no longer justified, now that more is known about the new coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, Omicron, which had prompted the EU decision.

Santos Silva pointed out that “Portugal, faithful to its policy of seeking consensus within the EU, accepted [on 4 December] that there would be a temporary suspension of flights [from] southern Africa to allow the scientific and health authorities some time” to better answer questions about the new variant and the problems it could cause.

“As the information has been received and our worst fears have fortunately not been fulfilled, several member states have taken the logical decision: France has already resumed its flights, Portugal will resume its flights and I imagine many other member states will do so,” he said.

The minister said that Portugal had taken the decision to resume commercial flights with Mozambique because there was now information available that EU member states did not have when they decided on the temporary suspension, namely that “the precautionary measures put in place – testing on board, testing on arrival and quarantine – are sufficient to control the spread of the virus.”

Recalling that Mozambique is the only country in southern Africa with which Portugal has direct flights, he reiterated the government’s intention to resume them “as soon as possible” and that an order to that effect would be in effect “shortly”. Among other EU foreign ministers, he stressed, no one opposed the decision of Portugal or of other members that advocated links be resumed.

“No one in the room expressed reservation to what I and others said: that it was necessary to resume the area connections as soon as possible,” he said. “The foreign ministers understand very well how critical this issue is and how damaging it would be to the preparation of the summit with the EU if the current suspension were to be perpetuated.”

Santos Silva acknowledged, however, that “evidently the foreign affairs ministers’ perspective cannot be confused with that of the entire government” so a discussion is also needed involving ministers of health and of interior, for example, “for a collective decision that takes into account all points of view and all concerns.”

As for the discussion on the EU-AU summit, the Portuguese minister argued that “it is very important that this summit has results, and concrete results, namely in the different areas of cooperation between the two continents” already identified “and which the Kigali ministerial meeting last November confirmed: in the area of the economy, employment, investments, in the area of migration and [travel], in the area of peace, security and stability, and also in the area of climate and digital transition.

“It is very important that we can also come to the summit with an acceleration of the vaccine donation process to Africa from the EU side, since the level of vaccination that exists today in Africa, a little over seven percent of the total population, is unacceptable,” he said, adding that “concrete acts are also needed with regard to support for vaccine production plants to be located in Africa.”

Source: Lusa