«We need to make the European Union a national priority.» This challenge was set out by João Vale de Almeida, former EU ambassador to the US, the UN and the UK, at the opening session of the debates.

The conference curator outlined the challenges facing the European Union and Portugal. «The international context is overwhelming. We are striding towards a double divorce: a divorce between nations on a global scale and a divorce between all of us, on a national scale,» he warned. «We must wake up and take action.»

Within the European Union, there are three major challenges: security, competitiveness and democracy. «If this triangle is not effectively addressed, the Union risks losing citizens’ support for the European project, and its future – and ours too – could be at stake,» he warned.

In the ambassador’s view, Europe and Portugal have the capacity to turn things round. A national response will require «confidence, ambition and intelligence, but also more growth, greater economic convergence, greater competitiveness, more knowledge and more technology».

«Portugal needs to stop seeing itself as the country of the three Ps – small, poor and peripheral. Instead, the country needs to embrace its identity as the country of the three As – agile, attractive and ambitious», he concluded.