“It’s going to be a tough election. We have a lot of things to do before the end of the year to convince voters. In one of the debates, on migration, we have to succeed because it will be decisive. It is crucial to look forward because there is a growing right wing, which will use the energy transition as an argument against Europe. Given the scale of the climate crisis, we cannot allow this. This is also why young people have to vote because they understand the climate crisis and it is their future”, defended the French Secretary of State for European Affairs.

Laurence Boone was speaking alongside Germany's Minister for Europe and Climate, Anna Lührmann, and Tiago Antunes, Secretary of State for European Affairs, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a debate on the future of Europe as part of the Summer CEmp, a school summer event organized by the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal, which this year takes place in Ponte da Barca, district of Viana do Castelo.


Pro-European

The German minister also considered that the next European elections “are critical for the future of Europe”, making it necessary for the next European Parliament (EP) to be “pro-European”.

“We have so many important issues to decide. We have the Ukraine crisis, the discussion about enlargement [of the European Union], we have the climate crisis. The European Union needs to assert itself in the task of facing it, and we need a pro-European EP, which knows that only together can we face these challenges,” she said.

Tiago Antunes recognised that “the growth of populism and nationalist forces in various parts of Europe is a risk for the European project”.

“That’s why the next elections are so important – to ensure that the next EP is made up mainly of pro-European parties that want to move forward in the energy and digital transition, and not go back to times that we don’t want to return to,” he said.