Europe needs to learn from COVID and find a common response to crises, Costa says

Europe needs to find a common response to the multiple crises it faces as it did in the COVID-19 pandemic, Antonio Costa told Euronews.

The Portuguese prime minister spoke on the sidelines of a congress of European socialists over the weekend.

“When we tackled COVID, we came together. We gave a common response and that helped us to overcome this crisis,” said Costa.

“So we need to learn the right lessons and do now what we did when we needed to beat the virus and now we must do it to build peace.”

He said that EU countries were close to finding a “common response” to address the energy crisis, adding that they need to strengthen interconnections and support businesses, jobs and family incomes.

Costa added that the war has been a turning point for European politics.

“For example, on climate change and policies towards energy transition, it’s clear for everyone now we have to accelerate the energy transition because this dependence that we had on Russia, it is a weakness for Europe if we want to be autonomous. If we want to strengthen our ability to influence global society, we need to be energy independent.”

He urged Europe to be optimistic about the future, noting that the continent has faced a multitude of crises in its recent history.

“As we did in previous crises, we will be able to overcome this situation by strengthening people’s confidence,” he said.

Watch the interview in the video player above.