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LISBON – The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs warned the European Union (EU) today that forgetting the outermost regions, such as Madeira and the Azores, “has a price in the future”, attributing the tensions over Greenland to the “lesser attention” given to that Danish autonomous territory.
“Greenland has been outside the EU for quite some time, but perhaps it was some oversight and the lesser attention given to that territory that explains some of the tensions we are witnessing today,” said Paulo Rangel today, speaking at the closing of a debate in the Portuguese parliament on the European Commission’s program for this year, with the presence of European Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque.
For the head of Portuguese diplomacy, the “lack of attention to the outermost regions has a price that will be paid in the future”.
Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has been coveted by the US President, Donald Trump, who has already declared that he would take possession of the vast Arctic island, with a strategic location and significant mineral resources, “one way or another”.
Rangel argued that “a European Union that wants to be a geopolitical space cannot fail to take the outermost regions into account”, leaving criticism of the next long-term budget (multiannual financial framework 2028-2034).
“It is a contradiction that the (European) Commission, in its proposal, forgets the outermost regions when it is precisely saying that it wants to be geopolitical,” he said.
The outermost regions, he went on, “are European territories in which the European Union has a role”.
If Brussels, “because of their distance, because of their specificity, tends perhaps, with no negative intention, not to give them the prominence they have, obviously there will come a time when they become critical for the Union, but the Union will no longer have the instruments to go back and correct the mistakes of the past,” considered the head of Portuguese diplomacy.
On the Commission’s program for this year, under the motto “The Hour of Europe’s Independence”, Rangel highlighted the “strong commitment to enlargement” and considered that “solutions for peace” or “geostrategic imperatives” may dictate the speeding up of accession processes. (01/13/26)
Portugal warns EU that forgetting outermost regions like Greenland “has a price”
For the head of Portuguese diplomacy, the “lack of attention to the outermost regions has a price that will be paid in the future,” noting that Greenland was forgotten by the EU for a long time
