 delighted to be joined by the Secretary of State for European Affairs of Portugal, Ms Ana Paula Zacarias. It's a pleasure to welcome you to Dublin, and we're very interested to hear your views on the future of Europe. Thank you very much for sitting here at the Institute for European Affairs. And for us, the Europa 27 is the Europe of the future. The Europe that has to, in some ways, deal with the big challenges that we have to face very now. Now, we have to face them now. It's about digital transformation. It's about how to fight climate change, and how these two major transitions will have an impact on our economy. How can we do this in a social, integrative way, in the way that we have young people with the right skills to continue, and the way we have to deal also with an aging population that will happen in Europe. So we have huge challenges that we have to take into account, and find the right solutions at the 27 with economics, with politics, social programs that we need to do. And at the same time, bring Europe to a beacon of light and democracy and solidarity in the world. And just to touch on that last point, Europe is a beacon in the world. What do you think Europe needs to do to become a more effective global actor, given your experience both in the Portuguese diplomatic service and in the European diplomatic services? First of all, I think we need to take care of values, our own values. The values of solidarity, the values of democracy, human rights, the rule of law, they are fundamental for the survival of the Union itself. And then, from there, we can build on a cohesive, competitive Europe, a social Europe, and a Europe that deals with all these challenges that we have to face in terms of science and technology. So what do we need to do? We need to work together and bring in the best we have in each number state to work together with a good budget of the Union for the next seven years, with that can finance a good and ambitious strategy for us to project our capacity of working in the world and transition. These are very ambitious objectives touching then on the budget. The MFF negotiations, that's the used long term budget, are really picking up pace. What are going to be particular and policy areas of priority for the Portuguese government? Look, we have to find first the total amount of the budget. Where do we stand there? So from our point of view, we need to find a solution that goes between the proposal of the European Parliament and the current proposal that is on the table presented by the European Commission. So somewhere for us, that would be around 1.16% of GDP at 27%. But then we need to also see how to integrate the different levels of policies. Some people say that we should cut on the traditional policies. I don't see how we're going to do that because this, that sometimes people call traditional policies, first of all they are on a treaty, second that they've proved to be very good policies, third they're not old policies, they are new policies. Because when you talk about common agriculture policy, we're doing 40% of the amount of money that will be given for that policy will go for climate change. And the same for cohesion policy, 27% will also be for climate change. So these policies are very important and they are as new as the other ones. We need to certainly talk about science and technology improvements. We need to talk about the digital agenda. We need to talk about money for integration, for migration. We need to talk about money for development cooperation and for defence. All these are priorities and we need to do this in the right way. And these priorities cannot cannibalise one another. We have to find the right balance of all this in the next budget. It's a modern and balanced budget for a modern and balanced meeting. Absolutely. This is it. A modern balance for a modern Europe. And it will take some time. The other day I was submitting here a politician in Ireland who said, we do not have microwave solutions. We have to take our time to discuss, to find the right solutions, consensual solutions that would allow us to go forward united. This is a fundamental aspect by consensus. Going forward, this is the way. It will take some time but that's the way we do things. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Thank you very much.