Foreign affairs minister attempts to make up for Josep Borrell’s ‘jungle’ comments

Portugal’s foreign affairs minister João Gomes Cravinho has sought to calm the waters after Josep Borrell’s comments about the EU being a ‘garden’, with “most of the rest of the world” being a ‘jungle’. The comments are not being seen as having been diplomatic, nor very helpful. Gomes Cravinho has said that “we certainly have an internally organised framework within the EU that has no parallel in other parts of the world, but we work, both within the Union and in the rest of the world. I believe that there should not be a radical juxtaposition contrasting the EU with the rest of the world”. Indeed, the minister believes that Portugal has “a fruitful dialogue with the most diverse parts of the world”.