These positions were defended by António Costa in the presentation of the book by Bernardo Pires de Lima, researcher and consultant for the Civil Office of the President of the Republic, entitled "The Zero Year of the New Europe", during a session that took place at the Belém Cultural Center. With the President of the Republic sitting in the front row of the audience, the former leader of the executive and the PS took advantage of a passage from the book by Bernardo Pires de Lima to, with humor, refer again to the "irritating optimism" that was pointed out to him by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in 2016, during his first of three socialist governments. "I was particularly pleased to see that the author argues that the optimism of the will should prevail over the pessimism of reason," commented António Costa. In his speech, the former prime minister argued as a central thesis the idea that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine raises a question about the terms of the future security of Europe. "The defeat of Russia is difficult, but it is essential," he argued, before referring to the "triple mission of the European Union" in the face of this challenge. António Costa then pointed out that the European Union, in addition to its traditional policies, must mobilize resources for a common defense policy. And that the new enlargement of the European Union will this time be done, not for reasons of consolidating democratic transition processes, as has happened until now, but for reasons of protection against the threat from Russia. This new enlargement, the former prime minister also pointed out, will shift the center of gravity of the European Union to the east, with the Warsaw/Kiev axis gaining greater relevance, and Ukraine will be the fifth country in the European Union in terms of population and the largest in terms of territorial area. According to the former leader of the executive, the European Union will also have to redefine its relations with the United States, warning at this point of possible negative effects that could result from the US presidential elections next November, and countering a rapprochement between China and Russia on the political level. António Costa also left another warning: Member States will have to look with greater attention at the article of the Treaty of the European Union referring to the obligation to assist if one of the countries in this European bloc is the target of external aggression. In other words, the Member States of the European Union will have to look at this article in the same way that the Member States of NATO have looked at Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. In his speech, the former prime minister also considered it essential that the European Union strengthen its strategic autonomy at the global level, speaking here of the dangers of disruption in excessively long supply chains. As an example, he pointed out what happened with the supply crisis of essential products in the years of the covid-19 pandemic. This strategic autonomy of the European Union, in António Costa's view, should be based on a commitment to infrastructure and reindustrialization, but without any recourse to economic protectionism. And he gave a basic reason for avoiding protectionism: "The European Union has only 5% of the raw materials, but consumes 20% of the world's raw materials," he concluded, with former ministers of his government, such as Fernando Medina and Duarte Cordeiro, listening to him. Read Also: Rangel criticizes "anomaly" of European Affairs supervised by Costa (Portuguese version)