Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Trade, is traveling to Portugal today.
He will be hosted by Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva. The two ministers will discuss European trade policy issues ahead of the French presidency of the Council of the EU, which will begin on January 1, 2022. Mr. Riester will reaffirm France's support for the new trade policy presented by the European Commission and will emphasize our commitment to a more sustainable, less naive European trade policy. The ministers will also discuss other major European and bilateral issues, and Mr. Riester will meet with lawmakers from the Portuguese Parliament's European Affairs Committee.
On the sidelines of the Web Summit, Mr. Riester will hold talks with a delegation of French tech companies that were able to take advantage of the export measures in the French recovery plan, as well as members of Lisbon's French Tech community. He will also meet with the Business France team in Portugal to discuss ways to support French businesses abroad and ambitions in that regard. During that meeting, the minister will reaffirm his commitment to strengthening the collective momentum for expanding internationally that characterizes our business community abroad and will underscore the importance of European destinations.