'Debt at 123% is not viable. Let's not be foolish'

Former minister and MEP, Carlos Pimenta, talks to Europe correspondent Ann Cahill about the impact of austerity on businesses in Portugal.

FORMER Portuguese government minister and MEP, Carlos Pimenta, knows the euro story both from the Lisbon and Brussels perspective — and now as a businessman, he knows the austerity reality too.

As one of the 500 MEPs who voted for the creation of the euro in the European Parliament, he believed there would be a political union also.