According to Costa, the EU does not always make the right choice in this kind of process.

The prime minister was speaking in Tunis, at a news conference on Monday after the fourth Portugal-Tunisia summit, after it emerged that Porto had not gone through to the final phase of voting in Brussels on the future site for the EMA.
After Amsterdam drew with the Italian city of Milan in the final, lots were drawn.
“Europe does not also make the best choices,” said Costa. “But we shall continue to work together to pursue the objective of promoting Porto in Europe and in the world, just as Porto has helped promote Portugal in Europe and in the world.”
Portugal had initially mooted Lisbon as its candidate to host the EMA, but after protests from leading figures from the north, led by Porto’s mayor, Rui Moreira, that city was put forward instead. Some observers felt that the confusion, and Porto’s second-city status, undermined the Portuguese bid.
In the first round of voting, Porto secured 10 points - with ministers from each country each having three votes to distribute, worth three, two, and one point - compared with 25 for Milan and 20 each for Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Of other cities that did not make it into the second round, Bratislava reportedly received 15, Barcelona 13, Stockholm 12, Athens 10, Warsaw and Bucharest seven each, Brussels and Helsinki five, Vienna four, and Bonn, Lille and Sofia three each.