Portugal PM - EU needs to respond to people's needs, sees no disintegration

LISBON (Reuters) - The European Union has to see Britain's decision to leave the EU as an opportunity to reflect on how to be less bureaucratic and more useful to its citizens, and the union will survive, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Friday. "Obviously, it is a sad day for the European Union. But it also has to be an opportunity for the 27 countries of the EU to reaffirm their will to carry on together and reflect on what these results mean and on the need to respond to the needs and worries of European citizens," Costa said in televised remarks. "The question is not to have more Europe, but to have better Europe ... disintegration is not the path," he said, adding that the country will stick to its strategy of reducing the budget deficit to meet its European commitments while reversing austerity imposed by the previous administration. (Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Alison Williams)