The presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of this year, headed by Spain, intends to close the Pact on Migration and Asylum and strengthen relations with Latin America, to reduce “excessive dependencies” on countries like China.
“Our main priority must be to promote European reindustrialization and guarantee open strategic autonomy”, said the President of the Government of Spain, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, at a press conference in Madrid to present the priorities of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) of the second semester.
Sánchez explained that the “open strategic autonomy” of Europe involves reducing the “excessive dependencies” and “vulnerabilities” of the Union, which became evident in the last four years, when the pandemic and the war in Ukraine demonstrated how the supply energy, technological products, food or health depended on China and Russia.
In this context, the President of the Spanish Government, as he has reiterated in recent months, defended the rapprochement of Europe with Latin America and considered the first summit in eight years between the EU and the community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC) especially relevant. in mid-July in Brussels.
During the second half of the year, Spain hopes that new EU trade agreements with Mexico and Chile will be signed and that at least “substantive steps” will be taken towards a definitive agreement with Mercosur (Mercado Comum del Sur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).
Another of the objectives of the Spanish presidency is to finalize the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact after the “very important advance” last week, when the 27 member states approved, by majority, an agreement to reform the asylum rules .
What is missing now is the “regulation for crisis management”, which is already “very advanced”, hoping that Spain can “definitively reach” an agreement before the end of this year, said Sánchez.
The President of the Spanish Government framed the migration and asylum pact in the priority of “strengthening the unity of the European Union” of the Spanish presidency of the second semester.
“In a world of giants, uncertainties and growing tensions, the European Union must remain united” and be “the architect of the new world order,” said Sánchez, who considered that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine also demonstrated the advantages of union and cohesion of member states in responding to crises.
In this context, Sánchez guaranteed that the Spanish presidency will continue working in support of Ukraine and in responding to requests from new countries to join the EU, without specifying.
In addition to “reindustrialization and strategic autonomy” and the “strengthening of unity” in the EU, the Spanish presidency will have two more priorities: advancing in the ecological transition and consolidating the social pillar of Europe.
The response to the energy crisis that the EU is facing, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, “has to be consistent with the climate emergency”, defended Sánchez, who sees the need for reindustrialization and greater autonomy as an opportunity to accelerate the process of building the Union. greener and more environmentally sustainable economy and, therefore, also more competitive.
On this point, he has affirmed that the Spanish presidency, among other things, will do “everything possible” to promote the reform of the European electricity market, with the acceleration of energy production from renewable sources or new price rules.
Regarding the reinforcement of the social pillar of Europe, the Spanish presidency intends to work for greater “tax justice” and the fight against the “tax evasion routes” of large fortunes and multinationals, by establishing minimum “standards” of taxation ” in all Member States, “particularly in the digital field”, and an end to the “use of shell companies”.
On this point of the “social pillar” and “greater social and economic justice”, Sánchez also referred to the objective of having a “definitive impulse” during the Spanish presidency for the dossier of the new European budgetary rules, related to the deficit and the public debt limits, among other aspects.
The goal is for countries to maintain “healthy public accounts” but at the same time be able to “adequately finance public services and the ecological and digital transition,” he said.
Regarding the digital transition and the current technological evolution, Sánchez said that Europe is facing a “momentous change” and that it has to “maintain leadership”, specifically in reference to the challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“We need a regulatory framework that promotes technological development that protects our rights and values, from a humanistic perspective of what digital transformation is, giving security and confidence to our citizens,” he defended.
The European Parliament on Wednesday gave the ‘green light’ to the first EU rules for AI, which it will now have to negotiate with the Council, to ban biometric surveillance and impose transparency on systems like ChatGPT.
Spain assumes the European presidency on July 1, a few weeks before the anticipated national legislative elections, on July 23, which Sánchez devalued again today, saying that there were already votes in the past in countries that presided over the Council of the EU and that this is “never a problem”.
Source: TSF
