The prime minister argued Europe has the world’s best quality of life, the highest life expectancy, the greatest number of democratic governments, the most robust environmental standards and safest streets.
“You only have to travel outside of Europe to truly understand what I’m talking about,” he said. “It feels good to be European.”
Sánchez said that Europe deserves to be proud of its achievements, but admitted it “still has a lot of work to do.” He called for the EU to allocate a greater share of the bloc’s seven-year budget to social spending, and for Europe to remain open to “trade, talent, and ideas.”
Figures like Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the center-right People’s Party, are staunchly against the government’s plan to regularize more than 500,000 undocumented migrants.
“Spain is exporting a migration problem to the entire European Union,” Feijóo said during his own address to the audience in Barcelona, calling for “Spain, and therefore Europe, that we regain control of our borders.”
But during his own speech, Sánchez pushed back, saying the “legal, safe, and orderly migration” is key if the EU wants to “seize opportunities and better manage the challenges it faces.”
Sánchez further rallied the bloc to act boldly.
“We have the resources, the institutions, the talent, principles, values,” he said. “The only thing we’re missing is the daring to imagine how far we could go or how far together we can go.”