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Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has underlined from Brussels the importance of moving towards “a Europe open to the world” capable of responding to global challenges with deeper integration, strategic autonomy and greater financial capacity.
“Europe will not be a geoeconomic power if we do not have the financial firepower to be one,” said the Spanish leader, who on Thursday took part in a European Council meeting focused on the EU’s future budget and the current international situation.
With this warning, Sánchez, whose future at the helm of the Spanish government is in doubt because of the various corruption scandals surrounding him, stressed the need for the European Union to have a more ambitious Multiannual Financial Framework capable of boosting the bloc’s competitiveness and sustaining greater strategic autonomy in the face of an increasingly volatile international environment.
Sánchez also reiterated the case for deepening a more integrated single market, by removing internal barriers and harmonising rules to facilitate economic activity. In that regard, he highlighted the European strategy of trade diversification and the expansion of trade agreements such as those recently concluded with Mercosur, Mexico and India, in line with an open policy which, in his view, should not mean giving up the founding values of the European project.
The Socialist leader, who in April announced 19 bilateral agreements with China after being received in Beijing by President Xi Jinping, also argued that Brussels must open up to dialogue with other regions.
This stance contrasts with that of several EU member states which, led by France, want to adopt a tougher stance towards the Asian giant, which they accuse of driving overproduction that is putting additional strain on an already weakened European economy.
“Europe does not need to step back from its values or its principles; it needs to take a step forward in its integration,” said the prime minister, who called for a stronger EU in the face of those pushing for a smaller, less influential Europe.
Deeper economic integration, but also social
Along these lines, Prime Minister Sánchez, whose government approved in April a controversial extraordinary migration regularisation measure that could allow nearly 500,000 foreign nationals to legalise their status in Spain, referred to the changes the EU is making to its migration policy, acknowledging that “it is a necessary debate that is taking place across Europe”, but arguing that setting up reception centres in third countries “will not bring any solution” and is little more than a “smokescreen”.
Sánchez stressed that he is opposed to this measure, which, he said, also sends a “wrong message” to countries of origin and transit by suggesting that the migration issue “is their problem”.
The new European Union Return Regulation, adopted at the beginning of June, marks a significant shift in EU migration policy, as it allows member states to set up return centres for migrants in countries outside the bloc, a measure inspired by the model promoted by Giorgia Meloni from Italy, which already operates two such centres in Albania.
Solidarity with Meloni against Trump over the controversial photo
Sánchez acknowledged that this is an issue that is felt “very intensely” and recalled a “debate” he had on the matter with the Italian prime minister. However, far from reigniting the controversy on Friday, the Spanish leader chose to use the occasion to express his “solidarity” with Meloni after President Donald Trump claimed that the Italian “begged” him to pose for a photo together on the sidelines of the recent G7 summit in Évian, something he said he agreed to do because he “felt sorry” for her.
“I have expressed my solidarity in the face of this attack, which I really do not even know how to describe,” Sánchez said of the spat, which has even led Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, to cancel a trip he was due to make to the United States next week, on the grounds that Trump’s “serious and offensive” words “insult all of Italy”.