The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has presented to the accredited European ambassadors in Spain the perspectives of the Spanish Presidency of the European Council. In an act held at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Marqués de Salamanca, Albares highlighted the slogan that Spain has chosen for the presidency, which will begin on July 1: “Europe closer“. With this objective, the Government has outlined a road map with the challenge that “the European Union will be a Europe close to its citizens.” As well as the need for the 27 to remain united.
“War has returned to Europe, a war that puts principles and values at stake. Given this situation we must be united“, said Albares, who once again expressed his support for Ukraine because it is “to support democracy against authoritarianism”, in addition, he has announced that during the presidency Spain wants to “advance in the accession process of the candidate countries: accompany to new candidates like Ukraine”. The minister has also asked end with a qualified majority that is to say, the voting process of the Council of the EU that requires that decisions be supported by 55% of the countries and that they also represent 65% of the European population.
In addition, the minister explained the four priorities that the Government has set for these six months of the Rotary presidency. The first goes through reindustrialize the European Union: “We need to promote a regulatory framework. One of the files is the Law on Critical Raw Materials, whose negotiations we will promote,” Albares announced. This initiative continues in the European Commission, where until this Friday, June 30, citizens can send their comments, which the Commission will later summarize in separate reports that it will send to both Parliament and the Council to encourage legislative debate. Spain therefore wants to take an active part in this debate during the presidency. In this first priority, Albares has explained that they also aspire to “reach an agreement with Parliament on the regulation of Artificial Intelligence”.
The second priority set by the Government is “to advance in the ecological and environmental transition”, for this reason, they also want to promote the net zero emission industry law which seeks to expand the manufacturing of clean technologies in the EU. Just like him regulation of gas and hydrogen. In the move towards “greater social and economic justice“, Albares has stated that Spain is also going to promote the “adoption of minimum taxation standards at a European level” as well as the “reform of economic governance of the Union”.
Finally, Albares has reiterated the need to maintain unity “in defense of a national order based on rules that give priority to peace, stability and development.” It was then that the minister showed his intention to “advance on the major pending reforms”, making a direct allusion to “Migration and Asylum pact“, whose reform has been being negotiated for some time so that migrants have the same conditions in all the countries of the European Union.