Eduardo González
The Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Josep Borrell, yesterday called for “another step” in the solidarity between European States after the COVID-19 crisis, “in line with the proposal of the Spanish Government before the European Council”.
“We must go one step further in European solidarity” with the implementation of “innovative instruments”, said Borrell during the opening ceremony of the new online platform of the New Economy Forum, in which more than 1,300 people participated.
“Until now, all Europe did in the various crises was to help states get into debt and to have better access to financial markets”, but with the current coronavirus crisis and its economic consequences, this method “is no longer sufficient” and “forms of solidarity must be sought which transfer resources and expenses from other states to states which need them, just as a federal state would do”, Borrell warned. It is a matter, he added, of issuing debt “not to manufacture more debt, but to generate resources that each country can manage”. “If we don’t know what to do with those resources, mutualizing the debt will be useless”, he added.
This position, according to Borrell, is “in line with the Spanish government’s proposal to the European Council on Thursday”. According to various sources, Pedro Sánchez’s government is going to propose the creation of a fund of between one and one and a half trillion euros for the economic recovery of the States, which would be financed by an issue of perpetual European debt and whose items to the countries would be made by direct transfer and not by loans, to avoid an increase in the public debt of the States.
Yesterday, the Secretary of State for the EU, Juan González-Barba, held video conferences with his counterparts from Germany, Michael Roth, and Italy, Enzo Amendola, to explain the proposal that Spain will take to the video conference of the Ministers of European Affairs tomorrow, Wednesday, and that of the Heads of State or Government on Thursday, 23rd. According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meetings demonstrate “the will to promote a rapid, ambitious and coordinated response to the crisis, resulting in a more united, sovereign and supportive European Union”.
Besides, according to Borrell, the EU must avoid that “the greater financial strength of some states allows them to help their companies more and create better conditions to survive today and compete tomorrow“. “If we compare the financial potential of Germany with that of Spain or Italy we see a big difference” and what it is about, he warned, is that “all states are on an equal footing to help their companies”, because otherwise “we will leave here with a deeply distorted single market”.
Torra as example of new nationalism after COVID-19
Regarding the political consequences of the health crisis, the high representative admitted that “what is being tested is the capacity of democracy to resist a tension” that will serve as “breeding ground” for populists, nationalists and defenders of authoritarian and totalitarian systems”.
“There is a battle of narratives”, he warned. On one side of the battle are “those who say that authoritarian systems like China responded more effectively” and that “authoritarian systems of order and command are more effective” and nationalists who play with “the attractiveness of borders as barricades behind the front”. This is the case, he added, of the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, who “has said that Catalonia would have done better if she had been independent”, which is “a profoundly mistaken response”.
“Frankly”, Borrell warned, “the response of the countries with the highest democratic quality has been better”, because a crisis of this nature “can only be resolved through convincing citizens, something that only a mature democracy can achieve”. “More mature democracies have responded better and will become better”, he added.
In any case, the former Spanish minister acknowledged that, seen “from Brussels, it is surprising how sour politics are in Spain at a time when there should be greater cooperation in the face of a common problem”. “The call for unity, cooperation, overcoming conflicts and seeking solutions between European countries and the rest of the world can and should also be made in the domestic policy of each country”, he warned.
