Eduardo González
Pablo Iglesias’ decision to leave the Second Vice-Presidency of the Government to run for the Presidency of the Community of Madrid coincided with the participation of the Chief Executive, Pedro Sánchez, in the XXVI Spanish-French summit, from which he wished “luck” to his former vice-president “in his new political journey”.
“We have spoken this morning and I have wished him, logically, luck in his new political journey, although a little less than our candidate of the Socialist Party, Ángel Gabilondo”, said Pedro Sánchez yesterday during the joint press conference with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, held in the town of Montauban, in the southwest of France. “I have recognized him for the contribution he has made this long year in the Second Vice-Presidency for Social Rights and Agenda 2030” because, “despite the differences that we logically have, because we are part of different political cultures, our coordination has been optimal”, he continued.
Regarding the possibility that the current Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, will replace Iglesias in the Second Vice-Presidency, Sánchez announced that “in the coming days” he will make a decision to “facilitate the changeover”, but added, without further details, that he has “the best opinion” about Díaz and that in the distribution of portfolios agreed for the creation of the coalition Government it had been decided “a Second Vice-Presidency for Unidas Podemos”. “I am a person who fulfills the agreements” and in that matter “there is not going to be any kind of problem or misunderstanding, there is going to be continuity”, he added.
As announced, Sanchez and Macron signed during the summit the Dual Nationality Agreement between Spain and France, with which “an anomaly is corrected”, according to the Spanish leader. This is the first agreement of its kind between Spain and a non-Ibero-American country and, obviously, with a European country. Likewise, up to ten agreements and memorandums of understanding were adopted by the various ministers of the two countries (who met by videoconference) on matters such as university mobility and the recognition of university degrees, the remote approval of the double degree of Baccalaureate, the promotion of Spanish and French in France and Spain, respectively, the collaboration on the archives of the Spanish Civil War and exile that are in France or the promotion of sustainable fuels in the aviation sector.
Apart from that, the two governments pledged to jointly commemorate in 2023 the 50th anniversary of the death in France of Pablo Picasso, to implement “a global cross-border strategy” given the “necessary symbiosis between both sides of the Pyrenees” and to “initiate consultations for a future bilateral cooperation treaty between France and Spain that takes into account the intensity of economic and commercial ties”, Macro explained at the press conference.
The two countries also addressed the commitment reached last week by the electricity system operators in Spain and France (REE and RTE) to accelerate cooperation on interconnections and pledged to move forward on the reopening of the Pau-Canfranc railway line. The previous summit in 2017 concluded with the signing of an agreement on electricity and rail connections, but energy exchange capacity across the Pyrenees currently remains at just 3%, a far cry from the 10% that the EU had planned for 2020.
Pandemic and vaccines
The two leaders also discussed the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, expressing their support for the European Commission’s efforts to boost vaccine production in Europe and advocating coordination within the European Union to restore safe mobility. They also called for accelerating the implementation of the European recovery mechanism Next Generation EU and highlighted the “new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries” opened up by the respective national recovery plans, as stated by Pedro Sanchez.
As expected, Sánchez and Macron addressed, without substantially modifying their respective positions, the debate on the vaccination certificate or health passport, an initiative openly supported by the southern European countries most dependent on tourism, such as Spain, Italy, Malta, Cyprus or Portugal, and which is not viewed favorably by countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
“I don’t like to call it a health passport, I prefer the vaccination certificate, because we are in the Schengen area and mobility is regulated under that framework”, declared the President of the Government during the press conference. The objective of this certificate is “to facilitate mobility as soon as possible, something that is fundamental for certain sectors, such as tourism”, and, for this reason, “all the EU governments are very interested in developing this project as soon as possible”, as was expressed “in the last European Council”, he added.
For his part, Macron defended European coordination to “allow citizens to move again when the pandemic subsides”, something that “will have to be decided region by region and in accordance with common rules”. To this must be added, according to the French leader, the situation in “non-European countries, outside Schengen, and that is where the health passport is going to be considered”. “What is at stake is health and it is not up to us to decide politically how long immunity lasts or how long the effects of vaccines last, these are questions that can only be resolved by scientists”, he warned. “Of course, we will reopen when everyone is vaccinated, but are we going to recognize all vaccines? Maybe not”, he continued. “There are health, ethical and legal issues to be resolved and that is why coordination is needed” within the EU, which is why the 27 Member States have given themselves until May to organize the possible reopening, which must be “coordinated and European”, he concluded.
At the end of the summit, Sánchez and Macron took part in a tribute at the tomb of Manuel Azaña in the of Montauban cemetery, where the former president of the Spanish Republic has been buried since he died in this French town 80 years ago. The President of the Government closed his day in France with a meeting with the President of the Occitania region, Carole Delga.
