Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, participated this week in a “historic” meeting of the European Council in which European leaders granted EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova and raised the possibility of applying “temporary caps” to energy prices.
The Council, meeting in Brussels on June 23-24, “strongly condemned Russia’s indiscriminate attacks” against civilian targets in Ukraine, warned that “all those responsible for war crimes and other extremely serious crimes” will be held accountable for their actions “in accordance with international law” and assured that work will continue to strengthen the implementation of sanctions against Russia and “prevent circumvention,” to which end it urged “all countries to adhere to EU sanctions, in particular EU candidate countries.”
On Ukraine, European leaders pledged continued and increased military support and highlighted the European Commission’s intention to propose a new exceptional macro-financial assistance of up to €9 billion in 2022. The President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelenski, participated by videoconference to thank for the political support to his country and to explain the development of the Russian invasion after 121 days of war.
The European Council also granted candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova and recognized the European perspective of Georgia, which has also applied for membership. In this regard, the leaders invited the European Commission to report to the Council on the fulfillment of the conditions for accession, after which “the Council will decide on further steps once all these conditions are fully met.”
“I believe that we are before a truly historic Council” in which “we have approved and accepted the European Commission’s proposal to recognize candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova,” Pedro Sánchez said at the post-Council press conference. “This demonstrates, first of all, the commitment of the entire European Union, of all the Member States, to the solidarity and pro-European commitment of the Ukrainian and Moldovan people and finally also of Georgia,” he continued.
On the Western Balkans – addressed on Wednesday during the EU Western Balkans Summit – the European Council invited the Commission, the High Representative, Josep Borrell, and the Council to continue to push, on the basis of the revised enlargement methodology, for gradual integration between the EU and the Western Balkans during the enlargement process, in a reversible manner and depending on the progress made. “There have been some countries that we have defended the suitability of also recognizing the candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Sánchez assured.
On the other hand, the European Council addressed the food crisis and urged Russia to “immediately” stop attacking agricultural facilities and unblock Black Sea ports to allow the export of Ukrainian grain and the resumption of commercial transport operations. “Russia, by using food as a weapon in its war against Ukraine, is solely responsible for the global food security crisis it has provoked,” the leaders assured. In this regard, Pedro Sánchez announced that Spain is leading a public-private project that will allow some 8,000 tons of grain to be taken out of Ukraine in the next three months, which will be stored in several silos in Spanish ports in the Mediterranean. The project, which will begin in mid-July in a pilot phase, has the collaboration of Poland, Luxembourg and France.
Energy prices
On economic issues, the European Council reiterated its invitation to the Commission to examine with international partners “how to curb the rise in energy prices, including the feasibility of introducing temporary caps on import prices where appropriate”. Likewise, “in the face of Russia’s militarization of gas”, the European Council invited the Commission to continue its efforts, “as a matter of urgency”, with a view to “guaranteeing the supply of energy at affordable prices” and to adopt “all appropriate measures to ensure closer energy coordination between Member States”.
“From the Government of Spain we have always defended that it is necessary to review and reform in a structural way the electricity market in Europe and, therefore, to decouple the evolution of the price of gas to the price of electricity”, stated Pedro Sánchez. “We have to promote a cap on the (price of) gas (that generates electricity) throughout the European energy market”, in line with what is already being applied “in the Iberian market as a consequence of the fact that we are an energy island”, he said.
