The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, made a commitment yesterday in Dublin to speed up, during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, an “agile and balanced” application of the Windsor agreement between the European Commission and the British Government on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Sánchez announced this commitment during his appearance before the media after meeting with the Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, in the first stage of a European tour of Ireland, Denmark and Finland prior to the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
The so-called Windsor agreement, according to the chief executive, represents “a very positive step towards the normalization of relations” between the UK and the EU. This agreement “provides lasting answers to the problems that have been dragging on” and “creates a new context in which the United Kingdom and the European Union can deepen their relations and make them stronger,” added the Irish Prime Minister.
“Ireland can count on Spain’s support and on our constructive and open attitude in this new chapter in the relationship with the United Kingdom that we are now opening,” Pedro Sánchez continued. For this reason, he assured, the Spanish Presidency of the EU, scheduled for the second half of this year, will continue to work to achieve a “flexible and balanced application of the provisions of the Windsor Framework”, he added.
Likewise, Sánchez and Varadkar addressed during their meeting issues such as the war in Ukraine, the EU’s strategic autonomy, relations with Latin America, European fiscal rules or the Migration and Asylum Pact. In the institutional declaration, Varadkar affirmed that bilateral relations “have never been so strong” and recalled that two million Irish travel to Spain every year and 35,000 Spaniards travel to Ireland to improve their English, as Sanchez himself did.
Last May, the then British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, threatened to unilaterally break the Protocol for Northern Ireland because of the complexity and high cost involved in its implementation. That decision by London was a major setback in the negotiations between the EU and the UK on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, which not only jeopardized the continuity of the trade agreements between the two parties, but even threatened to paralyze the negotiations on the Gibraltar Treaty. Finally, and after several days of negotiations in Windsor, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, reached an agreement on Monday that will allow the EU to eliminate a large part of the controls on products coming to Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.
Denmark
After his visit to Dublin, Sánchez moved yesterday to Copenhagen, where he was received by the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, with whom he signed a collaboration agreement on green transition and with whom he agreed, during his appearance before journalists, on the need to promote the European green agenda. “We have to use the Spanish presidency of the EU to accelerate European cooperation on energy, security and green transition,” said the chief executive. The memorandum of understanding signed in Denmark commits to promote regulatory frameworks to support renewable hydrogen, accelerate global investments in renewable energy and facilitate the adoption of green hydrogen.
Likewise, and as in Dublin, Sánchez and Frederiksen addressed issues such as the Migration or Asylum Pact, European strategic autonomy, the improvement of European competitiveness, the reform of the electricity market, alliances with Latin America and unity in supporting Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, all with a view to the Spanish Presidency.
For her part, Frederiksen assured that Spain and Denmark, “two progressive countries”, can “work even more closely” on issues such as gender equality and expressed his willingness to help Spain in its priorities for the European Presidency. Sánchez will travel today to Helsinki to hold a meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Sanna Marin.
On a more national level, Pedro Sánchez took advantage of his appearance before the media in Denmark to criticize the chairman of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, for announcing the company’s departure to the Netherlands. “In Spain there are examples of great businessmen committed to their country, but after this announcement, it is clear that this is not the case”, he declared.
