The Diplomat
The European Parliament has postponed until September the speech by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to set out the priorities of the Spanish Presidency due to the fact that the initial date was to coincide with the final stretch of the campaign for the early general elections.
The traditional speech before the plenary of the Chamber to present the priorities of the rotating Presidency of the EU was scheduled for July 13, two weeks after the beginning of the European semester and only ten days before the elections, in the middle of the election campaign.
The postponement of the speech had been requested both by the Government itself and by the European People’s Party. Moncloa sources indicated to the Europa Press agency that the Executive had presented yesterday the formal request for postponement to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and specified that, in any case, the request had already been advanced to the European Parliament this past Tuesday, one day after Sánchez announced the call for early elections.
On the other hand, the leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, also asked Metsola to postpone the Prime Minister’s speech until after the elections and even requested that the president-elect, and not the acting president, deliver the speech. According to Weber’s letter to Mesola, the EU Presidency plays a “key role” at this time, affected by the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and, therefore, the priorities of the Spanish semester must be safe from “domestic political battles”.
Finally, as reported by parliamentary sources to Europa Press, the Parliament has agreed to postpone the speech, which will be delivered by Pedro Sánchez in his capacity as acting Prime Minister.
