Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday took advantage of his participation in the European Council to stage the start of the fifth Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, a six-month period which, he assured, will be marked in large part by the war in Ukraine and which will begin, precisely, with a trip by the head of the Executive to Kyiv to show Spanish and European support for this country.
“Tomorrow we begin the journey of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU,” said Sánchez at the press conference after the Council. Spain takes over from Sweden, he continued, “at a key moment for the EU as a whole” and does so “with enormous ambition to face the challenges facing the EU and with the gratitude of those who assume their responsibility”.
The Spanish Presidency has announced four major priorities that have been repeatedly set out by the Government over the last two weeks. Pedro Sánchez himself did so on June 15, during a press conference in Moncloa, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, did so again this past Thursday during a meeting with the ambassadors of the EU states accredited in Spain.
Specifically, these four main priorities are the reindustrialization of Europe and the search for new ways to overcome excessive dependence on third countries in areas such as energy, health, digital technologies and food through open strategic autonomy and diversification of trade relations; the ecological transition, including the reform of the electricity market to accelerate the deployment of renewables and reduce electricity prices; the consolidation of the Social Pillar, with the introduction of “minimum and common standards of corporate taxation in all Member States”, the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the reform of tax rules; and the reinforcement of European unity, because, “in a world of giants, the EU must remain united if we want it to be an architect of the new international order”. Apart from this, the Presidency will include one of the great jewels in the crown for the Spanish Government: the first EU-CELAC Summit in eight years, to be held in Brussels on July 17 and 18.
Elections
In any case, the Spanish semester will not only be the last one before the European elections in June 2024 (which will force to expedite many pending issues, such as the Migration Pact), but it will be marked, inevitably, by Pedro Sánchez’s decision to call early general elections for July 23, barely three weeks after Spain assumes the Presidency.
Bearing in mind that the Constitution does not establish specific deadlines between the holding of a general election and the investiture of the new Government and that there is no established time frame for the duration of the investiture negotiations (except for the maximum period of two months between the first investiture vote and the formation of the new Government), everything suggests that both the investiture negotiations and the formation of the new Government will most probably condition the first three months of the Presidency, during which the host country will be in the hands of an incumbent Government.
While waiting for what may happen, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (who has repeatedly accused Sánchez of not informing him about the details of the Presidency), has already created a working group to face the Spanish Presidency of the EU in case his party wins the elections. The team brings together, among others, four former members of the governments of José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy: the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs Ana Palacio and José Manuel García-Margallo, the former Minister of Education and former Secretary of State for the EU Íñigo Méndez de Vigo and the former Minister of Agriculture and former European Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.
Kyiv, Charles Michel and College of Commissioners
The first major event of the Presidency will be the trip that Pedro Sánchez will make today to Kyiv at the invitation of the President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelensky. However, at the institutional level, the real start of Spain’s mandate will take place tomorrow with the working meeting that Sánchez will hold with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the Moncloa presidential complex, which will conclude with a joint declaration.
Subsequently, on Monday, the College of EU Commissioners will meet in Madrid, chaired by the President of the Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, following the tradition of the European Commissioners to visit the country holding the Presidency, at the beginning of each mandate, to prepare the agenda and address the priorities set. The meeting, which will take place at the Royal Collections Museum (next to the Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace) and will conclude with a joint press conference by Sánchez and Von der Leyen, was initially scheduled for July 7, but it was finally decided to bring it forward so that it would not coincide with the start of the election campaign. The official inauguration of the Presidency will take place on Tuesday in Brussels.
Fifth Spanish Presidency
The six-month period that begins today represents the fifth time that Spain holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after 1989, 1995, 2002 and 2010.
Spain first held the Presidency of the Council of the EU on January 1, 1989, when the EU had only twelve Member States and only three years after Spain’s accession to the European Communities (1986). On that occasion, the host was the government of Felipe González (PSOE). One of the main achievements of this Presidency was the decision, at the Madrid Summit, to initiate the first phase of the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union, a fundamental step that would lead, twelve years later, to the establishment of a common currency. In addition, the proposal for economic and social cohesion was launched to compensate for the deficiencies of the poorest countries in the internal market, which would later give way to the Cohesion Funds.
Spain returned to the presidency of the EU on January 1, 1995, shortly after the incorporation of Austria, Sweden and Finland. During that Presidency, which coincided with the final stretch of Felipe Gonzalez’s government, the reflection process that led to the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 was initiated and the Schengen Area for the free movement of people and goods, which is currently in force in 27 countries, was put into operation in seven Member States, including Spain. It was also during that Presidency that it was decided to baptize the single currency with the name of euro and the Barcelona Declaration, the origin of the Union for the Mediterranean, was signed.
The third Spanish Presidency came on January 1, 2002, during the government of José María Aznar (PP). During that six-month period, the approval was given for the largest enlargement of the number of EU Member States since its creation, from 15 to 27. The start of that Presidency also coincided with the introduction of the euro in twelve countries, including Spain. One of the priorities of that Presidency, marked by the very close memory of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was the fight against transnational terrorism, at Spain’s initiative. In those six months, the European arrest and surrender warrant, known as the Euro-order, was also approved.
The fourth and last Presidency came on January 1, 2010, during the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) and in the midst of the international financial crisis, a deep recession that affected all the countries of the European Union and the Euro Zone and that, obviously, marked the Spanish semester. For this reason, Spain set itself the objective of promoting economic recovery through sustainable growth that would generate employment. The Spanish Presidency was also responsible for implementing many of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon, the last of the major reforms of European Union law, which came into force on December 1, 2009. Among those provisions, the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy stands out.
