Javier Moreno
President of the Spanish Socialist Delegation in the European Parliament
Jesús González / Editor of Canal Europa and Aquí Europa
The President of the Spanish Socialist Delegation to the European Parliament, Javier Moreno, takes stock for Canal Europa of what 2023 has been like in terms of EU policy, with the six-month Spanish Presidency, and the objectives to be achieved in the European Union in 2024.
It has been an intense year in EU politics. What is your assessment of 2023, which is now coming to an end?
Well, I was born an optimist and I always see the positive side of situations. And I would like to make a few observations on the economic situation. Firstly, let us not forget that we have endured a pandemic from which the European Union has emerged united. We have overcome this pandemic with a message of unity and common action with vaccines, masks, in short, we have emerged from this pandemic.
Then, in February 2022, we were hit by Putin’s war, with its consequences: inflation, energy prices, and so on. And well, we are still united. This year we were moving forward and we are faced with a war in our neighbourhood in the Middle East with consequences that we don’t know how it will end.
Moreover, we are in a situation where the planet is crying out for help, because it is burning. Climate change is there and we have to act. And we in the European Union, as I will explain later, are working on it. Moreover, also as a result of climate change, but not only because of it, migratory flows have increased again after the pandemic.
These are the challenges we have experienced this year and there are two responses to these challenges. The extreme right is dragging the right, and we see it in Spain, where they deny climate change, just as they deny that there is violence against women. They want to return to a world that no longer exists. And we, the progressive forces and the pro-European forces in the European Parliament, are standing up to these challenges. That is what happened this year. And now, when we talk about what the European Parliament has done, we will see how we have moved forward.
There are two visions here. There is a dilemma. On the one hand, we, who see the challenges we face, which are not easy, and seek a solution among Europeans, all together, with unity, as we have done with the pandemic or Putin’s war. On the other hand, the political forces of the extreme right are dragging the traditional right, which were pro-European, into a very dangerous world of the past. It is a closed world, in which xenophobia, racism, machismo… prevail. So therein lies the dilemma. We in the European Parliament are fighting to move forward and seek solutions for the majorities, for the most vulnerable people. And that is what we are trying to do in the European Union, moreover, under the Spanish Presidency.
Let’s move on to the milestones you were talking about, in terms of your legislative activity in the European Parliament. What would you highlight as the most important aspects of this year 2023?
I think that, first of all, the planet is crying out for help. We are working to close what we call the European Green Pact, which is a series of European laws to fight climate change, and unfortunately what we have seen is a shift from the traditional right to the extreme right.
For example, in the regulation on Nature Restoration it has become very clear that the European People’s Party was with us and has gradually moved to the extreme right, which denies that there is any climate change. We are in that fight, but also with the directive on air improvement, those directives that complete the Green Pact. We are in that.
On the other hand, I was talking about the planet burning, but I was also talking about the consequences of Putin’s war. I recall that following the Iberian exception on the price of energy, carried out by the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, we are reviewing what we call the European electricity market, in order to have greater energy independence, to have much more renewable and cleaner energy, and to make it affordable, especially for the most disadvantaged people.
We are also working on the migration pact. We will try to conclude it by the end of the year, because the reality is there. Migratory flows have increased again and what we have to do is to organise them. In other words, the dilemma here is that we politicians are in charge or the mafias, the traffickers in human beings, are in charge. But let us not forget that this is the defensive side of irregular migration. But I insist, and I am rapporteur for a European law on regular migration, that we need people to come and work in this continent, which is getting older and older.
So we must also insist on orderly migration, which is not going to stop. And those who think they can build walls in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic are wrong. This has to be sorted out by all of us because it is a European issue, it is not a question of the Canary Islands, southern Italy or Spain, it is completely European. That is why we have to act together.
And finally, social rights. We have worked, for example, on the rights and working conditions of digital platforms. We are working on a law against gender violence, male violence.
In short, we have many areas, but I come back to what I said at the beginning of the interview, I am optimistic and positive. It is true that we complain a lot because there is a lot to do, but let’s look a little bit at what is outside Europe and realise that we are a privileged continent and we have to keep working together. Those who think that by closing ourselves off and going back to nationalism we can move forward in this world, I think they are on the wrong track.
One last point on the Spanish Presidency, Spain’s fifth rotating presidency of the European Union. The current presidencies are no longer like the old ones, which had many more powers, but the mark that a country makes on the political agenda and priorities is still very important. When this presidency began, as it coincided with the general elections, the opposition in Spain said that it was going to be a failed presidency, that it would practically go unnoticed. Now we can take stock of what Spain has once again contributed. What key issues do you think the Spanish government has worked on? What has it achieved in these six months?
First of all, let us situate ourselves. This is the last presidency, shall we say, in which pacts can be reached, because then comes the Belgian presidency, but as the elections are coming up, it will be complicated. Moreover, it is what we call in EU jargon the ‘short presidency’, which is the second of the year, because both August and December are not the best months to work because of the holidays and festivities.
Third element: it is true that it has been a presidency with a government in office for a while, but it has worked 100% despite the opposition from the right in our country, from the extreme right, who are patriots for life but have little sense of State. Despite this, we are trying to close as many legislative files as possible. There have been more than 120 trialogues, which are the negotiations on European laws that take place between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the Member States.
I believe that despite the noise that the right and the extreme right may make, it has been a very positive presidency. We are working until the last moment, until the last week of December. Despite the holidays, extraordinary meetings are being arranged to close the files because then comes the Belgian Presidency and the elections, and it will be very complicated. And after the elections we will see what happens. It is better to close everything we can now and not leave for later what could be done.
When we have a little more perspective on what we are doing, I think we will realise how much progress has been made at European Union level during this Spanish Presidency, despite all the obstacles.
And let us not forget that we have re-established meetings with Latin America. It has been eight years since we last met at the CELAC-EU summit. Moreover, a structure has been put in place for these relations, with summits every two years.
We are also continuing to work on very important issues, such as fiscal rules, what is going to happen if we continue with what we agreed after the pandemic; the multiannual financial framework; European funds? We have many challenges ahead of us and we are trying to leave a minimum of unfinished business for the Belgian Presidency.
© This interview was originally published on Canal Europa
