Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, proposed yesterday in Warsaw, before the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and other European leaders, that the next EU Strategic Agenda prioritizes “the well-being of citizens” without neglecting “security and European defense”, the common industrial policy and the protection and deepening of the internal market.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday began a tour of Warsaw, Oslo and Dublin, which will conclude today and is part of his attempt to obtain the support of other European leaders for the recognition of the Palestinian State, which has become one of its major foreign policy priorities.
However, the main objective of his trip to Poland (one of the EU countries that already recognize Palestine as a State, although, in his case, before its entry into the Union and when it was still part of the Soviet orbit) was participation in the high-level meeting convened by Charles Michel to debate the Strategic Agenda 2024-2029, the document that sets the EU’s political priorities for the next legislative cycle and which must be approved at the European Council in June. The future Strategic Agenda began to be drafted at the Granada Summit, during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, whose Declaration contains the basic elements of the debate.
During the working dinner, as reported by Moncloa, Sánchez asked that the text place “special emphasis” on social policies, the ecological transition, gender equality and the fight against child poverty and inequality, “that is, putting the well-being of European citizens at the center”, all of this, according to the same source, “without neglecting the issues related to European security and defense, the need for a common industrial policy and the protection and deepening of the internal market, which means an opportunity to strengthen the economic growth, competitiveness and strategic autonomy of the EU.”
Also present at the meeting were the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas; the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriákos Mitsotákis; the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo, and the Prime Minister of Ireland, Simon Harris.
Today, Pedro Sánchez will visit Norway and Ireland, where he will begin to try to obtain accessions to the recognition of the Palestinian State. In the morning, the President of the Government will have a working lunch with the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, with whom he will then appear before the media. As explained last Tuesday by the minister spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, Norway is a country that “has an extensive history of mediation and conflict management in the region, with great milestones such as the Oslo Accords after the peace conference in Madrid in 1991.”
In the afternoon, Pedro Sánchez will hold a meeting with the Taoiseach, the Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, with whom he will also hold a joint appearance before the media. In this meeting, the President of the Government will try to sound out Harris to check if he maintains the position of his predecessor, Leo Varadkar, who on March 22 signed, together with Sánchez and the prime ministers of Malta, Robert Abela, and of Slovenia, Robert Golob, a joint statement in which they committed to recognize the State of Palestine when “the appropriate circumstances arise.”
