Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, defended yesterday, upon his arrival at the extraordinary European Council, the creation of new Next Generation funds in 2026, the development of a “positive agenda” between the EU and Turkey and the two-state solution to end tension in the Middle East.
EU leaders have been meeting since yesterday in Brussels for the last time before the European elections. On the agenda of the meeting, which will conclude today, are the Middle East crisis (including Iran’s recent attacks on Israel), the situation in Ukraine, the EU’s relations with Turkey and improving competitiveness, especially following the report prepared by the former Italian Prime Minister and current president of the Jacques Delors Institute, Enrico Letta, commissioned by the President of the Council, Charles Michel, to strengthen the European single market.
Yesterday’s day was dedicated above all to foreign policy issues, which were addressed, above all, at a working dinner of the European Council organized in the Europe building to talk “about peace, the situation, logically, in the Middle East “, about the relations that the EU has with Turkey and, of course, also about the war in Ukraine,” Sánchez told journalists upon his arrival at the Council.
One of the topics scheduled for the dinner, he specified, was relations between the EU and Turkey. “From Spain we have an extraordinary relationship with Türkiye,” explained Sánchez. “We believe that this positive agenda of the EU with Turkey must be promoted, and that is the position that we are going to maintain and that we have traditionally maintained,” he announced.
Regarding the Middle East, Pedro Sánchez assured that the Spanish Government is “very satisfied with the draft conclusions that have been presented by the Presidency of the European Council”, because, “effectively, Iran’s attack on Israel, restraint is requested from the parties to avoid an escalation, a ceasefire is requested that also allows the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the holding of an international peace conference is also requested, which is something that Spain has defended for a long time, so that we can give rise to opening up that two-state solution, which is the position that the Government of Spain has maintained since the beginning of this crisis.”
Regarding economic issues, which will be discussed today, Pedro Sánchez explained that Enrico Letta himself told him, during his recent visit to Madrid, “some of the most important elements of the report on competitiveness” that European leaders will debate. “A While waiting for the presentation of the report, the most relevant thing from the point of view of the Government of Spain is that we have to continue leveraging private investment thanks to the mobilization of public resources,” he declared to journalists.
“As a consequence of the pandemic, Spain was one of the intellectual authors of this Next Generation plan to be able to give a positive response to the pandemic crisis and, subsequently, to the crises that have arisen as a consequence of the different wars that, Unfortunately, the world is suffering, and what we aspire to is that, starting in 2026, we not only have a greater role to play by the European Investment Bank (EIB), but also, why not, in addition to private investment channeled through the European capital market, we have new Next Generation funds that allow us to respond to the construction of European public goods” in the face of challenges such as climate policy, digital transformation “and everything related to Defending”.
