Albares: “The changes in the US force us to develop the European defence pillar and the common trade policy”

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has warned that the “new approaches of the North American administration” will force the EU to assume that there are “new threats” and to develop, therefore, both the “European defence pillar” and “the common trade policy”. “We have to get used to the idea that there are new threats and there are new approaches on the part of the North American administration that mean that what we Europeans have been considering for decades has to take shape”, declared Albares on Wednesday night, in an interview with the programme 'Catalunya nit', on Catalunya Ràdio. This means, he added, “analysing the threats, seeing what capacities we have to face them and quantifying the necessary financing”. “This will represent a pillar of European defence, but it will not be the only one,” he said. “At this time, when there is a rethinking at a global level, we will have to think, of course, about this pillar, but we will also have to talk about other aspects, such as the competitiveness of our companies and the common commercial policy,” he added. Albares made these statements on the eve of the extraordinary summit of European leaders on Ukraine and defence. “What we have seen these days is all Europeans united around Ukraine, its freedom and its independence, and also united around our values and our project, which is a project of peace,” he said. “The European Union was built around our single market, which gives us prosperity and values of pluralism and equality. All this will be reflected tomorrow (in Brussels), with some nuances or others, depending on the country,” he added. Regarding the possible sending of Spanish troops to Ukraine, Albares reiterated that “it is very premature to talk about that.” “At the moment there is no peace” and in order to consider sending troops there needs to be “a true, fair and lasting peace, not a mere ceasefire, or worse, a truce, a pause between two wars so that the aggressor can rearm and return stronger.” In any case, he assured, “at the moment no one is considering sending troops to Ukraine and Ukraine is not asking for it either.” Regarding the defence of Catalan in the European institutions, the minister expressed his wish that the acceptance of the use of the Spanish co-official languages comes “as soon as possible.” “In any case, we are making a great effort with the Polish presidency so that we can include the official language, which requires unanimity,” he explained. “Just a few days ago we already had a first victory, which is to achieve that Catalan can now be used in the plenary sessions of the Economic and Social Council,” he concluded.

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