<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, explained this Friday during the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), held in Tirana, Albania, the content of the draft resolution promoted by Spain and Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly demanding an end to the blockade and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.</strong></h4> Sánchez participated this Friday in the sixth summit of the European Political Community, held under the theme "A New Europe in a New World: Unity – Cooperation – Joint Action." This summit brought together 46 delegations led by heads of state or government, as well as the President of the European Council, António Costa; the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas; and the Secretaries General of the Council of Europe, NATO, and the OSCE. The President participated in the opening plenary session and the high-level roundtable dedicated to the challenge of competitiveness. At that forum, according to Moncloa, Pedro Sánchez advocated promoting innovation and improving European resilience by acting along four lines: investing in R&D—specifically, in Artificial Intelligence—, investing in renewable energy to reduce dependence on external powers, strengthening social cohesion, and increasing commercial ambition to strengthen and diversify European supply chains. Spain also facilitated a meeting on the sidelines of the summit to address the extreme humanitarian emergency in Gaza. At this meeting, which was attended by the heads of government of Iceland, Norway, Malta, Slovenia, and Luxembourg, the text of a joint declaration signed by the leaders of these countries and Ireland was agreed upon, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The president also explained to his counterparts the content of the draft resolution promoted by Spain and Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly, which calls for the same points as the aforementioned joint declaration. He also urged other European leaders to support progress in implementing the two-state solution and highlighted, in this regard, the importance of two "upcoming milestones": the Madrid Group ministerial meeting, to be held next week in the Spanish capital, and the peace conference scheduled for June in New York. Pedro Sánchez will participate this Saturday, at the invitation of the Iraqi government, in the Arab League Summit in Baghdad. He will be the only European leader present (apart from UN Secretary-General António Guterres) and will primarily address the situations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. In the Iraqi capital, Sánchez will announce to the leaders of the 22 Arab League member states his intention to present the aforementioned draft resolution to the UN General Assembly. Sources at Moncloa have confirmed that the Prime Minister is coordinating with the Palestinian Authority and several European and Arab countries to explore the best time to present the draft resolution and to secure the greatest possible support for the text. To present a draft resolution, it is necessary to request its inclusion on the agenda of a session of the General Assembly, and the possibility of the Palestinian Authority itself requesting this is being considered. <strong>Bilateral meetings</strong> The Prime Minister also held various bilateral meetings with prime ministers who participated in the European Parliamentary Assembly (EPC). First, he met with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, whom he congratulated on his recent electoral victory and with whom he discussed Albania's accession process to the European Union. He then held a meeting with Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, with whom he discussed issues related to European security and defense. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister met with the Prime Minister of Latvia, Evika Siliņa, with whom he discussed education and the teaching of Spanish. He then met with the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, with whom he discussed competitiveness and business cooperation.
