The Congress approves the Treaty of Friendship with France, which continues to face opposition from the PP

Eduardo González The plenary session of the Congress approved the report on the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and France this Thursday, with the People’s Parliamentary Group and Vox voting against it once again. “Excellent news for Europe,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares posted on social media after the vote. “Congress approves the ratification of the historic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and France, a friendly and neighboring country with which we share European values and strong human, economic, and geographical ties,” he continued. “I thank the political forces that voted in favor of a treaty that strengthens the excellent bilateral relations and will benefit our citizens, especially those in the 60 cross-border municipalities and four autonomous communities,” the minister wrote. “The 300,000 Spaniards living in France, the thousands upon thousands of Spaniards in cross-border municipalities and provinces, the citizens who work in companies in the other country, who speak both languages, now deserve for the Senate to approve it without impediments,” he concluded. The text was approved with 175 votes in favor, 170 against, and one abstention. Having passed this stage (which occurred a week after its approval in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House, with a similar proportion of votes), the Treaty will now go to the Senate. If it is rejected in the Upper House, which is highly likely given the People’s Party's absolute majority, the text will return to the Congress for a final vote, in which, unlike Wednesday's vote, an absolute majority (176 votes) will be required. Therefore, the final approval of the text will depend on the Government having the support of all its parliamentary partners. The Treaty was first rejected on May 15, 2025, by the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies due to the votes against it by the People's Party (PP) and the abstentions of Junts and Podemos. Both on that occasion and this one, the PP's rejection was due to the controversial Article 2.4 of the Treaty, which stipulates that "a member of the Government of one of the Parties shall be invited to the Council of Ministers of the other Party, at least once every three months and on a rotating basis." According to the party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, this clause is incompatible with the Constitution. Therefore, and in an attempt to salvage the Treaty, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, agreed, through letters exchanged on April 6 and 10, 2026, on “the interpretation of Article 2.4 of the Treaty,” according to which the invitation to members of the other party will not be to participate in the Council of Ministers, but rather to “participate on the sidelines of said Council of Ministers in a separate meeting.” The debate During Wednesday's debate, PSOE MP Pepe Mercadal criticized “the irresponsibility of the People's Party.” “Why does the main opposition party, the party of the leader of the opposition who aspires to govern this country someday, who should want good relations with neighbors like France, vote against an agreement that is clearly positive for Spain, ignoring, incidentally, the constant appeals from the French government for us to approve it?” he asked. “From the French perspective, this agreement has immense historical significance because it signifies a shift in relations between our two countries, a relationship of equals, a treaty that France only has with two other countries, Germany and Italy,” Mercadal noted. “Therefore, placing Spain on the same level as Germany is, for France, a recognition of our country's progress and, especially, a recognition of the key role of the Spanish government in European Union decisions in recent years,” he continued. “That's how sad the opposition is in our country,” he lamented, adding that it is capable “of voting against a clearly positive treaty with our most important neighbor.” For his part, Ricardo Tarno, of the People's Party (PP), acknowledged that “France is our neighbor, a partner in the European Union, an ally in NATO, and deserves respect, seriousness, and a solid and stable bilateral relationship,” but, he warned, “for the same reasons as a year ago, we have to vote against this agreement.” “The Government signed a treaty that clearly violates our Constitution when Article 2 includes the periodic participation of ministers in our Council of Ministers. And this isn't just our opinion; it was the Council of State and the Legal Advisory Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that warned them and highlighted the legal difficulties it posed,” he asserted. “A year later, they present us with the exact same text again, with one new element: a supposed exchange of notes between Spain and France that clarifies that participation will be on the sidelines in a separate meeting,” he continued. “If the exchange of notes is so important for interpreting the treaty, why didn't we approve it before submitting it for ratification? Or why isn't it being included now? Because the exchange of notes, if it is indeed an exchange of notes, must also be approved by this House,” he warned. The Odyssey of the Treaty of Friendship The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and the French Republic was authorized by the Council of Ministers on January 17, 2023, and was signed on January 19, 2023, in Barcelona by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, within the framework of the XXVII Spanish-French Bilateral Summit. This is the first agreement of its kind between the two countries and elevates bilateral relations to the highest possible level, comparable to the relationship Spain has had with Portugal since the Trujillo Summit of October 2021. France has already ratified the text, but Spain has not yet been able to do so due to doubts about its constitutionality. At the end of January 2025, the Council of Ministers agreed to the first submission of the text to the Spanish Parliament (Cortes Generales) under urgent procedure and also authorized Spain’s expression of consent to be bound by the aforementioned treaty. However, just one week later, the People’s Party (PP) filed a constitutional challenge against the Treaty, and on February 12 of the same year, the Senate plenary session approved the challenge with votes in favor from the PP (which holds an absolute majority in the Upper House), the Navarrese People’s Union (UPN), and Vox, and votes against from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and its other usual parliamentary partners. A month later, the Constitutional Court accepted the request made by the Lower House. Finally, the Treaty was rejected on May 15, 2025, by the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies due to the votes against it from the People’s Party, which insisted on the need for the Constitutional Court to rule on the text before any approval, and the abstentions of Junts and Podemos. Last December, the Constitutional Court chose not to rule on the appeal previously filed by the Senate at the initiative of the PP, considering that the parliamentary ‘no’ vote prevented the validation of the text. Finally, just two weeks after the interpretative agreement between the two countries, the Council of Ministers again submitted the agreement to the Cortes Generales through the urgent procedure and authorized the expression of Spain's consent to be bound by the aforementioned Treaty, which has allowed the parliamentary procedures currently underway to be restarted.

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