Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares assured that Spain will try during its presidency of the European Union to maintain the unity of the Twenty-Seven to “rewrite the rules” and “cover the vulnerabilities” discovered in the European Union accordingly. of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and places Latin America and the southern Mediterranean neighborhood at the center.
“For Spain, Europe will not be among those who will take the chalk” to help “redesign the playing field and rewrite the rules” of the world order that altered Russia’s war on Ukraine, Albares said last night during a meeting. representatives of Spanish companies and senior officials in Brussels organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.
Aware that the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU begins on July 1, “it is not an easy presidency”, since it will take place during “the most complex and turbulent moment in Europe since the fall of the wall of Berlin”, Albares underlined that Spain would give “the best” of itself “for the defense of Europe”.
“Europe can no longer see Russia or anyone else being blackmailed,” he said, and for this reason “part of the essence” of the Spain’s six-month EU presidency will be to “cover” the “vulnerabilities” discovered.
“We have discovered that we are vulnerable, that we have vulnerabilities. This will be part of the essence of our presidency, that we must cover these vulnerabilities. What in political-diplomatic jargon we call strategic autonomy”, has specified the head of Spanish diplomacy.
For Albares, the EU must act “autonomously” and protect the sectors “with names and surnames” in which these vulnerabilities have been detected with the war, such as energy, and reduce dependencies on from third parties, as happened with Russian gas for example, which is why he also advocated “a stronger economic base that guarantees a secure and sustainable supply of raw materials”.
“You cannot depend on third parties for certain things and above all, you cannot depend, as we have on occasion, on just one, when it comes to guaranteeing that you will no longer be vulnerable. “, insisted the minister, advocating the reindustrialisation, the diversification of energy sources and the “urgent” reform of the electricity market.
Faced with this “changing international order”, he said, “Europe has no meaning as a strong, as a closed thing, as a society that is not open. And it means working with others”, with “natural” allies like the United States. United States, but also with Latin America.
“That’s why we are going to put Latin America back at the center of the European agenda, relaunch relations with Latin America. And Latin America is by far the most euro-compatible region on the planet,” he said. -he declares.
Albares recalled that the summit of EU and Latin America and the Caribbean leaders will be held on July 17 and 18, preceded by separate business and civil society forums.
“It is not possible that Latin America is something that interests Europe every time a Spaniard takes over the presidency” of the EU, he said, so Spain will defend “the creation of a work program for the coming years, a global investment program that should have Latin America at the center”.
And it is “exactly” the same thing he wants to do with the “southern neighbourhood, with our friends on the other side of the Mediterranean” because working with both regions is necessary, he stressed, to “solving the big challenges: the fight against climate change, gender equality, the regulation of irregular migratory flows, the fight against mafias trafficking in human beings, development”.
And in an internal European key, Albares underlined the will of the Spanish EU presidency to “try to place the European social pillar at the center”, “to remain forever at the center of political and economic decisions”.
With the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, “all Europeans have understood the value of what is public, the value of public health, the value of being sure that we can get vaccinated, the value of support each other to each other,” he concluded.