Joint press briefing between President of the Government and Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven

Enköping (Sweden)

Mr. Löfven.- Welcome, it is a pleasure to welcome my friend Pedro Sánchez to Sweden, particularly on this occasion as the Prime Minister of Spain. Sweden's support for the European Union is very sound. The European Union is very important for us in terms of trade, long-term economic growth and security. We are constantly working to strengthen cooperation and relations with our closest partners in the European Union. I am very proud that Spain is one of them. Spain and Sweden have excellent bilateral relations that have been further strengthened today. We have spoken about a range of topics related to questions of interest for the European Union, and we have also obviously discussed the issue of internal security within the European Union, which is the subject of the summit that will take place this month in Salzburg.

We have spoken about the fact that a hard Brexit would not benefit anyone. We have also spoken about the possibility of working together and exchanging ideas related to future negotiations on the European Union Budget. But above all, and most importantly, President of the Government Sánchez belongs to the same political family, we share the same democratic ideals and we are committed to defending the core values of the European Union at a time in which tensions are rising up against these values and so we want to work to defend these values and to guarantee prosperity n Spain, in Sweden and in the European Union.

Thank you very much.

President of the Government.- Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. Thank you very much to the press for coming here. It is an honour to be here today with Stefan. Since I first met him - I was then Leader of the Opposition and he was already Prime Minister - I have always seen Stefan as a great source of inspiration for both our political group and for the European Union in general.

We share many values, and we also have many common political goals. I have always admired how Stefan has headed up political debate at an EU level on social cohesion, which is fundamental, of course, for Spain and for the Government of Spain. Hence, the social pillar that he advocated at the Gothenburg Summit last year has always been a top priority for the Socialist Group at a European level and also for the Government of Spain.

We have not only spoken about work-life reconciliation, but also about the regulation of the labour market and of how to fight labour exploitation. And truly, the Government of Sweden, headed up by Stefan as Prime Minister, has been a source of inspiration for many European governments and particularly for our government in Spain.

As the Prime Minister said, we have spoken at today's meeting about Brexit, and we agree that a hard Brexit would be very negative not only for the United Kingdom but also for the European Union as a whole.

We have also spoken about the European Union Budget. I believe that we have the same goals.

And finally, I would add that we have spoken about some of the key issues for the present and for the future of the European Union: climate change, gender equality and, of course, social cohesion.

So once again it is a great honour to be here with my colleague, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, and I obviously wish to continue collaborating with him over the coming years. I am very pleased and it is a great honour to be here.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Löfven.- Thank you very much, Pedro, for coming here. Thank you. Any questions?

Q.- Elections will be held in Sweden on Sunday. We are seeing at the moment that it is quite likely that the far right will see a rise in votes. What would happen at a European Union level if Sweden follows the xenophobic trends in other European countries? What mistake do you think Europe has made for things to reach this point, even in a country like Sweden?

Q.- At a domestic level, if Mr Sánchez will allow me, in the last few hours Quim Torra has rejected self-governance and said he will only accept self-determination. How does your offer of dialogue fit into this scenario?

He has also said on countless occasions that he would reject any ruling other than the acquittal of the pro-independence leaders now in jail. Do you see that as a threat by Quim Torra to finally open the prisons and free the pro-independence leaders currently imprisoned?

Mr. Löfven.- Starting with the question about extremists and the populist parties in Sweden, this will really depend on how the other political parties manage this issue. I will clearly never collaborate at any time or depend on the votes of those parties. We are talking about one of the eight parties in Parliament and hence I feel that it is the responsibility of the other seven parties to ensure that we never find ourselves in a situation in which we depend on that party and its support.

Quite clearly, against this backdrop we are going to continue building the society that we want, a society free of xenophobia in which we defend the rights and equality of all people, which is a core feature of Swedish society. Hence, the responsibility lies with the other parties and I have that quite clear in my mind.

Unfortunately, there are four right-wing parties that do not have that so clear. Two of them have stated that they would be willing to collaborate and depend on the votes of that party. There are two others that have not yet committed. On the one hand, they say that they don't want to depend on those votes but, on the other hand, they say that they would be willing to support a government that depended on the votes of those parties, as would be the case if these four parties formed a coalition government, since they are much smaller than the other parties.

At a European level, as the President of the Government has just said, we have fought to advocate a social Europe, which is the most pressing issue at this time, because there are too many workers who do not see the European Union as a source of protection for social cohesion, but rather the opposite, as a context in which market forces have been dominating for too long without taking into account that people need a Welfare State. That is why we have been advocating strengthening the social pillar of the European Union, and creating a single labour market based on the Welfare State. Individual countries will have to take on the responsibility for their own welfare systems, but at a European Union level, there must be a law on workers not being pitched against each other, because that is fundamental and it is what we are trying to achieve now through this social pillar. So we want to work towards this so that Europeans are aware that they will have a future in a common European project without having to depend on these extremists.

President of the Government- As regards the question posed by the Spanish journalist, I want to say that, logically, as President of the Government, I listened carefully to the presentation made yesterday by the President of the Regional Government of Catalonia, Mr Torra, and the two questions that I would like to share with the Catalan public and the Spanish public in general are that the Government of Spain takes dialogue and negotiations with the Regional Government of Catalonia very seriously and we are willing to open up this space for dialogue; in fact, it is already being opened up, through financing, through those issues related to the social laws that were appealed against before the Constitutional Court, through those infrastructures that are pending implementation in Catalonia. We take dialogue and negotiations with the Regional Government of Catalonia very seriously, because we are under an obligation to do so, and because we consider that the aim of politics is not to exacerbate problems. We have been talking about the issue of Catalonia for more than 10 years now, and this whole debate has been focused, to a great extent, through national politics to try and resolve these problems. What do I mean by this? That, in the same way as the Government of Spain takes its obligation to talk with the Regional Government of Catalonia seriously, what the Regional Government of Catalonia must do is open up a broad debate and talks between the nationalists and non-nationalists in Catalonia. Because that is the overriding question.

The offer being made by Regional President Torra may satisfy half of the people of Catalonia, but it doesn't satisfy the other half. And he doesn't intent to. Hence, what is the proposal being made by the Government of Spain? What is the element that brings together the whole of Catalan society, the nationalists and non-nationalists? Self-governance. The Constitution and self-governance expressed in its Statute of Autonomy. Hence, I feel that we clearly intend to resolve this political crisis through politics and we call, in this case, for the President of the Regional Government of Catalonia to start these broad talks between nationalists and non-nationalists in the Regional Parliament of Catalonia which, unfortunately, remains closed in this month of September. That is what I would like to convey to the people of Catalonia and to the people of Spain as a whole.

Finally, as regards the question of non-acceptance, which was the term I, at least, heard said yesterday. I would say that Spain is a social and democratic State under the rule of law and that what we have to do as governors is uphold rulings, whether we agree with them or not, because that is what is defined by co-existence in Catalan and Spanish society as a whole and, above all, by political leaders.

I have said this on many occasions but I will say it again now. Independence is not at stake at this time in Catalonia, co-existence is at stake and we all have to show responsibility rather than shouting and waving our arms around. And that is the case of the Government of Spain because we have clearly commenced down this path of dialogue that has already begun with the Regional Government of Catalonia, but now the Regional Government of Catalonia must also begin talks between the nationalists and the non-nationalists because, I repeat, what is at stake in Catalonia is co-existence, not independence.

Q.- I have a question for both of you. I was wondering what chance there is of the European Union reaching a binding agreement on immigration quotas in Salzburg.

President of the Government.- Well, really, we don't know exactly what the chances are, but the position of the Government of Spain is as follows: we feel that this is a common challenge, which thus requires a European response and, thus, a shared response by all European countries. That is the position of the Government of Spain on this matter.

Mr. Löfven.- We all also know what the Government of Sweden has been advocating, which is in line with what President of the Government Sánchez has just said. It is important for us to define this as a shared responsibility because every country is responsible for this issue; we have common borders and hence we have to take on this responsibility jointly. We don't know what the outcome of that summit will be but we must ensure that each country assumes its share of the responsibility.

Non official translation