Mariano Rajoy stresses that "not being supportive in the Ebola crisis is tantamount to being immoral"

Asia-Europe Meeting , Milan (Italy)

This was one of the issues that the President of the Government addressed during his speech before the ASEM because, in his opinion, this is an "issue of global importance". After underlining the importance of international cooperation to tackle the epidemic, he highlighted Spain's support, both in terms of economic contributions and in logistical support. "This is an issue where not being supportive is tantamount to being immoral", he claimed. He also reiterated that it is not easy to contract the disease and the experts now consider that they can now provide a rapid response.

Economic forecasts

The President of the Government compared the current economic situation in Spain with that of two years ago, when the last ASEM Summit was held in Laos. In 2012, the Spanish economic panorama was very uncertain. Now, Spain "finds itself on the road to recovery and growth thanks to some very tough structural reforms that required great sacrifice and effort from the people of Spain", he stressed.

According to Mariano Rajoy, the government maintains both its commitment to meet the deficit target set for the year, of 5.5%, and the economic growth forecasts, of 1.3% in 2014 and 2% in 2015. He stressed that "we have gone through the worst economic crisis of the last three generations", with several consecutive years of jobs being shed.

However, he stated that the policies developed by the government have enabled Spain to now be in a position to receive financing, that debt is being serviced at 2.1% and "that last year we saved 8 billion euros in servicing this debt". He added that this year the saving may also be significant, amounting to some 5 billion euros.

ASEM Summit

According to the President of the Government, the ASEM Summit has served to strengthen its economic and financial base, since to date much of the focus had been on political aspects. These forums, he explained, should shore up the economic recovery, sustainable growth and quality job creation. It is also necessary "to strengthen all the synergies between Asia and Europe through greater connectivity in all areas": transport, digital networks, and increasing trade relations and investment.

ASEM, which was set up in 1996 as an initiative between the EU and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), has consolidated over the years as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Asian and European nations. According to Mariano Rajoy, its great attraction is its flexible nature, without permanent institutions, which has resulted in an increase in the number of participating nations. At the Milan Summit, the new countries to join included Croatia, Norway and Switzerland from Europe and Kazakhstan from Asia, to give a total of 51 Member States, plus the EU and the General Secretariat of ASEAN.

Current affairs

As regards Catalonia, Mariano Rajoy stressed that "the good news" is that "the illegal referendum will not be held", in line with the ruling handed down by the Constitutional Court. Aside from that, he added that the ideal situation would be for the Regional Government of Catalonia to "take decisions, govern and approve the budget" because "situation of instability are not helpful for governing any country".

As regards the 'opaque cards' of Bankia, the President of the Government underlined that it was the government itself, through the audit performed on "the nationalised institution" and the actions taken by the FROB [Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring], a State body, that has placed this issue in the hands of the Public Prosecutor's Office. As such, "the case is now in the hands of the judiciary".