Speech at 17th Spain-Italy Forum for Dialogue

Rome (Italy)

PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Good afternoon, dear Prime Minister, dear Presidents of the Organising Committee, dear speakers and those participants present here, together with those following us by streaming.

The Spain-Italy Forum for Dialogue is always a space for reflection and beneficial exchanges for us all. A space for consolidated dialogue, which brings together civil society, the public and private sectors of two strongly committed countries to European construction, as dear Giuseppe said, and which also includes this Mediterranean perspective that we both share.

At a time of health, economic and social emergency such as the one we are going through, which is so extraordinary and unprecedented in a long time, the ability to share strategic reflections is both pressing and valuable.

We are building the EU each day in this way, step-by-step, by overcoming obstacles and barriers. With each decision, with each action, with each collaboration with our citizens, companies and institutions. We are building not only the present but also the future of the European Union, at the same time as the present and the future of our countries, which are closely intertwined.

A good example of this is the positive balance our bilateral relations have carved out for our countries. This historical, cultural and structural dynamic between our two countries is an incalculable driver of value and furthermore, is not only born out of recognition and respect, but also, I would say, out of a mutual admiration between our two countries, between Spain and Italy.

I want to highlight four specific characteristics that I feel are important to underline at a forum such as this one:

The first is a generational factor. Our interest in knowing each other comes from way back, but is, I would say, more alive than ever before. Prime Minister Conte said before that young Spanish students are the largest group of Erasmus students in Italy, in the same way as Spain is the leading destination for Erasmus students from Italy. And our tourism flows as well - clearly not at the moment as a result of the health emergency - have been enjoying privileged positions in the ranking of tourist destinations between our two countries.

Together with this generational factor, I would say that there is a mutual understanding between Spain and Italy. This allows us to work together a great deal. The first consular convention - the Italian Ambassador who was the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the previous administration is well aware of this - between our two nations dates back to 1867. Today, the colony of Italian residents in Spain, I mentioned this to Giuseppe, is the colony growing most dynamically in Spain, and is now the second largest nationality of residents from the European Union in our country, in Spain.

Thirdly, I would say that our interest in creating and growing together is firmer than ever. Spain has the largest number of cultural institutions in Italy, such as the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome, with a recognised and traditional prestige. This reflects our interest in promoting our culture in Italy due to everything we share through our heritage, which is a great deal and unmatched.

And lastly, I feel it is very important to underline our economic potential, and Giuseppe said this, as did both Josep and Enrico. I feel that we have a great deal of capacity to improve, above all, this flow of investments between our two countries.

The governments of both our countries - of Italy and Spain - enhance this proximity with mechanisms that should not only structure but also drive this powerhouse. We can say, and quite resolutely, that our countries are two of the leading members of the European Union, with a clear strategic alliance in many areas of European policies. COVID-19 and then an EU that will have 27 members and not 28, I feel, offers opportunities for collaboration, a very clear strategic alliance. And moreover, together we form a very powerful society in the EU. I remember having heard and read an interview with the former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, saying something that I feel is important. I am going to use my own words, but I feel the thought is the same. On many occasions, Italy and Spain have looked at each other sideways, with certain mistrust, and haven't found a way to see the potential of the joint work that we could develop together. Together we are stronger; we don't just make our societies stronger, but we also make our common project stronger, as you mentioned earlier.

Mechanisms such as the bilateral summits, I feel, will continue to strengthen this rebirth and this ongoing relaunching of relations between Italy and Spain. And in this regard, we are looking with great expectancy at the summit that will be held in Spain on 25 November.

This is the substrata that brought us here and that both Prime Minister Conte and I welcome. And Giuseppe, you cannot possibly imagine that it is any kind of effort for me to come here to Italy, to be here with our dear Italian colleagues and friends.

Italy and Spain were among the first countries that unfortunately suffered from the tough blow of COVID-19 in March. And then the health emergency quickly spread around the world, particularly on our continent, and it is very serious and we have reflected on this at the European Council, to remember that this is an epidemiological battle, not an ideological battle, and hence we must precisely depoliticise this fight against the pandemic.

This is a common virus that pays no heed to country, nationality, belief, ideology or race. Hence, I feel it is very important to underline the deceit by those traditional political forces that feel they can gain from division or confrontation stemming from the pandemic. Because it is only the far-right that benefits from chaos, from desperation and anti-politics. And this is a very real threat which is perhaps not now quite so clear on the European continent as a result of the pandemic. And countries like Spain and Italy can take away many lessons from this and share them with our European colleagues.

Great countries like ours, like Spain and Italy, define ourselves by our commitment to solidarity, to collective action, to preserving the common good, to counting on everyone, to listening to everyone, starting with civil society, as Prime Minister Conte said before. And that is what we must focus on, shouldn't we? Because the virus has made us question ourselves, even in the way we relate as societies. This has a special impact on countries like Italy and Spain, on our Mediterranean societies where we are traditionally used to enjoying our family and friends. We distinguish ourselves through our hospitality in such a powerful sector as tourism. In short, we feel we should learn some lessons from the pandemic.

And today I would like to underline at this forum that clearly the response, firstly from countries, and I don't just want to say this on behalf of the Government of Spain but also of the Government of Italy, of all governments in this first wave was a national response, first and foremost, because we were still preparing this common response. Well I believe that national governments and Europe, with all the mistakes we may have made in managing this unknown virus, not just for politics but also for science, have risen to the magnitude of the challenge we face by defining this great agreement we reached back in July.

What Europe did in the end was reach an agreement with Europe. Europe saved Europe precisely because that was the very important undertaking, the challenge we had at that Council in July. We will have 750 billion euros to deploy over the next six years. And let me tell you that if the unity we showed in Spain and Italy at that time to reach this successful outcome was difficult, then we would still very probably have reached an agreement, but not of the scale achieved, thanks to the joint contribution headed up by both Spain and Italy.

We worked hard, side-by-side, we talked, we shared non-papers and precisely prepared for these difficult European Councils that had to be held by video-conference. Do you remember, Giuseppe? In short, we had to align our strategies to tackle a challenge and reach an historic agreement. And I have said this on many occasions. I feel that the agreement reached in July was as important as the creation of the single market, as important as the creation of the single currency, in historic terms. Italy is one of the founding members of the European Union. For us this was as important as Spain's adhesion to the European Union last century, back in 1986.

Not just because of the scale of the economic response, but also, as Enrico Letta rightly mentioned before, because we have taken such important steps as the federalisation and the mutualisation of many responses, including the economic response. Not just because of the mobilisation of the economic resources, but also because we managed to interpret where we were heading in the 21st Century, and how important this is for Europe, for Spain and for Italy, which can convert us into leaders and stand at the forefront of the transitions that will define the world and international relations, and prosperity and the creation of jobs in our country, such as the ecological and digital transitions. These will take place regardless of the contributions from countries. That is a fact. The private sector and investment funds have been on the case for many years now. What is important is that these digital and ecological transitions have an inclusive perspective, and not an exclusive one, that they don't enhance inequalities that our societies already suffer from.

Hence, I feel that we took a very important step back in July, not just by mobilising these economic resources, but due to what this amounts to in terms of European integration and also in the interpretation of where the world is heading in the 21st Century.

I feel that we can also take way four important lessons from the challenge we are facing, and I would like to share these with you.

The first it that a great opportunity has opened up for companies in both our countries. This is a business forum and I feel that it is very important to underline that in the definition of the projects we can undertake in the field of energy, for example, and in so many others where we can find a great many synergies between our two economies, it is important to define trans-European projects that not only incorporate Spain's vision when we speak about the Spanish Recovery Fund, but also the vision of countries with which we have forged synergies or can forge synergies, as is the case of Italy. Hence, I feel that it is a tremendous opportunity for companies from both our countries.

When defining the project, we are thinking, above all, in four horizontal vectors that can explain the driving projects that I will subsequently describe and which we define as elements of growth, transformation and the modernisation of our country.

We do not see the ecological transition as a sector project, because this must pervade all economic and social policies.

And we see digitalisation in the same way, that is, it affects the modernisation of the public sector, and also of companies and education. So, we feel that digitalisation must be a vector that will explain these guiding policies horizontally.

And we don't only see cohesion from a social perspective of the guiding policies, but also from a territorial perspective. We must remember that the Recovery Fund is a fund born with a vocation, among other questions, to defend the single market and avoid a greater gap emerging between different territories. And we also need to do this in our countries. After this pandemic, our countries must never again suffer from the territorial inequalities that were widened as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.

Hence, together with the ecological transition, the digital transition, social and territorial cohesion, and a key aspect that Giuseppe mentioned before, and which I fully agree with, is gender equality, the gender perspective. Because unfortunately, the female population is also in this crisis, particularly in this crisis - women are suffering more intensely from the effects and consequences of job losses and insecurity in social care, above all elderly women, who are suffering the most from this pandemic.

So, these are the four horizontal vectors that must pervade all the guiding policies we have defined, which I will speak about later.

The second lesson I feel we can take way is that it is not enough to simply recover the Gross Domestic Product we lost due to the pandemic. I feel that if we must give meaning to this Recovery Fund, to this agreement reached in July, it involves finding a positive response to this crisis in the awareness that among the elements that will define the leadership of continents it is precisely the capacity we have to undertake these ecological and digital transitions I mentioned earlier.

The third lesson is something Giuseppe mentioned before, as did the other speakers, which is that we must strengthen the common project - the European Union. We live in a world of giants; we compete with giants like China, the United States, Russia and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean. We need to strengthen our European project. We need to speed up the process of European integration, and do this as we did back in July. We also need to do this to tackle the challenges we have on our doorsteps, such as the Pact on Migration and Asylum that we need to talk about in the European Union, where Italy and Spain can offer a much richer vision, from the point of view of security, than is being proposed by some colleagues at the European Council.

We need to strengthen the social pillar. We also need to strengthen the Economic and Monetary Union. We have taken some steps, for example, through the creation of the Reinsurance Fund. We need to study the proposal made by our friend Enrico, and also clearly the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which must be one of the elements where Europe takes a step forward in the coming years.

I feel that the Conference on the Future of Europe can be a mobilising driver of thought, vision, and to the medium-term future of the European Union. And I am convinced that both Spain and Italy have great assets to head up and contribute to this rich debate.

And the fourth lesson is what I believe has brought us here today, which is that this strategic alliance between Italy and Spain is fundamental. It is primordial for our countries and also for Europe. I feel that we have a great deal to contribute in some of the areas I have mentioned, but also in others, such as the stability of the Mediterranean, as Prime Minister Conte mentioned earlier.

We have held some rich and intense debates at the European Council about the role of Turkey and relations with the European Union. On this matter, Italy and Spain can and must contribute a much richer and more diverse perspective regarding how relations should be between the European Union and Turkey, Libya, and also the Sahel and the relations that the Prime Minister clearly mentioned before between the European Union and Africa.

In short, I believe we are at an historic moment and must offer our people responses that rise to the occasion of this exceptional time. In Spain, we have presented out Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

These four pillars I mentioned before are very important and I would like to convey three elements of this Recovery Plan.

The first of these is related to the fact that over these first three years we will free up 72 billion euros of the 140 billion euros that will be transferred to Spain in these six years. To give you an idea, Prime Minister Felipe González, back in the 1990s, received structural funds that amounted to 8 billion euros over six years which changed the face of Spain. Giuseppe is well aware of this because back then many of the debates in our country were raging in politics. And here we are talking about 72 billion euros in three years and 140 billion in six years.

It is clear that we are facing a huge crisis, unprecedented in 100 years, but the opportunity that is opening up to us to modernise and gain in competitiveness in our country is truly remarkable.

We want to generate an additional impact in these first three years in GDP growth of more than 2.5 points per annum. And create more than 800,000 jobs. We have structured the Recovery Plan, I say this because I believe that this is important, we have companies here and it is also important that they are a little more aware of our Recovery Fund based on 10 guiding policies.

The first is the urban and rural agenda, the fight against rural depopulation and the development of agriculture, which will be allocated 16% of the resources, for resilient infrastructures, economies and ecosystems, or to put it better, we will have 12% of the funds available for the just and inclusive energy transition, 9% of the funds to modernise our public authorities, and around 5% of the funds for the modernisation and digitalisation of our productive fabric, particularly for industry and small- and medium-sized enterprises and tourism, and 17% of the funds for science, innovation and to strengthen our National Health System, 17% of the funds for education, knowledge, continuous training and the development of capacities, 18% of these resources for the care economy and active employment policies, 6% of the fund for the development of important industries in our country, like culture, and 1.1% of the funds for culture and sport. And together with that, the last driving policy will be the modernisation of our tax system to enjoy inclusive and sustainable growth.

Of all these figures, I would like to underline two of them which highlight the commitment of the Government of Spain to the digital transition and to the ecological transition: 38% of the funds will be used to finance the green transition and the ecological transition, and 33% for the digitalisation of the Spanish economy.

We will also have something similar to what Prime Minister Conte mentioned earlier. Not long ago we set up this high-level group for public-private collaboration in different areas. And not long ago we set up this high-level group for the digital transition. And we will also do this for other areas tied in to these driving policies. And what we also want to do is something that Prime Minister Conte mentioned, which is removing all the administrative burdens, all the bottlenecks, to facilitate the absorption of this huge volume of resources.

We will approve a Royal Decree-Law on Legal and Administrative Reforms, which will be a genuine structural reform, precisely to facilitate the effective absorption of funds and reduce bureaucracy.

What will we do? Reform the Public Sector Contracts Act, reform the General Subsidies Act, and reform the Legal System of the Public Sector Act. In short, what we will do is absorb these resources which will definitively modernise our economy.

If you will allow me, I believe that the strong commercial and investment ties between Spain and Italy are very propitious for enhancing this relationship and to drive projects in technologically cutting-edge sectors to the benefit of our countries.

Prime Minister Conte and I have spoken about hydrogen. We have also spoken about the development of batteries for the automotive industry. The automotive industry is very important for both Italy and Spain. We have also spoken about artificial intelligence, micro-processors, and the aerospace industry, where we also have synergies and where we can work together.

In short, I believe that we should make a call, which is precisely what we are doing at this summit, to boost this Mediterranean pillar of collaboration between Italy and Spain. I feel this will benefit, as I said at the start of my speech, both Italy and Spain, and above all, our common project in our common home, which is Europe.

Of course, dear Giuseppe, for me it is a pleasure to be here, together with the Vice-President of the Government for Ecological Transition and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the whole team. We also have representatives here of business owners and we have agreed, my dear friend, to see each other soon, and we hope that the pandemic will depart Spain, for us to continue with this fruitful dialogue.

Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation