Speech by the president of the Government of Spain to report on the new geopolitical scenario of the European Union and the conclusions of the European Council held on 20 March in Brussels

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Thank you very much, Mrs President. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

I am speaking to you, as the president has said, to inform you of the measures that the European Union and also the Member States are adopting to confront the geopolitical changes that are taking place in the world.

I do so, ladies and gentlemen, with the prudence of someone who knows that we are facing an unprecedented situation. Another one. But I also do so with the certainty that we have accumulated experience and also with the conviction that we are going to overcome and emerge stronger from this onslaught; and we are going to do it together, united.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin this speech by recalling the words of one of the founding fathers of the European Union, Jean Monnet, who said that Europe would be forged on the basis of crises and that the European Union would end up being the sum of our solutions to each of these crises. And I believe that Jean Monnet was right, ladies and gentlemen, because over the last 80 years Europe has faced formidable challenges: the Second World War; nuclear escalation; geographical fracture as a result of the Cold War; energy cuts; the inflationary spiral caused by the oil crisis; the wars in the Western Balkans; the jihadist threat; the euro crisis and, therefore, the financial crisis; Brexit; climatic emergencies that have occurred over the last few decades - let us not forget the DANA in Valencia - and, of course, the terrible pandemic of COVID-19.

The EU was able to respond to all these crises with greater unity and integration on three levels: firstly, economic, secondly, social and, finally, political. We Europeans overcame the difficulty by opening our borders, by connecting our markets, by harmonising our laws, by creating a single currency, by sending our children on Erasmus trips, by seeing them make friends, by seeing them marry other Europeans, by seeing them become one people and build the new second homeland that is Europe.

Each step, therefore, towards unity, made us better. With each crisis, the European Union became bigger, more prosperous and therefore stronger. Today we are facing a new crisis, yet another one, in this case provoked by the return of those old neo-imperialist impulses, in this case Russian neo-imperialism and a Copernican turn, if we can call it that, in US economic and military policy.

Two changes, ladies and gentlemen, which are tectonic, which oblige us Europeans, once again, to take steps forward, to be courageous; to complete our integration on three levels that have been pending for decades and which I would like to share with all of you. The first is foreign policy. The second is security and defence policy. And finally, that of competitiveness in order to grow further through greater economic integration.

Today I want to talk to you about the three major tasks that will shape this decade for European society. I want to explain the Executive's vision for each of them and the steps we will take to realise them.

I will start with the first issue: European foreign policy. The EU, it has often been said, was born as a peace project. It was born to prevent violence, to ensure peaceful coexistence within and beyond our borders. It was born to combat poverty, environmental degradation and the injustices that fuel armed conflict.

This project of peace and global development is more necessary than ever.

As others relinquish that role and withdraw within their borders, I believe that the EU's leadership becomes even more essential.

To some extent Europe is already taking on that role. It is no coincidence that, for example, the agreement on climate change mitigation and adaptation is named after the French capital - the Paris Agreements. It is no coincidence that the Oceans Summit is being held in Nice this year, just as it is no coincidence that the Financing for Development Summit will be held in the Andalusian capital of Seville in June and July.

The position of the Government of Spain is clear and forceful in this respect, ladies and gentlemen. Now that other powers are retreating or undermining multilateralism as we are seeing, Europe must become even more engaged in addressing major global challenges and debates. We need to do this, for example, by renewing and broadening our commitment to human rights and international law. We must do so by increasing our participation in development policies, now that others are cutting back on development policies. And also in climate emergency, migration, gender equality or the fight against poverty. We must do so by strengthening the United Nations and all the institutions of the multilateral order. We must do so by reclaiming the role of diplomacy and respect for the UN Charter of Human Rights.

Not with double standards depending on the conflict we are dealing with, but with coherence, as Spain is doing in Ukraine and also in Gaza. This is the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that we will preserve peace in the world with solidarity and diplomacy, with coherence and commitment. This and no other should be the EU's foreign policy, the same one that the former Spanish High Representative, Josep Borrell, defended, as did another Spaniard in the same post before him, Javier Solana.

On the second task, that of security and defence, I would like to remind you of something that many Spaniards who are following this speech on social networks or through the traditional media may not be aware of, as is logical. For the founding fathers of the European Union, the military and security integration of Europe was as much, if not more, a priority than economic integration. In the 1950s, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and many others pushed for the creation of a European Defence Community. The six founding countries of the European Union supported this idea and for several years it became or wanted to become a reality. But at the last moment the project suffered an unexpected setback when in 1954 the French right refused to sign its founding treaty.

Since then, the idea of a European Defence Community has been shelved, although it has many supporters. And it was, ladies and gentlemen, due to the concatenation of two decisive historical events. First, Germany's integration into NATO, the intensification of the Cold War, which reduced Western geopolitics to two blocs and pushed many European countries to develop their security systems under the aegis of the United States. Second, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the then Soviet Union, a milestone that most Europeans interpreted as the end of military rivalry with Russia and the beginning of a new era of international relations marked by trade and respect for multilateral rules. A new era, ladies and gentlemen, in which there would be no need for tanks to appease Moscow, only McDonald's.

On these interpretations and expectations, we Europeans built our security and defence architecture, an architecture based on compromise with Russia, interdependence with the United States and the division of Europe. Therefore, apart from a few successive references in the Treaty of Amsterdam, the umbrella for external action, the fact is that Europe today lacks a common security and defence policy.

Europe has first-rate national armies, such as Spain's, and a powerful security and defence industry that is at the forefront in many areas.

But it is also true that, as a consequence of this architecture, we suffer from severe technological and productive dependencies and low levels of interoperability and coordination among our armed forces. Until recently, this reality was not a priority issue. Now it is, because obviously the scenario has changed, not by our fault, not by our will. We Europeans continue to believe that diplomacy and shared prosperity are the best tools to forge global stability and development. That respect for international law, respect for international humanitarian law are the basis for peace and the progress of nations in an increasingly multipolar world and we continue to support a united Atlantic for a NATO that is faithful to the strategic vision approved three years ago in the capital of Spain, at the NATO summit three years ago.

But the reality, ladies and gentlemen, is that neither Russia nor the United States see it that way and we must accept that. We must overcome the blockage of melancholy and adapt to this new situation, however disheartening it may be. We can no longer assume that our skies, our infrastructure or our borders will be protected. We will have to do it ourselves and we must do it in an intelligent, effective and coordinated way.

Therefore, the time is now. The project of our founding fathers back in the 1950s must be revived and we must move towards the integration of a European security and defence policy.

How can this be achieved? This is the question. How can this be achieved? This is exactly what all the governments of the member states are discussing right now together with the European Commission. As you know, last week, and it was discussed at the European Council, President von der Leyen presented the Defence White Paper, which sets out a number of priorities: joint procurement, aggregation of demand, implementation of Community innovation projects, training and industry.

We, ladies and gentlemen, as the Government of Spain, support these measures, although it is clear that important questions remain to be clarified. One is to determine how much more will need to be invested in security and defence and how this investment will be financed. Some Member States, ladies and gentlemen, talk about 2% of gross domestic product. Others speak of 3% of Gross Domestic Product. Others even speak of 5% of Gross Domestic Product, as is the case in countries bordering Ukraine and Russia, such as Poland. For the moment, ladies and gentlemen, what I can tell you is that this is speculation.

But we do have one certainty that I would like to recall here today. The first is that on 5 September 2014, the government of the time, the government of President Mariano Rajoy, pledged that Spain would reach 2% of Gross Domestic Product by 2024. He did so at the NATO Wales Summit in front of 21 EU member states. And, by the way, without prior consultation or explanation in the Lower House of Parliament. Now our allies are asking us to deliver on this commitment, and we will do so.

And we are going to do so, ladies and gentlemen - and I would also like to convey this directly to Spaniards - for two reasons. The first is a Europeanist commitment, because the European Union has been with us when we have needed it. The last issue, the pandemic and NextGenerationEU funds. And now we have to be with her, as one of her great powers that we are. In this world of great powers to which we are heading, Spain obviously cannot be left out of the EU consensus. And secondly, we are going to do it out of responsibility, because security in Ukraine and also in Europe is also our security. And because the threats we are facing - the Spanish, the French, the Germans, the Finns, the Ukrainians - are real and shared. Each with its own nuances depending on its geographical condition, but they are shared and they are real.

In any case, ladies and gentlemen, I would like once again to make it clear to our citizens that as long as this Government stands and I continue to be president of the Government of Spain, this additional security effort will not be made to the detriment of our welfare state. On the contrary, we will complement it.

We were told in 2018 that we had to choose between creating jobs or improving working conditions. That you couldn't do both at the same time and we proved that it wasn't true. We passed a labour reform. 1.5 million new jobs since the passing of this labour reform. We create 30% of new jobs in Europe.

Then we were told that we had to choose between economic growth and ecological transition. And we also proved that it was false. Spain is growing four times faster than the European average and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

International confidence, ladies and gentlemen, in Spain's possibilities is so great that in the year 2024 we saw a record level of foreign direct investment of more than 33 billion euros, a figure that we have not seen in our country since 1993.

Now, the same people who told us that combining all this was not possible are back on the attack and talking about how we have to choose between security and people's wellbeing. Well, I anticipate that we are going to demonstrate once again that this dichotomy is false. That an economy like ours, which is growing four times faster than the European average, has sound accounts and enjoys the confidence of foreign investors, can do both.

We will honour our commitments to the European Union, because there is no one like Europe to look after Europe. We will increase investment in security and in defence. And, of course, as we are doing in other areas of the world such as the Middle East, particularly Gaza, we will continue to stand up for compliance with international law, supporting Ukraine in a war against Putin's imperialism. Because there is no greater guarantee of security for Ukraine and Europe than a well-equipped Ukrainian army. But, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to do so without touching a cent of social or environmental spending. We have been doing so, by the way, for the last seven years. And this is not an opinion. This is data that I would like to share with citizens.

In recent years we have increased the defence budget by 10 billion euros, and in the same years we have increased our investment in public services and social benefits by almost 120 billion euros, and the entire budget for the ecological transition by more than 30 billion euros. That more than 10 billion euros for our state investment in security has meant that we have gone from 0.9% of Gross Domestic Product left by the Mariano Rajoy administration to above 1.2% in 2023 and we will see what the metrics and the results of those metrics are for 2024.

That is what we have done, ladies and gentlemen, and that is what we will continue to do. We will invest in welfare and security. In both, because both are also necessary and complementary, because if done well, increased investment in security does not undermine our social model, but protects it. To this end, in addition to the efforts made by the Member States, we are asking Brussels, the European Commission, to create new EU funding mechanisms.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we are at a time very similar to the time of

Covid and the European Union must react as it did then, with a joint, mutualised, solidarity-based response that brings together the efforts of all member states. Because if security is a European public good, we also need common resources at a European level.

At the last European Council, President von der Leyen presented some mechanisms that could serve this purpose. The Government, of course, welcomes the creation of the so-called Safe Europe Fund, which will allow Member States to obtain loans from the European Union on favourable terms. We also welcome the fact that the Member States will be allowed to activate the escape clause, which will enable us to make our public deficit commitments more flexible for a few years and invest more in security and defence, without taking resources away from other areas. We see the use of the European Investment Bank as good. We see - although we will not use it - the voluntary flexibility by part of the Member States in the use of the Structural Funds as good.

However, what are we missing? We are missing the creation of a transfer system similar to the one we developed with the NextGenerationEU funds. I have made this known to the president of the European Commission, to my colleagues in the European Council. I am well aware that not all countries share this approach, but we will still fight the battle, because it is not a battle for Spain or the southern countries to have more transfers. These transfers are likely to go to eastern countries, which are most in need of increased defence capabilities. But we believe that this is the best way to be able to balance and equilibrate everything related to financial sustainability and to respond to these major security and defence needs.

In any case, ladies and gentlemen, these defence or financing mechanisms will be specified over the coming weeks and only when this happens will we know clearly what European resources we have and we will be able to define precisely what our state investment path will be in order to reach that 2% of Gross Domestic Product.

Naturally, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to inform this Legislative Chamber, the citizens, of this whole process with absolute transparency, as could not be otherwise. And we will bring to Parliament everything that has to go through Parliament. How could it be otherwise?

In any case, ladies and gentlemen, how much to invest and how to finance this investment is only part of the debate needed to create this European Security and Defence Union. Because what is really important is not how much we invest or how we finance that investment. What really matters is whether we invest better and whether we Europeans invest together.

And by that I mean two fundamental things, ladies and gentlemen. The first is that we Europeans must move on from pooling our security and defence policies, which is what we have done during this time, to developing a common security and defence policy, with single financing instruments such as the one we have proposed, for example, with joint purchases, as we did during the Covid period with vaccines. We need to develop pan-European industrial consortia, as we did with Airbus, increasing the interoperability of our equipment, as we are already doing, by the way, in some areas.

And, of course, what we must do is to create the European Army, an EU Armed Forces made up of 27 countries to lead it under the same flag and with the same interests. Only in this way will we become a true Union and ensure lasting peace in our region.

Secondly, ladies and gentlemen, we Europeans must stop looking to the future with the eyes of the past and we must prepare ourselves for the new threats we are already facing as a society. This is a key idea that I would like to convey to the public. Because the nature of conflict, as we all know, has changed. We are seeing it in Ukraine. Now, the enemies of Europe and also of democracy, those who want to unilaterally annex Ukraine, are using other physical and also primarily digital weapons. They use unmanned drones capable of covering the distance between Crimea and Barcelona in a short time and thus circumventing our air defences. They use electromagnetic pulse cannons capable of neutralising tanks, aircraft and satellites located thousands of kilometres away. They use paramilitary forces, as they have done, privately, to sabotage supply chains and instrumentalise migration flows as well. They use social media to misinform our population, to polarise, to generate disaffection towards democratic institutions. They use computer viruses, artificial intelligence, quantum computers capable of blocking infrastructures, collapsing services, sinking companies without a trace. To give you an idea, ladies and gentlemen, in Estonia, Russian hackers managed to take down all the country's ATMs and online banking services, causing huge losses. In Denmark, all trains were blocked for hours. In Ukraine, 230,000 people were left without electricity. In Germany, in Poland, in the Netherlands, dozens of hospitals were shut down.

Last year alone, ladies and gentlemen, Europe suffered around 10,000 critically dangerous cyberattacks, disrupting the lives of millions of citizens and causing an estimated economic damage of 44 billion euros, the equivalent, to give us an idea, of the gross domestic product of the Community of Aragon. Here in Spain we are no strangers to such attacks. We received 177,000 cyberattacks, 1,000 of which targeted critical infrastructure and services.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, this form of hybrid threat, which is what the experts call it, used by Russia and other private actors, is not as visible as the traditional one, it does not appear in the newspapers, nor does it make the news, but it does exist. It is growing and poses a real risk that we cannot look away from. We cannot continue to ignore, we cannot live under the threat that, any day now, an unmanned submarine will interrupt maritime traffic in the Strait of Gibraltar or cut the fibre optic cables that connect us to the rest of the world. Or that a group of foreign hackers might collapse our airports in the middle of the summer campaign, or that they might succeed in bringing a Putin puppet to power, as they have already done in several of our neighbouring countries.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, Europe must expand and modernise our security systems in order to be able to neutralise all these new hybrid threats. I believe that Spain must and will contribute to this work, and we will do so by remaining faithful to our principles, to our values, to our social interests, which we have, and, of course, also to our geostrategic interests. Because our challenges and threats, as a southern country, are somewhat different from those of Eastern Europe. Ours are hybrid threats, ladies and gentlemen, like those outlined above. Ours are threats from the climate emergency and the Civil Protection response, which is being led in an outstanding way by the UME. Ours are the fight against organised crime, against the mafias that traffic in human beings, in collaboration with the source and transit countries, to combat irregular migration and, therefore, border control. And, of course, it is to deal effectively and efficiently with international terrorism, which unfortunately is increasingly present in regions that are geostrategically close to our country, such as the Sahel.

We, ladies and gentlemen, are going to focus on responding to these security challenges. We will also focus on developing what our industry can produce and what our country and Europe need. First of all, we are going to continue, as we have been doing for seven years, to update the equipment of our Armed Forces, so that they can continue to carry out their work more effectively and more safely. We will modernise our systems for protecting our airspace, including our borders. We will develop new capabilities to block the cyberattacks, the disinformation campaigns by foreign agents that we face every week.

At the same time, we will contribute to all the protection and deterrence initiatives that are being promoted at a European level, especially those related to the development of strategic capabilities, in areas such as intelligence, logistics, command and control and air defence.

We Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, and we Spaniards are not a threat to anyone. We are not. We have never represented it, but we don't want to feel threatened either. We will not attack any territory, but we will defend our way of life with the best talent and the best technologies available. And furthermore, we are going to ensure that this industrial effort bears fruit, and that it develops and benefits Spain and Europe. They should also be used to create jobs and businesses to continue the reindustrialisation undertaken seven years ago in all the provinces of our country, as we did during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, using these economic resources to stimulate our economy and modernise it in a green and digital way.

To achieve this, ladies and gentlemen, I anticipate that before the summer the Government will launch a major National Plan for the Development and Promotion of Spanish Security and Defence Technology and Industry. This plan will draw on the experience gained over the last few years through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. It will concentrate the bulk of the additional investment required to comply with our European partners, and will channel public-private partnership programmes to create a new technological and industrial leap forward in Spain.

We are going to do it facing east, of course, because their security is also our security. But we are also going to do so by looking south, by investing in innovation, in the development of dual-use technologies for the creation of new companies and the scaling up of SMEs and local start-ups. And, of course, also for training and improving our human capital, protecting our borders and building resilient infrastructures.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, the aim of this plan is for Spain to contribute to and, at the same time, benefit from this technological and industrial stimulus to strengthen European Security and Defence. But I insist, remaining true to our priorities and our principles.

Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday the Eurobarometer came out with some figures that I think are quite eloquent of what I am going to say next. I know that the Spanish want to help Ukraine, I know; that they want to stop Putin, I know; that they want to protect Europe. We are fully aware of this. But I also know that they do not want to contribute to fuelling an arms race leading to new conflicts. I am fully aware of this. And of course, they do not want this effort to be made at the expense of other needs, such as a decent wage, quality public services, decent housing or clean air.

We will not make them choose because there is no reason to choose, because we are going to guarantee their security, their position in Europe, their commitment to peace, to the welfare state and to the ecological transition, which is making us more competitive and therefore, in a much more relative way, gaining economic growth compared to other European countries. We have achieved it over the last seven years and we will achieve it again. That is our plan and that is our commitment.

It is the same coherence that we are going to apply to tackle the third great task that we Europeans must tackle in this context, which is to gain competitiveness by completing our economic integration. This is the line set out in the Draghi reports, in the reports of the two Italian prime ministers, and also in the conclusions of the Granada Summit, when we talk about strategic autonomy during the Spanish presidency of the European Union.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, ladies and gentlemen, Europeans and Americans together created a new economic system, based on cooperation between countries and the free exchange of goods and services. This system was never perfect. There has been a response, above all, with regard to social clauses and environmental clauses. In fact, it is clear and widely shared by all of us, it has been a system with enormous shortcomings, but it is undeniable that it has given the world the greatest period of peace and prosperity known to mankind.

Today some say that this system has not benefited either Europe or the United States, but this is not true. It is, in fact, flatly untrue. Look, over the last 60 years, per capita income in both regions, the United States and Europe, has not only grown above the global average, it has grown three to four times faster than in the rest of the world. Moreover, the trade relationship between Europe and the United States remains the strongest in the world. If we also include Canada, North America, it is even stronger. It generates more than 4.4 billion euros every trading day.

Our country has obviously also benefited from this globalised economy. So much so that one in four jobs in Spain and 30% of our economic growth in the last three years derive precisely from our economic openness. And yet, despite the fact the advantages of this system far outweighing its disadvantages, the new US administration has decided to dismantle it in haste and without negotiating with anyone.

Last month, ladies and gentlemen, the US Administration imposed tariffs of 25% on a multitude of products from Mexico and Canada, thus breaking a trade agreement, which paradoxically had been promoted by President Donald Trump himself in 2018. In addition, it raised tariffs on Chinese imports by 20% and announced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from all countries in the world, including Europe, which came into force a few weeks later. These measures, ladies and gentlemen, are causing, and there is the data, multi-million dollar damage to the US economy, starting, incidentally, with the collapse of the stock market of most of its companies.

But that does not seem to have changed the US administration's mind. On the contrary, his government has announced that it will impose a general tariff of 25% on all products from the EU and further tariffs on a larger number of products in the coming weeks. A move that is clearly going to materialise soon, forcing us to react and inflicting on both economies, Europe and the United States, a rise in inflation and a loss of potential growth.

I want to make it clear, ladies and gentlemen, that these measures are absolutely unjust and unjustified, that Spain and Europe have done nothing to provoke or deserve these attacks. On the contrary, in the case of Spain, ladies and gentlemen, we have a trade deficit with the United States. It has a surplus in terms of services, but a deficit in terms of trade.

US companies sell more in Spain than we sell there. Even so, the government of Spain has been, among European governments, one of those that has most defended the presence of US companies in Europe, advocating greater integration of the two economies on both sides of the Atlantic.

This was confirmed, for example, by the Granada Declaration, during the Spanish presidency of the European Union, where a year and a half ago we spoke precisely of strengthening these trade and economic ties, because we were moved by a solid conviction, ladies and gentlemen, and that is that economic ties between countries are always positive and that their effects are so extensive that they can hardly be captured in an Excel spreadsheet of imports and exports.

So what are we asking for? We once again ask the US administration to think again, to enter into dialogue with the European Commission, which centralises all trade competences on behalf of the Member States, to build bridges instead of erecting barriers, to stop this nonsense, because if it does not do so, we Europeans will obviously have to defend ourselves. And we will have to do so on the basis of three criteria: one, proportionality; two, speed; and three, unity. So speed, proportionality and unity with the strength, by the way, that comes from being the world's largest trading bloc in the European Union and the most connected and resilient economy on the planet. Europe, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, is a power and will respond as a power. It is clear that we do not want a trade war, but if we have to wage such a trade war, we are prepared to do so. The Government of Spain, ladies and gentlemen, is negotiating a proportional, intelligent, unitary response with the EU institutions and with the other Member States and, furthermore, we are designing a national contingency plan to help the sectors of our economy that may be affected by this trade war. And, in parallel, we are promoting new measures to advance these two solutions that we have already outlined in our ResilientEU 2030 Strategy. On one hand, we need to diversify the EU's external trade links. In two weeks' time, ladies and gentlemen, I will be travelling again to China to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our strategic partnership. I will also be the first Spanish president of the Government of Spain to officially visit Vietnam - two strategic partners in Asia - to address new economic and trade links, and we will hold a new round of contacts with our partners in Latin America to underpin this important agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. An agreement that has always been beneficial for Europe and is now, by the way, essential.

On the other hand, what are we proposing, ladies and gentlemen? Working in Brussels to make progress in consolidating our single market. We Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, form the largest market on the planet. To give you an idea of the strength of Europe, we have 32 million companies, 450 million consumers. In recent decades we have made very important progress in our integration, but it is clear that there are still challenges ahead that limit our growth potential, our competitiveness, as former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and also former Prime Minister Enrico Letta, reminded us once again. These are barriers that limit our potential growth, our competitiveness and that prevent a Spaniard with an SME in Cuenca from expanding to other European countries and growing.

Challenges, therefore, such as tax asymmetries, regulatory divergences, difficulties in exporting services, the lack of electricity interconnections, market fragmentation or even the digital interconnection of financial flows. These are all challenges that hinder our competitiveness and, therefore, our capacity to grow and, subsequently, to redistribute the fruits of this growth through the social pillar, which is also important for this government.

At the last European Council, ladies and gentlemen, we approved a package of measures aimed at tackling some of these pending tasks, such as the creation of savings products, also EU investments, the development of a horizontal strategy in the internal market that will be presented in June and, in parallel, our Government is negotiating with the other Member States to ensure that the savings and investment union, the Banking Union, energy integration and, why not, the digital euro become a reality in the current legislative cycle of the European Parliament and also of the European Commission. Four measures, the Savings and Investment Union, the Banking Union, energy integration and the digital euro, which I believe, if we implement well, could help us to put an end once and for all to Putin's energy war and, ladies and gentlemen, reduce by the negative impact of the tariffs imposed on us by Donald Trump's US administration between 50% and 100%.

In addition, Spain has proposed the creation of a European competitiveness laboratory to accelerate the implementation of innovative and tangible solutions. This initiative has been warmly welcomed by the Member States and also by the European Commission. If there are countries or a large majority of countries that are willing to move forwards with this integration, let there be other countries that do not want to integrate, let them not be the obstacle to further integration.

And thanks also to Spain, ladies and gentlemen, and this is also a very important point that I would like to highlight and share with the citizens who are following this debate, thanks to Spain there were also mentions in the conclusions of the social pillar, which is undoubtedly fundamental when it comes to explaining competitiveness in Europe. We believe that the single market is not the only tool the European Union has to overcome this crisis, but it is clearly the main one and that is why we must do whatever is necessary to make it a reality.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will conclude with the words of another of the great fathers of the European Union, Paul Spaak, a great advocate of multilateralism, the architect of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations, who, in Europe, said the following; he said that in Europe there are only two types of countries, small countries and countries that do not yet know that they are small. This statement, which was quite correct in the middle of the 20th century, should be a dogma of reality today because we are living in a time of great international uncertainty. It is clear that the international order is changing from the one our fathers and mothers knew; it is not dying. Nor do we know exactly what this new international order will be. No one really knows what is going to happen. What we do know for sure is that we can no longer rely on the goodwill of others. We cannot live at the mercy of changes of opinion and leadership in Moscow or Washington.

We Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, must even more be masters of our own destiny and we must be able to influence the destiny of the world, because many of the challenges we face can only be tackled on a global scale. Of course, the climate emergency, the migration challenge, the fight against poverty, gender equality, are issues that affect all of humanity.

That is why, ladies and gentlemen, we Europeans must be stronger. And there is only one way to do that in this world of giants: with more unity, with more Europe.

And therefore, the time has come to take a decisive step, to open up, I believe, and I say this without any kind of aim, to underline the obvious, to open up a new founding moment for the European Union. Because it is time to share even more sovereignty, to strengthen the EU institutions, to reform them in the light of the enlargement that we are going to witness in the coming years, so that they can function with more agility, more transparency and more ambition.

Only in this way, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the European Union will be able to act as a true bloc with one voice and with all its strength.

In foreign policy terms, that first task, which I alluded to at the beginning of my speech, involves leading the response to global challenges. Not to stand aside, not to let other countries define for us what should become of the climate emergency, of the fight against poverty, of how to finance development in our country or in the world, for that matter.

It means, therefore, not cutting back, but increasing our multilateral engagement. It means not cutting but increasing development aid. It means strengthening the United Nations as the UN Secretary-General asked us to do at the last European Council.

Together with the common foreign policy, in terms of security, this means laying the foundations for a real European army at last. To achieve the interoperability of our armed forces. To develop an integrated, leading-edge and autonomous security and defence industry.

And, in terms of competitiveness, to have an internal market that functions as that of a single country. With European companies able to innovate, to grow, to invest on a continental scale, supported by our SMEs, our social economy, the self-employed, start-ups, competing on an equal footing in global markets.

All this by strengthening the European social pillar. All this without going back on the Green Deal.

Making this leap towards the creation of this federal Europe, ladies and gentlemen, is not going to be easy, in a geopolitical context marked by the rise of the far right that seeks precisely the opposite, seeks to weaken Europe, seeks to do away with the Schengen area, seeks to wipe out climate commitments, which are very important for Europe, but also for humanity. It seeks to re-edit divisions of the past.

But I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that it is even less realistic to try to compete with great powers such as the United States, China and India without deepening our European integration.

Europe will only influence the world in an increasingly multipolar world if it can behave as a cohesive bloc in foreign policy, security and defence, deepen our single market to gain competitiveness and diversify our trade and investment alliances.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that Spain is in a position, unlike what has happened at other times in our history, to play a leading role, together with other Member States, in this new pro-European impulse.

Because today, ladies and gentlemen, Spain represents 50% of European economic growth. Some 30% of the new jobs created in Europe. All the proposals we have made to Europe have been good for Europe and also for Spain: the Southern Fund to finance the ERTEs during the pandemic; the European funds for the recovery and reindustrialisation of Europe and Spain after the pandemic; the Iberian solution; the Immigration and Asylum Pact; the Artificial Intelligence Law; the reform of the electricity market to protect European and Spanish companies and consumers.

And on this occasion, ladies and gentlemen, Spain is also prepared to lend a hand for the good of Spain and for the good of Europe.

That is why we are going to engage even more than ever in multilateralism. That is why we are going to comply with the 2% of GDP investment in security and defence demanded by our European partners. That is why we are going to undertake the necessary reforms to have a single, stronger and more integrated market. And that is why we will continue to promote agreements with other regional blocs.

I believe that President von der Leyen's latest trip to India is also very encouraging, precisely in order to achieve this free trade agreement at the end of the year between the European Union bloc and India.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, the road to integration is not going to be easy, it never has been, because sovereignty has to be ceded and shared. There will be decisions we are not enthusiastic about, others we do not agree with, but this is how the European Union was forged: by giving in, by compromising, by agreeing, on the premise that there is strength in unity. And so it has been.

It is now time for us to take a new step in that direction. It is time to strengthen our economy, to diversify our trade ties. We need to strengthen our foreign policy. It is time to improve our security and defence capabilities. And all this in order to make peace a reality.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, to ensure that Ukrainians can live in peace. In a country where its sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected. To ultimately achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, to ensure the physical and digital security of the whole of Europe. So that this peace project, which is the European Union, can be consolidated, strengthened and become a beacon of hope and an example for the rest of the world.

That is all, thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Original speech in Spanish