Pedro Sánchez advocates mobility certificate as useful tool to kick-start European economy

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pedro Sánchez welcomed the unity of the EU-27 regarding the need to step up the productive capacity of vaccines in Europe, a position that Spain advocated together with Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and Belgium. The President of the Government also said that the European Commission has Spain's support in its proposal to increase European sequencing capacity to fight other variants of COVID-19.

As regards mobility certificates, Pedro Sánchez stressed that they are a valid and useful tool to recover normality as quickly as possible without increasing the health risk. The President of the Government welcomed the agreement reached on the minimum common information that this certificate should contain for its medical use and stressed the need to discuss and reach a European and multilateral agreement on its potential future use aside from its health aspect.

As regards the fight against the pandemic, Pedro Sánchez underlined the importance of universal vaccination based on solidarity, together with the idea of creating a European mechanism to share surpluses with Africa and Latin America.

Security and defence

The Heads of State and Government also addressed, for the first time since 2018, the European Security and Defence Policy, a debate that included the participation of the Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, upon an invitation from the EU-27.

In his speech, the President of the Government stressed the need for strong European defence, in coordination with NATO, to tackle global crises. He underlined the importance of all the instruments that have been introduced in this field in recent years, while stressing the need for coherence between them. He also highlighted the importance of strengthening the "strategic autonomy" of the European Union to make Europe a global player, a provider of security and responsible for its own future.

Southern Neighbourhood

The EU-27 also discussed the issue of the Southern Neighbourhood, a priority issue promoted by Spain with the aim of achieving a positive agenda, said the President of the Government, so that the EU-27 again sets its sights set on the Mediterranean.

Non official translation