Statement by President of the Government upon arrival in Brussels

Brussels

President of the Government.- Good afternoon. I am going to take part in a European Council at which various important issues will be discussed. In parallel, successive meetings of the Eurogroup and of the institutions of the Greek Government are taking place to try to resolve a problem that affects and concerns us all.

From this European Council, I principally wish to highlight three issues. First of all, we are going to hold a debate on the future of Europe, but that does not mean, in any way, that decisions will be taken to be applied immediately; but at least it is good to see in which direction Europe is heading.

After presenting a document that was well received by many people, we are going to place certain emphasis on some future targets. Firstly, we will continue to progress with the Economic Union, the energy issues are of particular importance to us, as well as the Single European Digital Market, on which a debate will be held tomorrow, and also the Financial Services Market.

There is a second issue, which entails removing the obstacles that exist to labour mobility in Europe. At this time, a person who moves from one country to another for work reasons may encounter problems with unemployment, or with his or her own National Insurance contributions, or may have a problem in that his or her qualifications are not recognised in another country. Hence, if we truly want to implement labour mobility in Europe and ensure people can move from one place to another, it is very important to remove all of these obstacles.

We have also raised the issue of Fiscal Union. This is obviously more of a long-term issue, as is Political Union. But, as part of the Fiscal Union, we believe that Europe must have an agenda on common debt and Europe must have a single budget.

Finally, we want to talk about Political Union and about the need to increase European controls on institutions to make them more democratic.

I repeat, there will be a debate on this and that is what we are working towards. The latest progress has been on Banking Union, and before that, on Tax Treatment, but I believe that it would also be very positive for the European Union to tackle medium- and long-term issues.

Secondly, there is an issue that has been included on the agenda which pleases me greatly and I mentioned this yesterday in the speech I gave in the Royal Palace. Jacques Delors will be made an Honorary European Citizen. Only two people currently hold this title: Jean Monnet and Helmut Kohl. I believe that Jacques Delors… Yesterday was the celebration of Spain's 30-year membership of the European Union, together with Portugal. Jacques Delors was then the President of the European Commission. His contributions do not only relate to Spain, but also to other very important issues, such as the internal market, and even to the birth of the single currency, which is the Euro. Hence, we are pleased that this has been well viewed by the European Council and will be raised at tomorrow's meeting.

Finally, we will tackle immigration issues. We have stated our position, which is well-known, we have also raised this issue at a national level and we are now implementing this, but we believe that this should be incorporated as a European immigration policy. We need to increase cooperation with African countries. It is clear that while people cannot live in their own country under certain minimum standards of living they are obviously wanting to go to other countries. Hence, we need to increase cooperation; we need to sign readmission treaties so that the mafias have it clear that those people who illegally move from one country to another return to their own country, and we need to help those countries to strengthen their institutions and ensure they have good law enforcement agencies to help fight these mafias engaged in people trafficking, these mafias that endanger - and unfortunately we are seeing this every day - the lives of so many decent people who are tricked into this.

Q.- President of the Government, as regards Greece, we are all seeing a series of Eurogroup meetings, one after another, and the Euro Summit via the Eurogroup. Can you explain to us exactly where we are, because it seems that we are taking one step forwards and then one step backwards? What can we expect from this European Council?

Then, I also wanted to ask you about the situation of Minister De Guindos and whether he will manage to become President of the Eurogroup.

President of the Government.- As regards the second question, of course Spain has presented his candidature. He is one of the most prestigious individuals in the Eurogroup; he is a well-renowned Minister for Economic Affairs here and we believe that it would be good to see a change in the presidency of the Eurogroup. Wars are waged. The only wars that are doomed to defeat are those that are not waged.

Luis de Guindos has been a great minister. The Spanish Government can say here and now that, after reaching here back in 2012, in the situation in which we found ourselves, on the verge of Spain being bailed out, of bankruptcy, Spanish society has made a great effort. We are now the country that is growing the most in the European Union, and creating the most jobs, so we believe that we have sound arguments. But we will all see what happens in a short while.

The issue of Greece however is an issue for today. I can say to you what I know at this time; but the issue is that since we have been informed about this, five minutes have gone by and I just hope that things haven't changed too much since then regarding what I can tell you.

At the Eurogroup meeting, according to what the Minister for Economic Affairs told me - it still hadn't started, although it was just about to- what we do know is that at that time no agreement had been reached between the Greek Government and the group consisting the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and hence, we should not discount the need to continue negotiations. That is the most likely thing at this time.

We want to continue negotiating and we want an agreement to be reached. I believe that a lack of agreement would fundamentally prejudice the people of Greece, those citizens that live in Greece, who have gone through a particularly tough time. The institutions, the Eurogroup and, of course, Spain, will be flexible, but Greece and the Greek Government also need to meet their commitments. In other words, when you are a member of an association, if everyone does what they want then things don't work.

I hope that an understanding is reached. The Greek Government has taken steps in the right direction; it has renounced some of those things that it said it was never going to renounce, but, between us all we still need to make an effort to reach an agreement. I repeat, it is essential and the best thing for the people of Greece, for Greece and also for the rest of the European Union.

But that is where we are now; there is no agreement for the time being.

Q.- There are a lot of media and political rumblings, Mr President of the Government, in Spain as regards public servants and their pensions. The Governor of the Bank of Spain has said that we need to lower these pensions. I would like you to clarify the government's roadmap regarding public servants and their pensions.

President of the Government.- Over the course of these years, as you are aware, the government has had to take important decisions, because it was the only way to avoid us going bankrupt following the monumental loss of revenue; this fell in two years by some 90 billion euros. It is clear that this forced us to take some tough decisions. We tried, above all, to maintain two budgetary items: pensions, which we have raised over the last few years, and unemployment benefits. And the rest of the items on the budget had to be either dropped or frozen.

Now, among other things, as a result of these measures, things are getting a bit better. Revenues are on the rise, which is why we have been able to drop taxes. This year we have lowered Personal Income Tax, which can be seen in withholdings, and Corporate Income Tax. Next year they will be lowered again and certain decisions can be taken in this regard.

As regards the Christmas bonus that we had to take away in 2012, which was the worst year, 25% of this has now been repaid and soon, to the extent that revenues and the budget so allows, we will continue to repay this. So, this is an issue that is being reviewed at this time.

As far as pensions are concerned, I was asked about this in the Lower House yesterday. What I have to say is… The question I was asked yesterday, and which the Governor also referred to, was regarding the need for favourable treatment for those pension funds that many Spaniards have. This is already positive and may be improved on in the future.

But, as regards public pensions, I must say that the government I head up has never frozen them, it is not its intention to freeze them and our pensions are guaranteed in the future; but, what is important at this time is for people to have jobs. The more people in work, the better pensions will be and, for that reason, we have established job creation as our number one priority. Everything revolves around employment because, in the first place, people work when they have a job, but they also pay their taxes, services can be improved and, above all, National Insurance contributions are made, which leads to our pensioners receiving better pensions.

That is why I have said that in the coming years we must continue working and maintain the rate of job growth of this year, 2015, to reach the figure of 20 million people in work by the end of the next term of office. This can be achieved if we do not change the economic policies that are turning out to be so positive.

Q.- Can you confirm that there will not be early elections? Can you confirm this once more?

President of the Government.- I have said this so many times that, quite frankly, I don't think it is worth repeating again.

Thank you.