Press conference by Prime Minister of Poland and President of the Government following Poland-Spain Summit

Warsaw

Ms. Szydlo.- A very good day to everyone. I wanted to thank the Spanish delegation for today's talks, and particularly to the President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, for all the results achieved through these talks. We spoke yesterday at Lazienki Park and continued talking today during the round of governmental consultations. We had our own meeting and, at the same time, our ministers spoke about sector matters. And we will now meet up to review all the issues addressed.

These consultations are being held this year on the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Spain and Poland. The participation of Polish and Spanish ministers, and also the issues that have been addressed, show the great importance that both governments give to the aspects of these talks, in relation to both the European Union and NATO.

Poland and Spain share the same point of view focused on the construction of a consolidated and strong European Union when dealing with Brexit, cohesion policies, security policy and the Single Market.

We have observed with satisfaction the increase in trade exchanges between our two countries; we are also united by investments amounting to several billion euros and we are interested in developing and extending this cooperation in the future.

We are also going to expand our cooperation on the issues of defence policy, education, sport, the environment and agriculture. We agree with President of the Government Rajoy that the priority is to guarantee security in response to these global threats.

The stabilisation of the situations in the southern and eastern neighbourhoods of the European Union is another of our priorities. Our most important role lies in implementing the results of the latest NATO Summits and both our countries opt for NATO as the best guarantee of our security and that of the whole alliance of NATO countries.

We have also greatly valued Spain's participation in all the missions and other actions focused on security in Eastern Europe, particularly underlying the participation of Spanish troops in the Anaconda 2016 military manoeuvres in Poland, and we are counting on Spain's collaboration in the future in this regard.

The Defence Ministers of both our countries, of Poland and of Spain, have now started to draw up a new agreement on defence matters that will be signed at a later date, the goals of which are cooperation and defence on NATO's eastern flank, the fight against terrorism and the development of the arms industries of both our countries.

We have expressed our concern at the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and have underlined the need to resolve this problem as soon as possible, based on the Minsk Accords.

Both our countries will also collaborate on the reform of the European Union. Unity and cohesion are the overarching values of the European Union.

I also underscored that Poland would have liked the opinions of national parliaments to have been taken into account more than in the past in decision-making by the European Union. The key aspects are extending the European Single Market and consolidating competitiveness within the European Union. Both our countries are opposed to any type of barrier that could prejudice the free movement of people, goods, products and services, and we are also opposed to the proposal on the new Posting of Workers Directive. And both Poland and Spain wish to collaborate on cooperation in the future multiannual financial framework.

Furthermore, on the issue of Brexit, we both advocate the position of defending the legitimate rights of European Union citizens that are resident in the United Kingdom.

Our two countries will join forces in the fight against terrorism. I informed President of the Government Rajoy of Poland's participation in several activities, both on the outermost borders as well as closer borders of the EU, such as, for example, in Eastern Europe. This bilateral summit has underlined the need for cooperation in the future between our two countries, taking into account the security and well-being of Europe.

President of the Government.- Good afternoon to you all. I wish to begin this speech by thanking the Prime Minister, and also her collaborators and members of her government with whom we have met during the course of today. Thank you very much for your welcome.

These bilateral meetings are very useful, because they allow us to work together to defend our interests at many of the forums at which we regularly see each other, such as the European Union and NATO, but there are undoubtedly many others; and, furthermore, they allow us to harness the experiences acquired by others.

I must state that relations between Poland and Spain, 40 years on from the resumption of diplomatic relations, are very good, they have been for many years, they remain so, and I am absolutely convinced that this will also be the case in the future.

There are more than 100,000 Poles living in Spain and some 800,000 Poles visit us each year. Trade relations are on the rise and now exceed 10 billion euros.

I would describe the meetings we have held yesterday and today as very intense, because they certainly were, and beneficial. I am not going to repeat here everything that the Prime Minister has said in her speech, but I would like to comment on some of the issues she has brought up.

At yesterday's meeting, held in the evening, we principally spoke about four issues, which are important in themselves, but they are issues on which we must also take decisions which, I would stress, will be of great importance over the coming months. Yesterday we spoke about terrorism, about Brexit, about the as yet unapproved Posting of Workers Directive and about the new multiannual financial framework. I want to briefly comment on each of these four issues which, I repeat, we addressed at dinner yesterday evening.

On the matter of terrorism, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest concerns, and rightly so, of European citizens… I would remind you that not long before the Bratislava Summit, which took place last year, we were presented with a survey carried out among European citizens in all the Member States and this established that the main concern was security, and particularly, the fight against terrorism. So, on the matter of terrorism which, as you know as well as I do, has hit many of our peer countries hard, we believe that there are three strands that we must work on in the future: first, increased cooperation between the intelligence services and police forces of EU countries; second, the fight against financing and money laundering; and third, the fight against terrorism on the Internet. These are definitely priorities of the whole European Union, and they are also priorities of the Governments of Poland and Spain.

Secondly, we spoke about Brexit; as you are aware, this is one of the most important political events to have taken place recently. Negotiations have now started following the elections in the United Kingdom and the European Union has set three priorities: first and foremost, to maintain the rights of European citizens, and also of those British citizens when they cease to be Europeans; second, an economic negotiation must be undertaken, since the United Kingdom must make certain contributions, as everyone is aware; and third, there is an issue that affects the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

At the latest European Council, the British Prime Minister outlined to all the Heads of State and Government of the different countries that make up the European Union part of her proposal on the matter of the rights of individuals, distinguishing between those that have been living in the United Kingdom for five years and those that haven't. Based on that initial proposal, we must talk, discuss and negotiate, but the position of the European Union remains the same, and Mr Barnier has made this clear on numerous occasions: progress must first be made on these three issues I have mentioned in order to then begin to talk about what our future relations will comprise, on the basis that we are all very interested in having the best possible future relations between the United Kingdom and our countries and with the European Union as a whole.

Thirdly, we spoke about an issue that is closely related with Brexit, which is the multiannual financial framework. Next year we will see the Commission announce its proposal and I say that this is closely related with Brexit because a net contributor is going to leave the European Union and this logically affects Budget revenue and the multiannual financial framework of the European Union. Expenditure will also be affected, because there are some policies that we allocated very few resources to until now but which demand our attention in the future; I am referring to defence policies, border control, migration, etc.

We believe, and this is a shared position, that it is fundamental to maintain the Common Agricultural Policy and cohesion policies, and that we must then also attend to the new needs raised by the citizens of the European Union. But, I repeat, we are not in favour of undoing everything that has been done in recent years, but we are in favour of change, and these changes must be made on the path to progress, and not under any circumstance by taking the path of revolution or of undoing everything achieved.

This is the third issue we tackled at yesterday's meeting and the fourth issue was the Directive that is still pending the Commission's approval at this time; an issue that we all undoubtedly have difficulties with. We declared some time back that we want to see the free movement of people, goods, capital and services. We appreciate that some people may talk about abuse and fraud, but what is clear is that we all need to reach an understanding. Hence, we are going to work together to defend those things on which we maintain a similar position. Above all, Spain is very concerned about the road haulage issues, but we are going to try and reach an understanding with others that see things from a different standpoint.

I repeat, this is an important issue. I addressed this in the meeting I held not long ago in the Élysée Palace with the French President and we have agreed to talk further about this matter, but what Spain is going to look for is a position which, in the end, satisfies the different countries of the EU.

These four issues which, I repeat, are important, were the subject of our attention yesterday and this morning we spoke about… I will only mention what seems most important to me: first, defence policy, which the Prime Minister mentioned in her speech. Both our countries are pleased to be members of NATO. We believe that NATO is fundamental for our defence and to guarantee the rights, freedoms and democracies in our countries, and we also want to see progress made in stepping up cooperation on defence matters in Europe, in line with the latest decisions we have adopted at the European Council. And NATO and European defence are absolutely compatible, and one enriches the other, and vice versa.

Secondly, we spoke about something that is key: Poland is now a member of the United Nations Security Council and explained its priorities to us, and one of them, which we fully agree with, is the fight against terrorism.

We have also spoken, thirdly, about relations with Russia. Our position is as follows: as we agreed at the latest European Council on Friday, sanctions will remain in place until such time as steps are taken in the right direction. The Minsk Accords must be complied with and we believe that the Normandy Format represents the best interests of all parties, and hence we advocate maintaining it.

Lastly, we also had a long talk about the situation on the border of the European Union, the eastern front - clearly the Government of Poland has greater knowledge and experience on this matter - and then on the southern border where at this time, as you know, the situation is dramatic, which is both very significant and also very concerning as a result of the situation in Libya, among other things. Yesterday, at the meeting we held in Berlin, we all expressed our solidarity with our colleague the Italian Prime Minister, because we are aware of the difficulties at this time in his country.

Aside from that, there were also meetings, as you know, between the different ministerial representatives and, as the Prime Minister said in her speech, we agreed that we must continue to step up collaboration between our two countries on economic, cultural and scientific issues, as well as on education and sport.

Thank you very much.

Q.- I wanted to ask you both if you could give us a little more clarity, although you have already mentioned this, on whether the two countries are in agreement on the issue of the Posting of Workers Directive and whether the Spanish position, like the Polish position, is against this reform initiative being promoted by President Macron. Spain has not signed the pact against social "dumping" on road haulage and I was wondering whether this means your positions are aligned. Are you in agreement on the issue of immigration, because Poland has refused to take in refugees, in contrast to the policy Spain maintains?

President of the Government.- Indeed, we are principally concerned about two things on the matter of the Directive: first, we are concerned about the three-day deadline, which some parties want to invoke and, furthermore, salaries would be introduced that are set by other countries, and this is something that we do not believe makes sense. This clearly goes against the free movement of people. Hence, we don't want this, the road haulage issues, to form part of the Directive; at any event, if this were to form part of the Directive, we believe that the period of three days being proposed at this time is unacceptable.

Then, there are other issues that we are not convinced by, such as one country setting the allowances or compensation that people must receive who live in another country and that will work in the former country that seeks to set the allowances and compensation, or the conditions under which, as a group, these people spend their rest time. We believe that these are issues that must be negotiated and discussed first, but, I repeat, Spain's main problem is with road haulage.

On the issue of refugees, Spain's policy is very well-known, and I even believe that yesterday we re-settled almost 200 people. At this time, Poland, in the same way as other countries in the European Union, has a procedure that has been brought before the High Court of Justice and the European Commission has brought an action for a breach of procedure, and I hope that these channels will serve to provide a solution to the problem once and for all. And I have to respect the decisions taken by others.

Q.- Madam Prime Minister, I want to ask you about all the cooperation tied in to the migratory crisis and the terrorist threat in Europe that Spain and Poland are launching.

Ms. Szydlo.- There are many areas of cooperation between Spain and Poland that we could list. Our ministers, who in the end met with us, have reviewed what they have negotiated and have identified these areas of cooperation.

I would like to draw your attention to three important areas for the future of the European Union and our functioning as members of the EU. The first issue is internal and external defence. We have concluded that this is a priority in relation to our functioning within NATO, the consolidation of defense policy within the European Union and the development of the arms industries of both our countries. This agreement, on which the initial steps have today been taken by the respective Ministers for Defence of both Spain and Poland, the content of which will be drafted in the future, is the first stage in this path of consolidation of our bilateral relations on this matter. The agreement will be focused on the eastern border of Europe and on cooperation between the arms industries.

We spoke about internal and external security, and we also spoke about issues concerning migration. A Spanish journalist also enquired after this matter earlier. We must do everything to alleviate this crisis efficiently and effectively. We spoke at great length about immigration policy, but we also spoke about those questions, those threats that have arisen as a result of this crisis.

Our position is clear; our two countries must cooperate very closely. We must help out there, at source, in resolving these conflicts and we must also better manage and consolidate the defence of the external borders of the European Union. All those aspects of our cooperation in this area will be the subject of negotiations in the future between our ministers.

Another question is the future of the Single Market. The President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, spoke about the Posting of Workers Directive and also about the future of the road haulage sector. Our approach is fairly similar. Poland and Spain have agreed to cooperate in the future on this matter and we are going to exchange information and draw up a common position.

As regards the negotiations with President Emmanuel Macron, these talks between the Visegrad Group and President Macron were held in Brussels on the occasion of the latest European Council. We have decided that we are going to continue meeting up to search for a compromise. We realise that this is a difficult subject, that it is a conflictive issue, and it is not an easy task to look for a compromise here either, but I believe that by using the channel of talks, negotiations and consensus in this cooperation between Poland and Spain - I repeat, our approaches here are very similar - and also in cooperation with other countries, we will be able to find a solution.

The third area of cooperation is the EU multiannual financial framework. We have already said that Poland, like Spain, place great emphasis on the Common Agricultural Policy and on the cohesion policy. These are both issues on which we are going to cooperate.

Q.- For the President of the Government of Spain. Can you say to what point you will give way on the tax reduction demanded by Ciudadanos? Minister Montoro is heading up these negotiations; are you concerned that he may be vetoed as negotiator?

As regards Catalonia, a majority of local councils are in favour of holding a referendum. Will the government do anything in this regard?

And this is not a question, but rather I would ask for your predicted outcome for this afternoon; it's not a question of what will happen in the match between Spain and Germany? Your prediction, President of the Government.

President of the Government.- What you are thinking will be the final outcome in the game between Spain and Germany: Spain will win and thus become the Under-21 European Champions. And, since I am in Warsaw, I will take this opportunity to go to Krakow and cheer on the Spanish national team. They have a great team and I am convinced they are going to win.

As regards the tax reduction, let me spell this out for you clearly. We have implemented a tax reduction that came into force in 2015 and in 2016; in other words, this began two years ago and was completed last year. This tax reduction meant that 9 billion euros moved from the State coffers to taxpayers' pockets. There was a major reduction in Personal Income Tax and a reduction was also implemented in Corporate Income Tax.

It is clear, and everyone appreciates this, that you cannot undertake a tax reduction of this nature every year or every other year, because they wouldn't end up going anywhere. Above all, we have made a commitment to reduce the public deficit this year from 4.5% to 3.1% which, as you know, is no easy matter. This is a commitment with Europe, but moreover, it is fundamental in order to continue doing what we have been doing, which is to grow and create jobs.

According to the latest figures published by the Bank of Spain, we are now enjoying major growth. Next Monday, we are going to raise our forecast and state that we will grow this year by 3%; our forecast started at 2.5%, we then raised it to 2.7% and on Monday we will say that we may grow by 3%. More than half a million jobs are going to be created this year, as happened last year and the year before. Hence, we must be very careful when making major changes to our economic policies.

At any event, I am under an obligation to try and push through the Budget and I am obliged to listen to everyone. If we all act responsibly - I obviously have the greatest obligation as President of the Government, but everyone else has their own responsibilities as well - I believe that, if we all act responsibly and, above all, if we all have the political will to push through the Budget, this will oblige us all to act.

But, I repeat, approving the Budget is very important, because we are enjoying a very good rate of recovery and it would be a shame if we weren't able to maintain job creation at the level of half a million jobs a year. Hence, the government is prepared, and it always has been, to talk, but it calls for responsibility from everyone, because it is not easy, nor is it possible, to lower taxes at every moment.

As regards the Minister for the Treasury, on this matter it is those political parties, and we all know who they are, who do not want to negotiate, nor would it cross their minds to support the government in pushing through the Budget. In other words, it is irrelevant to negotiate with one party or the other because they don't have the slightest intention of approving the Budget. In fact, there is something that concerns me, which is what happened at the latest meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, because last year, at this meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, one group accepted the deficit commitment for next year - 2018 - but now this group doesn't accept the deficit commitment that they accepted last year. That is worrying.

But, in short, aside from that, they don't care in the slightest who negotiates or doesn't negotiate anything, and I think that we all know exactly where we stand in this regard.

The local councils in Catalonia. As regards the issue of the local councils in Catalonia, I would simply remind you that, as is true for everyone else, they are obliged to uphold the law; that is, the public servants are obliged to follow the law, political leaders are obliged to follow the law and everyone is obliged to follow the law. And, above all, what I would like to reiterate, and I say this very calmly, is that the government is absolutely aware of what their obligations are and the government will not renounce its responsibilities in any way whatsoever. I have warned of this on many occasions and I would like some people to take that into account, because they are not going anywhere with that.

Q.- Madam Prime Minister has already spoken about cooperation on defence but I would like a little more detail on how she assesses the potential of this cooperation, and to know how she sees the future cooperation between Poland and Spain on defence, particularly in the context of what is happening on the eastern front.

Ms. Szydlo.- I mentioned in my latest statement that the two ministers - the Polish and the Spanish minister - have begun to debate the future agreement on defence, and this is an example of the many areas of cooperation and possible areas of collaboration in the future.

Defence policy, always in accordance with the principles issued by NATO, and this has been defined as such, European defence policy must be complementary to the goals set by NATO policy. We also spoke about this as did our ministers in the context of our defence policy to tackle the challenges, both on the eastern and southern fronts of Europe.

We spent a long time discussing issues related to the existing threats and challenges. This is another area in which we can potentially develop cooperation between Poland and Spain.

The next point - arms industries. As you are aware, there is a discussion going on in the European Union at this time on the future of the defence industry. There is talk of creating a special fund to finance its future development. We feel that this policy should be sustainable and that all the Member States should have access to this fund. The fund must also be a source of financing support for small- and medium-sized enterprises, with medium capitalisation, that act as sub-contractors in the arms sector.

A good part of our talks were also given over to the fight against terrorism. Both our countries maintain positions in agreement that this is one of the priorities of the European Union, a priority for a European Union that must consolidate the efforts from all parties in order to prepare tools and instruments that are effective in the fight against terrorism. Poland and Spain have agreed to strictly cooperate on this matter. The dimensions of this cooperation will be defined in the future.

Nothing is more highly valued than security. This must be the motion and the statement we send out, from what both the President of the Government and I said during our talks. Security is undoubtedly the most important issue for the citizens of Poland, of Spain, and also of the rest of the European Union and we, the politicians, must do everything possible to ensure and guarantee this security so that people feel safe and can improve their well-being. That is Spain's goal and that is Poland's goal. We want to cooperate in this area on a bilateral basis and also on a broader scale.

Thank you.