Joint press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister

PEDRO SÁNCHEZ, President of the Government of Spain

President of the Government: Mr Prime Minister of Portugal, it is a pleasure for me to be here, as the Prime Minister rightly said, after that meeting we had in Badajoz and also in La Raya, together with the President of the Portuguese Republic and His Majesty, the King of Spain, arranging this follow-up meeting.

This follow-up meeting, after an unwanted lockdown that neither the Government of Portugal nor the Government of Spain wanted, but which was necessary to combat the pandemic with all due guarantees, and to obviously combat this unprecedented Covid, a crisis that hasn't been seen in the last 100 years, at least in terms of the history of humanity.

The Portuguese Prime Minister said that here. We have also heard statements from some top European leaders, for example Chancellor Merkel, saying that the crisis we are going through is at least as serious as the crisis that took place, in historical terms, after World War Two. In short, we are facing an unprecedented crisis at a health level, at a social level and at an economic level, which is why we need to strengthen the European project.

So, in Badajoz, the Portuguese Prime Minister and I agreed to hold a meeting a few days later in Lisbon to share strategies and also to re-launch our relationship. It wasn't that we didn't want to continue cultivating these relations in that week but because we were unable to as a result of the lockdown. And this re-launching process obviously has two elements - one at a European level, as Prime Minister Costa said, and of course I subscribe to his words, and the other, to re-launch our bilateral relations which logically - also as a result of the pandemic - have been put on hold, frozen as a result of the lockdown.

As regards Europe, I subscribe to everything that Prime Minister Costa has said. I believe that July is the month for an agreement in Europe. Secondly, that the same as each European leader is saying at a national level, unity saves lives, companies and jobs - unity can save many companies, many jobs and also strengthen the European project over the coming years. That is why I believe it is fundamental for all European leaders to be aware that July is the month for an agreement to be reached. That July is the month when we must reach - I know that negotiations will be difficult to reach an agreement at the European Council on 17 and 18 July - on the Recovery Fund and also regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework.

Here, a few weeks ago, we also held a meeting with all the countries that are Friends of the Cohesion Fund. We must not forget cohesion in the Multiannual Financial Framework, nor the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has proven to be decisive over the course of these such difficult weeks in guaranteeing food supply for the whole of the European population and in this Recovery Fund clearly, as Prime Minister Costa rightly said, both the proposal from the European Commission and the proposal made by two important European Union countries - France and Germany - and the proposals that different countries have been making over the course of this debate to respond to the economic crisis, all of these proposals state that the size of the Recovery Fund must be at least the amount being proposed by the European Commission.

Many of these funds must be tied to transfers and not to loans, and clearly we must give a timeline to the management of all these resources that is sufficiently extensive so as to allow these funds we manage to serve to ensure this genuine transformation that Prime Minister Costa referred to before, on digitalisation and the ecological transition to which all European countries are clearly committed.

Secondly, as regards bilateral relations, I believe that both the Prime Minister and I are prepared to once again re-launch this traditional summit between Spain and Portugal.

The Prime Minister will remark on this later in the Q&A session, but I believe it is important for us to meet our obligations and hopes before the end of the year so that our governments can meet up again because there are so many things we can do together.

In fact, I am convinced that when we design these national reform plans for this ecological transition, for this digital transition, for the demographic challenge, in short, to combat rural depopulation, I am convinced that such projects as La Raya, which served to re-open the borders between Spain and Portugal just a few days ago, on 1 July, we can also adopt a shared vision to create these synergies to the benefit of people in both Spain and Portugal.

In short, there is a long road ahead. There is also a great desire and excitement, and something which is important, which is a shared vision of where Europe should be heading and where Spain and Portugal should head to tackle this unprecedented crisis in the last 100 years of the history of humanity.

Q: Good afternoon, Carlos Cué from El País, on behalf of the journalists who have travelled here, one of the keys will be the conditions. What conditions would you be prepared to accept to reach an agreement? The President of the Government spoke about some red lines. Regarding the amount of the fund? Where would these red lines be in the negotiations? And one point, you are both social democrats - two of the most resistant countries - Sweden and Denmark - are also social democrats. What will you do to convince them now that this political logic doesn't work? And a question for the President of the Government of Spain regarding what is happening in Lugo and in the Basque Country. Has it been too early to call elections now? Is it certain that voting will go ahead in Spain on Sunday?

President of the Government: Well, as regards your first question on the red lines Carlos, I believe that the Government of Spain's position has been very clear, in fact in a paper we circulated at the start of the crisis, there was talk of 1 to 1.5 trillion euros to fill the gap that the COVID-19 crisis will leave in the European economy. In the end, the proposal made by the European Commission was 500 billion euros plus 250 billion euros - I am talking about round numbers through transfers and loans. We feel that this is a smart approach, as Prime Minister Costa said earlier, a balanced proposal, a positive proposal and we applaud it because it goes in line with what the Spanish people, the Government of Spain, said and proposed at the start of the crisis.

Secondly, you have to add to this the 500 billion euros that were approved at the Eurogroup under the presidency of Mario Centeno, whose work and efforts I wish to applaud in financing Temporary Lay-off Plans (Spanish acronym: ERTEs) through the Reinsurance Fund, in financing guarantees for lines of credit to companies in difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 crisis through the European Investment Bank, and this precautionary credit line without conditions attached through the European Stability Mechanisms (ESM) to finance health expenses that is available to all Member States. We agree with this vision and believe that the scope of this Recovery Fund, the balance between transfers and loans and, above all and most importantly for us the timeline for managing all these resources effectively, with a view to the structural changes that we pointed out before - digitalisation, ecological transition, are, let's say, the main concerns for us, and the main features to maintain.

And in relation to your question about the lockdown in Galicia, as you are aware, Spain is a decentralised State - health is managed by regional governments, so the person who needs to provide this information and transparency that the people of Galicia are obviously asking for is the President of the Regional Government of Galicia.

And the conditions, apologies Carlos, clearly the conditions for us must be tied into the question I referred to earlier - the ecological transition, the digital transition, the training of our human capital, which is where I believe we must impose these conditions. Because right now, the task for all of us, both for business owners, workers, public institutions, in our case at a national and a European level, must be to recover economic growth and create jobs. It is not the right time now to mix this up with another series of policies. But, at any event, we are a government that is always committed to what the Stability and Growth Pact established, and committed to budgetary stability, as is only right.

Q: Hello, good afternoon, I am Carina Verdú from Antena 3, with a question on behalf of all the press. President of the Government, I wanted to ask you if Spain now has the backing for Nadia Calviño to head up the Eurogroup. And for the Portuguese Prime Minister, I wanted to ask whether you support her candidature to replace Mario Centeno.

On a domestic front, if you will allow me, why are you not going to this afternoon's funeral?

And to end, President of the Government, I wanted to know if you share the criticisms of your Second Vice-President of the Government against some media outlets and journalists, specifically against our colleague Vicente Vallés. Thank you.

President of the Government: As regards your second question, the government will attend the funeral organised by the Episcopal Conference. The first Vice-President of the Government of Spain will attend.

As regards your first question relating to the candidature of the Third Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, to head up the Eurogroup, we are obviously now going into the decisive week. We are talking with all her government colleagues in the Eurozone. And, in short, we are working hard and I would rather not disclose anything further. But anyway, we are quite optimistic regarding the response and grateful for the responses we have received from some of the remaining countries. And not just from progressive countries, but also from countries governed at this time by conservative or people's parties.

And in relation to your last question, just look, when I have been asked this question, I have never said that… and moreover, on this and on many other questions, I have never given my opinion on open legal proceedings.

Over the course of my political career, I have been subject to positive criticisms by some media outlets and not such positive criticisms by other media outlets. And I have never given my opinion on that either. I have never made an assessment of this, and hence I am not going to give my opinion now on this case, of a government colleague - Vice-President of the Government Iglesias.

Q: (Question in Portuguese)

President of the Government: I think that Prime Minister Costa has answered everything. To complement this, I believe that the first goal is the economic recovery. This means recovering the path of economic growth, of job creation and, to this end, it is so important to reach an agreement in the month of July. July must be the month for an agreement to be reached, a European agreement, and also an agreement that offers a joint response by all of the European institutions and governments.

Secondly, I feel that this pandemic has also left us with some lessons which previously in the debates we held in Brussels seemed to be questioned by some dear colleagues on the European Council, for example those policies that are new and others that are old - it has shown that the CAP is an old policy but enjoys very good health because thanks to this policy there have been no problems with the production and distribution of food, which was so important during the pandemic, and secondly, as Prime Minister Costa rightly said, cohesion. At this time, cohesion could provide a great opportunity to respond to the demographic challenge which, logically, countries including Portugal and Spain are facing.

And lastly, in relation to the list of third countries whose borders are now reopened to all Schengen countries, I would like to back up what Prime Minister Costa has said. What our foreign affairs ministers have done is to base their decision on scientific criteria, and nothing else. Obviously diplomatic relations have not prevailed over the health and public safety of our fellow countrymen.

Q: (Question in Portuguese)
President of the Government: Thank you very much for the support for the candidature of the Third Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Economic Affairs to the presidency of the Eurogroup, and perhaps we have forgotten to comment on when we are going to hold the summit…

[Speech by Antonio Costa]

President of the Government: Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)