Speech by President of the Government of Spain at press conference after 19th Spain-Italy Summit

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Good afternoon. The first thing I would like to do is thank the media for attending this joint press conference between the Governments of Italy and of Spain, and secondly to express my heartfelt thanks to my friend Giuseppe, and also to the Council of Ministers of the Italian Government for their presence here in Palma de Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Thank you truly for making this effort; we are well aware of what it means because at this time all European countries are tackling the second wave of Covid-19 and hence altering one's course to be able to hold this very important bilateral meeting with the Government of Spain is clearly an effort we appreciate, and it means a great deal to us in political terms because this broad representation of the Italian Government also shows a strategic interest in relations by the Italian Government with Spain, and we are truly grateful for this, my dear Giuseppe, dear Italian Prime Minister.

Today is 25 November and I would like to begin by remembering all those women who are victims of gender-based violence, you are in our thoughts, and this is an emotional memory that the whole of Italian society and the whole of Spanish society share. We also want to pass on to the women that suffer violence, the firm and unequivocal commitment of the whole of Spanish society in the fight against gender-based violence, to tell them that they are not alone, that our public institutions stand with them, and of course the political commitment from all parties is absolute in our wish to eradicate this shameful conduct, this cruel social injustice against half of the population of our country, and in this context I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to the feminist movement for having opened the eyes of the other half of the population, the male population, to the terrible tragedy that many women suffer from on a daily basis in our country. I think that the feminist movement has once again proven to be a revolutionary and peaceful movement, which has opened the hearts and the minds of the male population, and which is clearly one of the tremendous assets and a source of great pride to the whole of Spanish society. So, the eternal gratitude of the Government of Spain to a movement - the feminist movement - which is a transforming movement, an integrating movement, a movement that calls on all of us, not just on women, but also on men, and what we want to see is real and effective equality between men and women.

Having said that, I would also like, in this second wave of Covid-19, to remember in this brief opening introduction the victims of Covid-19, those in Spain, those in Italy, those anywhere in the European Union and also around the world, because this is a global pandemic that knows no borders, religious beliefs or ideological questions; in short, it effects all of us equally. We all have the instruments we can now rely on, those provided by science, to tackle this pandemic, and hence I wish to pass on to the families of the victims that, in our public actions and in our political decisions, we will always hold the victims of Covid-19 in our hearts and memories, including those who are unfortunately suffering from the Covid disease in hospitals, at home, and tell them that European governments, the Government of Spain, the regional governments, all the public institutions, are doing everything in our hands to protect them, to protect their health, to save lives and also to save the economy, companies and jobs in our country.

In this regard, I wish to refer to this question because on some occasions we may ask why one day, governments, the Italian Government, the Government of Spain, are talking about questions that are directly related to Covid, to the fight against the pandemic but then on others we are talking about migration, the "non-paper" that has been announced that we have signed between some European Union countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus, and I want to tell you that I feel that it is very important that we strengthen the idea of our common project, of the European Union, and that consequently we are aware that to provide an effective response to the pandemic in the European Union we must step up ties between all countries, and clearly between two countries that have suffered as a result of the importance of their tourism sectors, of being international hubs as well in the field of mobility, which the pandemic has hit harder in the cases of Spain and of Italy.

This is the third time that Prime Minister Conte and I have met in little more than six months, but it is the first time that we have held a bilateral summit between Spain and Italy since 2014, which is an anomaly we must rectify, and of course the Governments of Italy and Spain have definitively corrected that this year, once and for all.

And I feel that this is the best example of our commitment to Europe and to strengthening relations between Spain and Italy. We have a great deal in common, we have many priorities that we share, we also have many questions that we wish to put before the European Council and we share viewpoints on the solutions we wish to give to these problems. I mentioned before the issue of migration, but clearly also when talking about the pandemic, it is obvious that we will have to see how we can focus the vaccination strategy from a European perspective as from 2021, and see how we can provide a response to Christmas, which is something that obviously affects us from the perspective of our borders, the mobility between our fellow countrymen in different regions, but also between countries because we share Erasmus students, workers that live and work in two countries; in short, there are many questions from the point of view of the pandemic, of the health emergency that we must try and standardise and provide a common response to at a European level. I wish to be brief; I would describe this as a summit of agreement and consensus, firstly, because it is true that since 2014 no bilateral summit has been held between Spain and Italy. I would also say that this is a summit of action because we are proposing responses to challenges that both countries face, as does the European Union as a whole. Migratory policy is one of these, the pandemic is another, and the recovery fund and Next Generation EU is clearly another. And finally, this is a summit that shows the best of the EU. Over these long months since the outbreak of the pandemic until an agreement was reached in Brussels back in July, at that European Council which, in my opinion, was historic in the sense that we took a step forward, a definitive step in European construction, which I would say has an historic dimension - perhaps we can't see that at this time, but we will become aware of it in a few years' time - the same historic dimension that Spain's membership of the EU had, the creation of the single market, the creation of the single currency, in short, Spain and Italy are making progress and back in July we took a very important step in the federalisation of the European project, in the integration of the European project.

I want to tell you that this agreement clearly had many proponents and leading figures behind it. In general that is what always happens when there is an agreement. When there is failure and no agreement, there are no proponents. But in this case there were many proponents and backers. And I would clearly like to acknowledge the leading figure of Prime Minister Conte and the Italian Government in this, and also the Government of Spain, through their positive contributions to an historic agreement which we reached back in the month of July.

Prime Minister Conte and the Italian Government spoke of the need to draw up a great plan to provide a response to the socio-economic emergency stemming from Covid. We spoke at that time about the Marshall Plan, we passed around various "non-papers", both from an Italian perspective and from a Spanish perspective that precisely contributed to fuel and enrich the debate on this instrument we had to set in motion. We did that, we achieved that, and I feel that this is the great lesson that Spain and Italy must take away from this, two countries that in a not too distant past looked over their shoulders at each other with mistrust, thinking that we had to compete when in reality the best way for our societies to make progress is often through collaboration, cooperation and coordination in pushing the policies of our countries through. I feel that today, six years on, we have held a bilateral summit, a summit on agreement, a summit on action, a European summit, which is a tangible show of this eternal commitment between Italy and Spain to the benefit of our societies. I feel that this is extraordinary news, not just for Italy, not just for Spain, but also for this common project that is the EU. And I want to thank the Italian Government, and particularly the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, for also having this vision and this leadership to make this summit possible in such a complex context and on such an important day that brings us here.

Q: Mauricio Forlani - As regards the aid package, have you spoken in your bilateral meetings about the veto imposed by Poland and Hungary on this Next Generation EU project, given that the deadlines are short, and will things continue this way or will we move into an agreement by the EU-25? (More questions are then asked of Prime Minister Conte).

President of the Government: Dear Giuseppe, I see you are getting the same questions here in Spain, as is logical, because the pandemic is the same everywhere.

As regards your questions, what we clearly need to remember is that we reached a multiple and very complex agreement back in June, not only for the Next Generation EU but also for the Multiannual Financial Framework and I think I can also share with the Italian media that in Spain the expectations regarding the definition of the Recovery Plan, in terms of firming up projects, has not only generated great business interest, which is legitimate, but also an interest from private investment, which is very important as a driver of public investment, as well as the mobilisation of positive energy which is so important for the whole of society.

Our societies are tired, they are worn out by a pandemic which until just a few days ago science had been unable to find a response to (inaudible), to neutralise the virus thanks to the discovery of a vaccine. I feel it is very important to be aware that we must maintain this agreement from July, which is an agreement that is binding on all Member States, on the EU-27 and which is based on dialogue between Member States within the European Council, and was then the result of a three-way dialogue between the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament - a very important institution for the Government of Spain - and hence I hope that these two countries - Hungary and Poland - are aware of what this represents in terms of the response to the pandemic, to the socio-economic emergency and also clearly in terms of the European construction which (inaudible) before 31 December.

Both Prime Minister Conte and I have had the chance to talk with these leaders, and also obviously with the Presidents of the European Commission and Council, and with Chancellor Merkel, who currently holds the Rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, and we trust that we can reach an agreement between all 27 Member States before 31 December.

Q: José Miguel Blanco from Agencia EFE. - You both head up coalition governments. In Spain, the Vice-President of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, recommended in an interview that Spain has a great deal to learn from Italy, from their form of government. And a few years ago, Felipe González remarked that it seemed like Spain was heading towards an Italian parliamentarianism, but without Italians. What does the President of the Government plan to do to remove the differences we have seen in recent days? And as regards the National Budget, it would seem that the investiture majority is on its way to approving this, that you have had to reach some agreements. I wanted to know what you are going to do to get rid of fiscal dumping in Madrid, what has been agreed with the Republican Left of Catalonia, taking into account such statements as those made by the President of the Regional Government of Madrid who said that it would be an absolute nightmare for anyone who tried to touch the pockets of the people of Madrid, and what do you think about the statements from Mr Otegi this morning, who said that voting through the Budget is one step on the way to a Basque Country Republic? Thank you.

President of the Government: First of all, any advice from the Italian Prime Minister is always welcome, on this issue on the coalition government or indeed on any other. It has been said on many occasions but it does no harm to repeat it, this is our first experience, I said this to our Italian colleagues, of a coalition government in 80 years, in Spain's history. So, I like to recall that phrase from Don Quixote, by Cervantes, who said that "experience is the mother of science", including the science of coalition governments.

So, I feel we need to work with humility, and undoubtedly learn, and be aware that the main task of any government is to make progress, to develop policies, and that has been the aim of this government since the start of this term of office, and I feel that what has happened today is very important, as is what has happened in recent weeks.

Because after two years of a parliamentary stalemate we are going to be able to get rid of a Budget that clearly does not respond to the economic and social needs we have, and the health emergency that we are managing, and we are going to be able to approve the Budget with a very broad and plural parliamentary majority, where many political forces are represented, and hence I believe that this is an endeavour at internal dialogue between two parties that make up one government, which has the sole aim of making progress in everything related to the response to the health, economic and social emergency, and also of course to the roadmap of socio-economic transformations, of rights and freedoms set out at the start of this term of office.

Hence, experience is the mother of science. I feel it is very important to take this into account and be aware of the work that this coalition government is doing to make progress in many areas that have been suffering from paralysis for many years.

As regards the statements by the President of the Regional Government of Madrid, this is a debate that does not even relate to a purely ideological question. If you remember some of the statements from regional presidents from the People's Party, they are aware that we have a problem with our fiscal system.

This is a government that, in relation to the Recovery Funds, has proposed territorial cohesion as one of its main goals, not just social cohesion but also territorial cohesion, because we have a problem and a challenge that is the demographic challenge, and this is even included in the portfolio of one of the four vice-presidencies of this government.

We have precisely spoken today about fiscal harmonisation, and this has been mentioned in the Declaration with Italy, which is another of the main tasks pending at a European level. This European harmonisation must also take place through certain taxes in our country if we want to guarantee something I am convinced we can all agree on, even Ms Ayuso, which is equal opportunities for all citizens, wherever they may live, and this is part of the approach that the government has taken on first-hand and which calls for all leaders, and I repeat, if you speak to regional leaders from the People's Party they will also say that we do indeed have a problem in terms of resolving fiscal harmonisation.

Just look, there have even been recommendations from experts when we were talking about the regional financing system and it was the People's Party that then headed up the government, who said that one of the main weaknesses of our regional financing system is this lack of fiscal harmonisation, and hence the government is not only coherent with a line of ideological thought that may be seen in UP and in the PSOE - which are the two parties that make up this coalition government - but there are also many other institutions and many regional governments that agree on the need to fiscally harmonise our country.

We must guarantee equal opportunities for all Spaniards wherever they may live, which is the approach that we have been taking, and I obviously feel that it is excellent news that the path has finally been cleared in Spain, and we can say goodbye to the past and open the doors to the future National Budget that responds to the economic, social and political situation of the country in 2020 and not the Spain of 2018, which we have fortunately left behind.

[INTERVENTION BY GUISEPPE CONTE]

President of the Government: Thank you very much for your question, which has two parts. The first is in relation to migration. I feel that the "non-paper" that has been announced today by five countries, including Spain and Italy, is necessary. I feel that this is a necessary debate to open up within the EU, above all following the publication by the European Commission in this regard, which our two governments have clearly welcomed, but which we consider to be insufficient. It is insufficient because there are indeed questions like solidarity, not just responsibility, but also solidarity that must be much clearer than initially proposed by the European Commission. And hence I wish to convey a shared vision that the Italian and Spanish Governments have which, moreover, is reflected in the Joint Declaration we have approved at this bilateral summit, which is that the migratory phenomenon is a multidimensional phenomenon. On some occasions we find ourselves with Member States that only see one perspective of the migratory phenomenon when unfortunately, or fortunately, migration has many perspectives. It has an external perspective that must be much more limited and firmed up by the European Commission in its communication. It indeed has one part related to border control. And here I want to say something: the border controls imposed by the Italian and Spanish Governments, and on this I dare to speak for both our governments, are efficient and effective. That is not the problem; the problem is what we do with those human beings that are trafficked by mafias and run the risk of dying, in this case we recently saw in the Atlantic, for example, as a result of their arrival in the Canary Islands. And hence also a policy that not only combats unlawful human trafficking by the mafias and endangers thousands of lives, but also legal migration, and also clearly integration policies, and consequently solidarity policies between Member States. In other words, I feel this debate is necessary, and I feel this is a brave and bold proposal by five countries, which makes the EU better and which propose a constructive debate, a necessary debate we must have on a common migratory policy.

We have taken steps on the Economic and Monetary Union. We are taking steps on fiscal policy through this process of common debt that we will all take on through the EU to finance the transitions that the Prime Minister has mentioned: the ecological transition, the digital transition, education, science, our Welfare State, particularly healthcare. But, I believe that we must strengthen the common vision of the phenomenon of migration.

I am saying this from Palma de Mallorca, from the island of Palma, from the Balearic Islands, which has also been receiving illegal migration in recent weeks and months from North Africa, particularly from Algeria. So, this is a challenge that is incumbent on all EU countries and hence, I can but applaud the publication of this non-paper, this document and encourage debate in the EU.

And within your second question, I will quote an example in relation to the handling of the health emergency. We live in a decentralised State, a State of the Autonomies. The regional governments have jurisdiction over healthcare. Each week, the Minister for Health meets with all the regional health councillors and, through a voting system of majorities, decisions are taken on the measures in relation to the health emergency. If any regional government had the power of veto, then clearly the speed and efficacy to thus respond to this health emergency would be undermined. I feel that since this is an EU of 27 States, where there are States that are knocking on the door for EU membership, and we are talking here, specifically, about Albania, North Macedonia, in short, the Western Balkans, that one of the things that must go hand-in-hand with the enlargement of the EU is the revision of decision-making mechanisms within the EU, where we must put the power to veto to one side and indeed strengthen the decision-making process of qualified majorities. In short, make the EU a much more federal system than it is at this time.

Q: Carolina Jiménez, from the agency Europa Press. Thank you. I wanted to ask you both for more details on how you hope to shore up this greater solidarity on migration by your European partners. And regarding this debate on Spain's solidarity, recently the Canary Islands have also been asking for solidarity from other autonomous regions. Today it was announced that some migrants have been transferred from the Canary Islands to Seville and Malaga. I would like to ask you, President of the Government, why these transfers have been made, and will this become a pattern in the future and if this is the way to show solidarity. I also wanted to ask you if the government is prepared to study the proposal made by the Regional Government of Madrid for Christmas gatherings to be allowed for up to 10 people. And if you will allow me, you forgot to answer the question raised about the statements by Arnaldo Otegi. Thank you.

President of the Government: Yes, I did answer that. It is great news that we have a National Budget. Well, in regard to your first question, I believe that migratory policy, as I said before, is multidimensional, both fundamentally and in its form. I feel that, in short, it is also important to underline this solidarity between regions, and also to have sufficient discretion in implementing this migratory policy.

In relation to these proposals, let's see, this is the initial proposal made by the Ministry of Health to the regional governments, and this Christmas Plan will now start to be debated and we expect to reach an agreement with all the regional governments for these special days at Christmas. I feel that on the matter of the pandemic and the health emergency, this government has, shall we say, clearly divided the epidemic into three identifiable phases: the first phase, with the first wave, which attacked us all suddenly, and we were unaware of the origin of this virus, and we clearly had to combat it from a scientific viewpoint, through the approval of the state of emergency for the first time in the history of our democracy which I believe we did successfully; we managed to flatten the curve of contagion, we managed to reduce the number of deaths to zero after this first wave and hence that was the first phase in the fight against this pandemic. In this second phase, it is true, we have said this on many occasions, that the Government of Spain has a great many more instruments available because we have more knowledge within the limitations of science regarding this virus to fight it. We approved a second state of emergency which, by the way, is proving successful. Since we approved the state of emergency the number of transmissions has dropped, we have flattened the curve and now have an accumulated rate below 400. It is true that yesterday saw a very high and unacceptable number of deaths in our country but we are starting to see that the state of emergency is indeed working; it is proving effective and moreover, it places the regional governments, which have jurisdiction on health matters, as responsible for managing the specific restrictions that can be introduced in their individual regions because it is true that the epidemiological situation is different in each region, and I am no longer just talking about the regions, but inside the regions, where there are provinces with different restrictions to others.

What is the third phase? The third phase is what we are starting to design now, which has one part in the Christmas Plan and one in the vaccination strategy that the Council of Ministers approved yesterday. A vaccination strategy that will not only allow us to live with the virus but neutralise it in the coming weeks, and hence we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic, which I feel is very important, and important to underline, we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic; we are on the verge of neutralising the virus, and hence of leaving that phase in which we are controlling the virus because we will be living with it. Hence, I feel that in this context, in reference to the question you asked me, it will obviously be the Inter-territorial Council that decides on the specific details you referred to regarding the number of people we will be able to gather with. But let me tell you something - the number that the Government of Spain proposed at that Inter-territorial Council meeting yesterday was six, which is not a whim, it is the number that the healthcare professionals, science, have told us is strict enough, restrictive enough, so that the curve of contagions does not explode again, something that we have managed to halt in our country since the state of emergency was approved.

Hence, an attitude of the utmost dialogue and consensus with all the regional governments, and above all, to follow the recommendations made by the scientists and by the healthcare professionals. A great deal of effort has gone into halting the curve of contagion over these long weeks of November. We are coming to a critical period for everyone - Christmas - and we must be aware that we must continue to lower this curve. We have an accumulated rate below 400, but what the World Health Organization (WHO) is telling us is that we must get to a rate of 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days. So we still have a long way to go to meet this target set by the WHO. So, let's not sit back and drop our guard. Let's be aware that the virus is still among us. And it can clearly rise again if we relax these restrictive measures. Let's try and reconcile the necessary demand for meeting up with our families with the need to continue restricting activities to carry on lowering the curve of contagions and keep the virus at bay. And lastly, I feel that the phase that is beginning now is very important thanks to science to start to employ a vaccination strategy and clearly start to neutralise the virus and start this beginning of the end of the pandemic that we are clearly channelling for the first few months of 2021.

[INTERVENTION BY GIUSEPPE CONTE]

President of the Government: At the start of today we were received at this wonderful palace of the President of the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands by the Mayor of Palma de Mallorca and the Government Delegate who is also here with us. And I would like to take the opportunity of this end of the press conference to express my heartfelt thanks to the city of Palma de Mallorca, to the people of the island of Palma and of course of the Balearic Islands for their hospitality. This is a government that at the start of the summer held a very important meeting with the social stakeholders, the Minister for Work, the Minister for Inclusion and Social Security, who were here together with the trade unions and business leaders to agree on an extension to the Temporary Lay-Off Plans (Spanish acronym: ERTEs), since this is an island, and these islands were seriously harmed by the mobility restrictions, and hence the fall in the tourism sector. I wanted to pass on to the people of the Balearic Islands the firm, decisive and supportive commitment of the Government of Spain to their situation and we truly hope that 2021 will be a much better year than 2020, and we can start to glimpse the end of this pandemic and thus return to normal. My heartfelt thanks to the institutions and to the people of the Balearic Islands for their hospitality. And my thanks also to my colleagues on the Council of the [inaudible] and the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, for their hospitality and their efforts in coming here to Majorca. Thank you.

(Transcript edited by State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation