Mariano Rajoy highlights Council's commitment to establishing a "genuine European immigration policy"

Brussels (Belgium)

Mariano Rajoy started the press briefing at which he took stock of the European Council by expressing his solidarity and that of all the people of Spain with France, Tunisia and Kuwait following the terrorist attacks suffered on Friday. The attack in Tunisia was carried out at a tourism complex in the centre of the country, in the city of Sousse, including on a hotel of a Spanish financed chain. "The Ministries of Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs have activated the protocols for actions established for events such as these and we will regularly report on any new developments", he remarked.

The President of the Government reiterated "his outright condemnation" of terrorism, which has "nothing to do with religious beliefs, but rather is pure fanaticism and shows a total and utter lack of decency and humanity of those who attack the lives of their fellow men". In this regard, he called for unity "from all good people", and recalled that the government, the Socialist Party and the People's Party signed an agreement against Jihad terrorism which any other party can sign up to. The committee that oversees this agreement met on Friday at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Migratory crisis

The European Council dedicated the lion's share of its time to the migratory crisis in the Mediterranean, based on the principles agreed at the extraordinary Council held on 23 April. "It is absolutely necessary to stress, and I have done this to my European colleagues, that the capsizes and deaths that have taken place in the Mediterranean constitute a genuine human tragedy to which the European Union must offer a response based on the principles of solidarity and shared responsibility", declared the President of the Government.

Mariano Rajoy underlined two decisions made by the European Union on this issue. Firstly, it undertook to present "certain proposals and initiatives with the basic aim of establishing a genuine European immigration policy". He specified that this seeks to boost cooperation with countries of origin and transit so that they can improve their levels of well-being and wealth, strengthen the role of Frontex to control borders and establish a system of relocation and re-settlement for those people with a need for international protection, as well as agreements on repatriation to avoid the 'pull factor'.

Secondly, an immediate response measure was adopted to relocate 40,000 people "with a clear need for international protection" from Italy and Greece to other countries on a temporary and exceptional basis. Mariano Rajoy stressed that "the Council will adopt a decision in the month of July, to see how it can put this relocation operation into practice by consensus". Furthermore, it decided to grant additional financial assistance to those Member States worst affected by this migratory crisis.

Spain, from imbalances to heading up growth

EFEAs regards the situation of Greece, the President of the Government explained that this issue is fundamentally being dealt with in talks between Greece and the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, as well as by the Eurogroup, which is due to meet again on Saturday. The Spanish Government, he added, "trusts that a solution will be found to the benefit of the Greek people", "subject to EU law and respecting the commitments taken on by everyone". The reference for this, he pointed out, is the Eurogroup agreement from February this year, "which allows for certain flexibility".

The meeting also served to back the specific recommendations of the European Semester to Member States. Mariano Rajoy underlined that while only two years ago Spain was on the verge of being subject to a disciplinary procedure as a result of its economic imbalances, it is now only "subject to minimal recommendations" which goes to show that "the situation has radically changed and he stressed that it is the Eurozone country to have the highest grown in 2015, which in turn is creating more jobs". This progress, he said, comes as a result of the reform programme "and, above all, the tremendous effort on the part of Spanish society".

The Presidents of the European Commission, the European Council, the Eurogroup, the ECB and the European Parliament presented a report on their proposals at this meeting to complete the design of the Economic and Monetary Union. Mariano Rajoy stressed that the document contains many of the ideas raised by Spain, such as the establishment of a gradual convergence process based on indicators. The report advocates taking steps in five areas: the internal market, labour mobility, coordinating economic policies, fiscal union and political union.

The Council also undertook to push forward with the Digital Agenda, the conclusions of which include, upon a proposal from Spain, a reference to the need to guarantee portability and cross-border access to content, "guaranteeing a high degree of protection of intellectual property rights", pointed out Mariano Rajoy. It was also agreed at the Council meeting to push ahead with the new Internal Security Strategy and revise the Global Strategy on External Policy and Security, and to award the title of Honorary European Citizen to Jacques Delors, "the father of the Euro", according to the President of the Spanish Government.

Current affairs

In response to journalists, Mariano Rajoy said that he spoke during the Summit with various Heads of State and Government on the candidature of the Minister for Economic Affairs to head up the Eurogroup. In his opinion, Luis de Guindos "is the ideal person" due to his capacity, to having formed part of a government that has shown that a country can go from being in a situation of "pre-bankruptcy" to heading up growth and because Spain is the fourth largest economy in the Eurozone.

As regards the new Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Mariano Rajoy praised his capacity, experience and pro-European stance and pointed out that the most important challenges in this area are implementing the education reform and continuing with work on boosting both Vocational Training and Dual Vocational Training. The President of the Government stressed that he has no "intention of carrying out a cabinet reshuffle" because "there is no underlying reason for doing so"; you do not change policies that have been shown to work and "we are now at the end of this term of office".