"Populists have taken advantage of crisis to challenge European project", says Mariano Rajoy

Bratislava (Slovakia)

While taking stock of the Summit of 27 Heads of State and Government of EU Member States - all except the United Kingdom - held in Bratislava (Slovakia), Mariano Rajoy highlighted that the participants reiterated their commitment to European integration. This process, he declared, "has made Europe a space for peace, liberty, security, respect for human rights and economic and social progress", and is "the best way to tackle the major internal and external challenges facing us today".

The summit, he said, also served to analyse our citizens' concerns at this time. "And the diagnosis is clear and shared by one and all: after the worst economic crisis in the history of European integration, the most serious refugee crisis that Europe has suffered since the Second World War and the increase in terrorist attacks on European soil, doubts have been raised and, in many cases scepticism, on the EU's ability to effectively respond to these challenges", he explained.

The acting President of the Government maintained that the result of the referendum in the UK on whether to remain in the EU is a "serious symptom" of this reality. Populists and nationalists, he added, "have taken advantage of the crisis to challenge the European project", while choosing to ignore their major contributions to social welfare.

From reflection to action

Pool Moncloa / Diego CrespoThe Bratislava Summit, asserted Mariano Rajoy, is the first active step that must culminate in Rome in 2017, focused on making every effort to the benefit of what is most important to the citizens of Europe. "People want security; that is the first thing they are demanding from their leaders. Security against terrorism, and against other threats from abroad and from the risks that surround the sustainability of the Welfare State, which is the fundamental cornerstone of the European model and the best system in the world", he claimed.

The President of the Government advocated increasing coordination and the exchange of information to combat terrorism, taking steps towards a common defence policy, cooperating on the protection of external borders, attending to refugees and adopting measures to grow and create jobs. "Separation leads to irrelevance and, worse still, impotence, in today's world", he commented.

This last issue is a priority for Spain, he pointed out, which still needs to recover the levels prevailing prior to the crisis. Mariano Rajoy set this threshold at 20 million people in work, which means creating half a million jobs a year, "as happened in 2014 and 2015, and will happen this year". The proposals made by the European Commission on issues of developing the digital economy and the internal energy market would help foster this goal, and hence count on the backing of the Spanish Government, he pointed out.

Current affairs

Pool Consejo EuropeoWhen asked by journalists about the cases of corruption that occupy current affairs, the acting President of the Government said that there is no impunity in Spain and that the judiciary will decide on whether people are innocent or guilty. In his opinion, what we must strive to achieve is "what we have been doing in recent years: present draft laws, act resolutely, get everyone to be in agreement and establish not seeing a repeat of this in our country as the main goal".

As regards whether the People's Party should ask Rita Barberá to stand down as a Member of the Upper House of Parliament, Mariano Rajoy responded that the former Mayor of Valencia has stepped down from the party and has renounced her membership as she was asked to do, but "aside from that, the President of the PP has no more authority in this regard".

As regards the difficulties in forming a government, the acting President of the Government said that his European partners are "surprised" not only that the winning party cannot govern, but also that "no reasonable alternative to the winning party has been put forward".