"Today we have committed to continue building a union of human rights, liberty, cooperation, solidarity and well-being", says Mariano Rajoy

Rome

At the press conference following the signing of the Rome Declaration that marked the conclusion of the ceremony to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, which gave birth to the European Union, Mariano Rajoy defended "the greatness" of the European project. "Today we have all undertaken to continue building a union of human rights, liberty, cooperation, solidarity and well-being. To achieve that, we have agreed to focus on the problems that truly concern our citizens, that bother them and that alarm them", stressed the President of the Government.

Greater integration

Mariano Rajoy pointed out that Spain is committed to greater integration in the future. "The reference made in the Rome Declaration to greater integration on foreign policy, defence and internal security is important, as is the very clear reference to the Economic and Monetary Union and to completing the Single Market", he underlined.

The President of the Government stressed that "what we want to contribute to the future is the deep-seated pro-European faith of the Spanish people, the broad consensus of the Spanish political forces regarding the need to continue making progress on building the EU and the experience of a country which, thanks to Europe, has managed to take an unimaginable leap in its prosperity and standard of living".

In this regard, the President of the Government clearly expressed that "in Spain we associate the concept of Europe with democracy, liberty, human rights and economic and social progress, which is precisely what we have enjoyed since we joined the European Union in 1986".

Negotiation of the Rome Declaration

The President of the Government said that 27 countries negotiating a text has not been easy, and he revealed that the greatest difficulties were in regard to one of the parts proposed by Spain, regarding "continuing to make progress on integration and, above all, on the economic aspect of this". However, he positively assessed the fact that there is a very clear reference to continue moving towards the Single Market.

"That will take time", acknowledged Mariano Rajoy, "but the aspiration we have is that we will end up with a European Budget that allows help to be given to those countries that are in the greatest difficulties at any given time and we hope that there will also be Eurobonds one day, in other words, that we will have a European Treasury that places issues in the markets".

On another note, Mariano Rajoy stressed that it was not difficult to reach an agreement on the main priorities: illegal immigration, the problem of refugees, internal security, the fight against terrorism, defence and foreign policy, and growth and job creation.

Pro-independence movement in Catalonia

Mariano Rajoy considers that the Rome Declaration backs his calls to respect the law. In relation to the attitude of the pro-independence movement in Catalonia, the President of the Government believes that the text signed on Saturday obliges the law to be followed by everyone and places great emphasis on "one of the fundamental values of the European project being the rule of law". "No-one would believe that someone in Europe would give their support to a party that seeks to break the law", he stated.

In this regard, he recalled that the declaration signed establishes peace, liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law as "fundamental and binding values". These are values that "no-one can question and those who try to do so are seriously mistaken", concluded Mariano Rajoy.