​Mariano Rajoy announces that government will raise growth forecast for 2017 to 3%

Warsaw (Poland)

The President of the Government of Spain announced that the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday, 3 July, which will approve the ceiling on spending for 2018, will raise the growth forecast by three tenths for this year. He also forecast that "more than half a million jobs will be created this year, as happened last year and the year before that".

Mariano Rajoy defended his economic policy and stated that "we must be very careful about making any major changes to this policy". In this regard, he clarified that the fiscal reform that came into force in 2015 and 2016 and "meant that 9 billion euros moved hands from the State coffers to the pockets of taxpayers, was a significant reduction in both Personal Income Tax and Corporate Income Tax".

The President of the Government argued that "you cannot implement a tax reduction of these characteristics every year or every other year" because this would "not lead anywhere". He also recalled that Spain has made a commitment to lower the public deficit from 4.5% to 3.2%, which is fundamental for growth and job creation.

Furthermore, Mariano Rajoy called for responsibility from the political groups to push through the 2018 Budget because the recovery is going at a "very good rate and it would be a shame not to maintain job creation of half a million jobs a year".

Poland-Spain Summit

Pool Moncloa/Diego CrespoThe President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, presided, together with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Beata Szydlo, over the 12th Poland-Spain Summit. Mariano Rajoy arrived in Warsaw from Berlin on Thursday night, where he had taken part in a meeting with other European leaders, and held his first meeting with Beata Szydlo.

The two leaders agreed that the fight against terrorism is one of the priorities of the European Union and of the Governments of Poland and Spain, as he explained in the joint press conference given at Belweder Palace. On this matter, the President of the Government advocated stepping up cooperation between the intelligence and police services of the two countries and in the fight against financing, money laundering and terrorism on the Internet.

Mariano Rajoy and Beata Szydlo also studied the priorities in negotiations for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, which include preserving the rights of European citizens and of British citizens when they cease to be Europeans, the economic negotiations and the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The President of the Government reiterated that progress must be made on these issues before talking about the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The multiyear financial framework was another of the issues addressed. Mariano Rajoy declared that Spain and Poland share a common position, which is that "it is fundamental to maintain the Common Agricultural Policy and cohesion policies", as well as to attend to the new needs put forward by the citizens of the European Union. On this point, the President of the Government stressed that they are not in favour of undoing what has been done in recent years, but rather of making changes while on the "path of progress, but under no circumstance, of taking the path of revolution or of undoing everything that has been done".

As regards the reform of the Directive on Posted Workers, pending approval by the European Commission, Mariano Rajoy defended the "free movement of people, goods, capital and services". He also claimed that he is not convinced that "one country should set the allowances and compensation of people that live in one country but go to work in another".

Defence and border policy

Pool Moncloa/Diego CrespoThe President of the Government added that at the meeting held on Friday morning with the Polish Prime Minister, they agreed to step up cooperation on defence issues", in line with the latest decisions adopted at the European Council.

He also positively assessed the membership of both countries of NATO. "We believe that NATO is fundamental for our defence and for guaranteeing the rights, freedoms and democracies of our countries", declared Mariano Rajoy, who considers that NATO and European defence "are absolutely compatible".

As regards relations with Russia, Mariano Rajoy pointed out that both countries advocate "complying with the Minsk Accords" and of maintaining the 'Normandy Format'.

The two leaders also spoke about the situation on the eastern and southern borders of Europe, where "dramatic situations are unfolding", as a result, among other reasons, of "the situation taking place in Libya", concluded the President of the Government.

Sector meetings

Pool Moncloa/Diego Crespo

During the course of the Summit, various sector meetings were held between the two delegations. The Spanish delegation was made up of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Alfonso Dastis; Defence, María Dolores de Cospedal; Public Works, Íñigo de la Serna, and Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environmental Affairs, Isabel García Tejerina. Other members of the delegation included the State Secretary for Education, Vocational Training and Universities, Marcial Marín, and the President of the National Sports Council, José Ramón Lete.