MADRID – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Thursday he believes the European Union will finalize a controversial pact on migration while his country holds the bloc's rotating presidency.
Sánchez set out his nation's key priorities for the presidency at a speech in Madrid, and said he believed outstanding issues on shared responsibility for migration across the EU would be resolved by the end of Spain's six-month term that starts on July 1.
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Spain has a particular conundrum to face during its EU presidency as a snap general election will be held on July 23, which polls show could unseat Sánchez’s left-wing coalition government and replace it with a conservative administration or even a coalition with the far right.
Following breakthrough talks in Luxembourg last week, the Spanish leader was confident that member states will soon have "definitively reached and managed to close this immigration and asylum pact, which is so important.” He also mentioned the sinking of a fishing boat crammed with migrants in the Aegean sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 78 dead, as evidence of the high stakes of any failure to act.
Interior ministers from EU countries have agreed on a plan to share out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization, balancing the obligation for countries where most migrants arrive to process and house them against the requirement for other members to provide support, whether financially or by hosting refugees.
EU lawmakers have warned that this may be the last chance to solve the conundrum before EU-wide elections in a year's time, when migration is likely to be a hot-button issue once again.
Sánchez also said that he wanted to focus on rebuilding intra-European supply chains to avoid shortages and guarantee energy sovereignty. “Our first priority has to be to push forward the reindustrialization of Europe,” he said. This would include establishing European dominance in the fields of artificial intelligence and digital security, he added.
The Spanish leader also said the green transition and electricity market reform in the era of the war in Ukraine are intertwined challenges that Spain has significant experience in managing, as the country forges ahead with solar, wind power and green hydrogen installations at an unprecedented rate.