Next weekend Spain will take over from Sweden at the head of the presidency of the European Union. Throughout the semester, the Spanish Government will have to lead the challenges that Europe has raised for its immediate future, which are not few. And it will have to do so without losing sight of the medium and long-term horizon of the challenges and threats it accumulates trying to prevent the mutation from Old Continent to Old Continent finding no other justification than that of the deplorable demographic reality.
Spain is one of the four most important member states of the EU and both the institutions and the citizens enjoy a proven Europeanism. When in the past he has exercised his turn at the head of the presidency, he has done so in more than satisfactory terms for the European institutions as a whole. Therefore, it is expected that the one he will now assume will make it possible to move forward and close many of the complex open files that the EU has on the table.
This, without prejudice to the fact that after the early election call there are doubts in some areas of the EU that this is possible. Time will tell if the electoral campaign reduces energy and effectiveness to the presidency in the assumption of continuity of the current Government after the decision of the polls. Or if a new hypothetical executive will be able to take responsibility in a short time for the arduous European task, without having previously intervened in the preparation of the topics and calendar that feed the presidential agenda.
The presidency of the second semester of 2023 is not just any presidency. It is, or should be, very special. As I mentioned at the beginning of these lines, we will succeed in rotation the Swedes, whose Government (conservatives, DC and liberals) was invested weeks before assuming the leadership of the EU. And in this case, the governmental relief (not forgetting the necessary parliamentary support that the Swedish Executive requires from a xenophobic and Eurosceptic party) has indeed been a burden, in pro-European terms, for its effectiveness.
But if a lot is expected of Spain based on the review regarding the previous presidency, the push that is desired is no less relevant considering the future presidencies of 2024. Belgium will exercise it in the first semester with a few effective months due to the European elections in June. And then will come Hungary, on whose presidency the European Parliament has already approved a resolution in which it asks that an alternative be sought so that it is not Viktor Orbán who gets to exercise it. Mess in sight and high probability of barren semester!
With this panorama, it will be understood that the Spanish presidency is key for the EU. To mention some momentous issues, I will refer to five. First: the new fiscal rules suspended as a result of the pandemic must be negotiated. Germany and the Netherlands are picking up and, if there is no agreement, at the beginning of 2025 the respite will end and the use of the corset will return. Second: it is necessary to complete the European digital market in a context of dependence (90% of the services we use depend on the USA and around 90% of the materials come from China). Third: in the energy field, it is necessary to reconcile positions between France and Germany, which allow a European energy market in which Spain can exercise its potential strength in renewables and hydrogen. Fourth: finalize the complex agreement on immigration and asylum. And fifth: confront the fragmentation of the international order in the political and economic sphere. God forbid!
