Spain takes over presidency of the EU for remainder of 2023

Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) from Saturday, July 1, a position the country will hold until the end of the year.

The responsibility will mean that Spain will have to manage negotiations between the 27 member states of the European Union to try to find a consensus on the various projects and topics that are still open. 

The biggest challenges the continental council will face over this next term will be making progress in the migration pact, the deficit and debt rules, the minimum tax levels on multinational companies, and promoting renewable energies. 

The first official act of the presidency took place on Saturday in Kyiv where Pedro Sánchez met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski. The meeting was aimed at reinforcing the EU's commitment to Ukraine, and the Spanish leader told the Ukrainian parliament that Europe is with them for "as long as it takes and regardless of the price to pay."

Spain's presidency could also be shaken up by a potential change in government in Madrid, as the general election is scheduled for July 23, not even one month into the country's turn to hold the presidency. 

Foreign minister criticizes lack of involvement

Catalonia's minister for foreign, Meritxell Serret, has criticized the executive of Pedro Sánchez for leaving the Catalan government on the sidelines of the Spanish presidency of the European Union. 

Serret told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that Sánchez "doesn't take us into consideration," and regretted the lack of information the Catalan administration has received in the days leading up to Spain assuming the presidency role. 

She also railed against the "little predisposition" of the Spanish government to include the Catalan executive in the events organized in Catalonia. "They are not giving us much room for participation," she criticized. 

Two meetings of the presidency are planned in Catalonia, an informal meeting of ministers of transport in Barcelona on September 21 and 22, and another in Tarragona with ambassadors in late July. 

The minister believes that "the obstacles have not disappeared" with Sánchez's Socialist party with regard to foreign action carried out by her department, and called on the Catalan Socialists to position itself on "the ambition to have a presence at an international level."

MEP for the Catalan Socialists, Javi López, accused the government of not being proactive about the EU's rotating presidency: "I don't know what the Catalan government wants to do for the presidency."

Objectives and priorities for the term

Migration is always a divisive issue among EU member states and currently an agreement has only been reached on two of the five regulations that are part of the roadmap of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. During the Spanish presidency, a new impetus will have to be given to the negotiation of the crisis management.

Hungary and Poland have maintained their veto on the text, and president of the European Council, Charles Michel, explained that the blocking is down to the countries' opposition to the mandatory relocation of migrants agreed by other member states. 

In the presentation of the priorities of the presidency, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez indicated that reindustrialization will be one of the key issues in which the bloc must advance.

The Spanish presidency will also have to work to find a consensus on the European law that regulates artificial intelligence, the law on zero emissions of industry, and on the controversial law on the restoration of nature that seeks to restore 20% of land and marine ecosystems by 2030.

For Catalan president Pere Aragonès, the priorities at European level are the Mediterranean corridor rail line along the coast, the Mediterranean macro-region, the 2030 agenda, and the circular economy. 

Foreign minister Meritxell Serret also said the use of Catalan and the defense of the Catalan school system are also priorities.

The language activism group Plataforma per la Llengua has asked the Spanish government to make Catalan an official EU language before the general election on July 23.