On Thursday 26 February, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, sent the President of the European Council, António Costa, a note on European competitiveness in which he calls on the EU to respect its key principles, such as its climate commitments and respect for the European social model, and deplores the fact that current debates are more often than not reduced to a desire for deregulation.
While Madrid was excluded from the informal breakfast on the subject organised ahead of Alden Biesen’s informal ‘retreat’ on 12 February, as was Ireland, the Spanish Prime Minister is proposing a 10-point programme.
This starts with “simplification through integration and harmonisation”, while a 2% reduction in internal barriers to the single market would offset the impact of US tariffs.
Spain supports the simplification of legislation and the reduction of administrative burdens, particularly for SMEs, and shares the objective of streamlining authorisations and procedures, “provided that this does not weaken legal certainty, social and environmental standards”.
The country is also taking a stance on industrial policy and the Industrial Accelerator Act, scheduled for 4 March.
While it supports the introduction of European preference mechanisms, it is on condition that “they are carefully calibrated and effectively strengthen Europe’s industrial base and strategic value chains”.
These mechanisms “should be aligned with trade and public procurement policies in order to avoid conflicts, distortions of the single market and breaches of the EU regulatory framework and WTO rules. Local content requirements based strictly on rules of origin could lead to inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions and increased dependencies”, warns the Prime Minister.
28th regime for all companies. Favouring regulations over directives would also strengthen harmonisation and reduce gold-plating, says Pedro Sánchez. “This should guide the future EU Inc. initiative (28th regime), which must deliver practical convergence and benefit companies of all sizes, not only start-ups”.
At a time when the European continent is experiencing the fastest rate of global warming, we must advance and accelerate, not dilute, the green agenda, added the Spanish Prime Minister.
Postponing the ETS is not the solution. The EU also needs a true Energy Union and sufficient cross-border interconnections. The ambition of the EU’s ‘electricity networks’ package should be strengthened, he believes.
But “dismantling the Emissions Trading System (ETS) is the wrong answer to high energy prices. While some adjustments to the current system to reduce volatility could be welcome, a misguided and rushed reform would risk distorting the price signal it has successfully been sending without bringing competitiveness gains. Postponing the entry into force of the ETS2 is also not the answer to our problems”.
The Prime Minister also called for skills to be strengthened and qualifications to be recognised, and for a socially-anchored competitiveness framework based on high-quality jobs and strong social rights. “Broad collective bargaining coverage and safe workplaces strengthen human capital”, writes the leader, who also insists on resolving the housing crisis.
Enhanced cooperation. As far as large-scale investment is concerned, “there is a clear need to mobilize private investment”. “We must make decisive progress towards the Savings and Investment Union (SIU)” and “ahead of the March European Council, the E6 group (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands) will be working on concrete proposals that may be fast tracked on the SIU for Leaders’ consideration”.
In “a Union that often moves at the pace of the slowest among us, a pragmatic multi-speed approach, allowing more ambitious Member States to advance further, may be necessary in a more hostile geopolitical environment”, concludes the Spanish leader. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)