Madrid (EFE).- The head of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will receive this Sunday in Madrid, one day after his visit to Kiev, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to exchange points of view on the axes of the six-month presidency Spanish Council of the EU.
This meeting will be Sánchez’s second public activity within the framework of that presidency that began last midnight and after the trip to Ukraine that he carried out this Saturday to guarantee the country’s president, Volodímir Zelenski, that the support of the EU is going to hold until the end of the Russian invasion.
The support will continue “as long as it takes” and “regardless of the price to pay,” he told the Ukrainian Parliament, where he also announced a new aid package of 55 million euros.
Michel and Sánchez will speak about the maintenance of European support for Ukraine, who already met in Brussels this Thursday and Friday on the occasion of the leaders’ summit with which the rotating Swedish presidency said goodbye.
EU Pact on Migration and Asylum
A summit in which the Twenty-seven were not able to advance in the Pact on Migration and Asylum of the EU due to the blockade of Poland and Hungary.
Sánchez expressed his intention to promote and, if possible, complete this pact this semester, and Michel highlighted the progress that has already been made for it and said that there is an “overwhelming majority” that supports the planned immigration reform.
The President of the Government and the President of the Council will speak about this matter, about others in which progress is expected and about the priorities of the Spanish presidency on Sunday afternoon before they both share a working dinner.
Sánchez’s priorities for the presidency of the Council of the EU
The priorities that Spain has set for this mandate are the reindustrialization of the EU and guaranteeing its open strategic autonomy, advancing in the ecological transition and environmental adaptation, promoting greater social and economic justice and reinforcing European unity.
They will also talk about the modification of fiscal rules, the reform of the electricity market, the revision of the community budget to allocate more aid to Ukraine, and the European Union-Latin America and Caribbean summit to be held on July 17 and 18 in Brussels.
A summit that has been promoted by Sánchez and that Michel has shown himself willing to organize since the Prime Minister conveyed that intention to him.
Both had a telephone conversation at the beginning of June after the head of the Executive decided to advance the general elections to July 23.
The Government has been reiterating that the fact that these elections are held in the early stages of the European presidency is not going to affect its development and it is part of the normality that this happens because it has already happened in other countries like last year in France.
Michel assures that the 23J elections will not affect
Along these lines, Michel assured after learning of the electoral call that the appointment with the polls will not have any effect on the semester of the presidency because he said that the Spanish Government has prepared it very well and it will be “fruitful.”
Another issue that will be at the Moncloa meeting will be the extraordinary European Council to be held in Granada on October 6 and the summit that will be held the day before in the same city of the European Political Community, a forum for all European countries whether they belong to or not to the EU.
Sánchez and Michel are expected to make a brief statement on the occasion of this meeting and, the following day, King Felipe VI will receive the President of the European Council at the Palacio de la Zarzuela.