“We started a new stage.”
The visit to Spain of German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has served Pedro Sánchez to exhibit understanding and roadmap between the two social democratic leaders.
The Hispanoalemán axis is renewed after the exit of Angela Merkel.
Scholz and Pedro Sánchez share a political family, affinity for the ecological transition or digital transformation, but also important differences in capital matters such as fiscal rules or the energy market.
A new unit stage, but also of discrepancies.
In fact, the German leader has warned of the need to have a framework of stability against the flexibilization of the return of the fiscal rules that want countries like Spain.
The Covid pandemic has forced everyone to a reset to try to overcome the socioeconomic crisis generated by the virus.
In Europe, a turning point was the suspension of fiscal rules so that countries could spend to combat the virus.
However, the debate is open and divided into the Eurogroup on its return and how they should return from 2023.
“We agree that the suspended fiscal rules are too complex and difficult to comply in the context of the pandemic,” Sánchez objected after lunch with his German counterpart.
These rules limit the public deficit and the public debt to 3% and 60% of GDP.
The position of Spain goes by “avoiding a premature withdrawal of stimuli and monetary and prosecutor policy that we have developed to respond to the pandemic”, as the Vice President Nadia Calviño has expressed this Monday from Brussels, before participating in the
Meeting of the eurogroup that precisely debath on tax rules.
The Spanish Government considers that it is necessary to “avoid an application without more than the tax rules we had before the pandemic.”
That is, opening a debate, urging a review of these rules.
Spending the approved European funds and subsequently see how the need to set thresholds and stops are reconnected from the indebtedness of the countries, but when the recovery is already established.
“The main priority of Europe is to agree on sustainability in the medium term of public finances, addressing the ecological transition and digital transformation, something that will require leverage private investment but that needs the leadership of public investment,” Sánchez expressed.
However, Germany sees with good eyes the past.
It considers it necessary that there are fiscal rules because, as Scholz explained to Sánchez, that containment has now allowed the European Funds.
The notice is clear: the future needs containment in case of needing it, to be able to have a European money piggy bank.
“The stability framework has allowed us the framework to have recovery funds, whose most part has not yet been disbursed and that allows us to give answers to the tasks of the future. For Germany it is clear that we want to continue building on the experiences of the
Past, “has been the warning of German Chancellor.
The future for Germany, goes by recovering the fiscal rules soon.
“In the coming years, Europe will walk hand in hand and this is done on the basis of the stability pact that has served as a framework for operations as dramatic as the pandemic and that will help us do the right thing.”
Yes, because Germany and Spain share interests and measures, including the Government Program of both countries shares initiatives, but there are fundamental differences that lunch between Sánchez and Scholz has only verified.
“There are issues in which we are not allied, but there is a huge tractor potential if we coincide positions,” was Sánchez’s desire.
Germany is not allied in Spain in the pretension that Apaña Sánchez that Europe addresses a modification of the energy market and that is aimed, for example, by a centralized purchase of gas to image and similarity of what has been done with vaccines, to
order to have more muscle to negotiate.
“We have treated it, we have different visions,” said Sánchez.
Faced with this discrepancy, both leaders decided to show unity in their joint position of betting on renewable energies, but being alerted about “what investments we are going to consider greens to achieve climate neutrality.”
Faced with the positions of countries such as France, and that Brussels held by when considering nuclear energy as green, Germany and Spain do not agree.
“In the debate on taxonomy (classification of energy activities that are considered green), Spain will have a constructive debate,” said Sánchez.
The German Chancellor has also opted to delve into renewable energies as a way to “connect with citizenship”.
