Sánchez will sound out Meloni with a view to advancing the migration and asylum pact in the Spanish presidency of the EU

He travels tomorrow to Cyprus, Malta and Italy to try to reach consensus on the issues that are addressed during the Spanish semester of the Union

MADRID, 3 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will undertake a trip to Cyprus, Malta and Italy tomorrow, where he will address with these three countries the issues that will focus the Spanish presidency of the EU during the second half of 2023, arousing special interest, in the case of Italy, the position of its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, on immigration. Sánchez's conversation with Italian politics, with whom he will meet on Wednesday in Rome, will also serve to find out to what extent a migration and asylum pact can be advanced or reached during the Spanish semester.

As in the case of other countries that the Chief Executive has already visited on this tour, Pedro Sánchez will address priority issues during the Spanish semester in which he will try to reach consensus with the different leaders. Among them, stand out competitiveness, reindustrialization of Europe, open strategic autonomy, reform of the electricity market, fiscal rules or the review of the multiannual financial framework. All this in addition to issues related to third regions, particularly Latin America.

The Government highlights the fact that there is a certain alignment of these three countries with the Spanish positions on many of these issues, given that all the countries that it will visit tomorrow and on Wednesday have a similar geographical position and are members of the MED5.

However, immigration is where the most differences have arisen, especially with Italy, given the initial position that the Italian Government maintained with the arrival of Giorgia Meloni, rejecting the landing in Italian ports of immigrants from salvage and rescue operations. carried out by NGOs.

Subsequently, at the beginning of this year, the Meloni Executive approved some regulations for the landing of rescues at sea that have been controversial and were rejected by NGOs, describing them as contrary to international law.

Precisely, the issue of immigration will be one of the issues that Pedro Sánchez addresses with the Italian premier in order to find out to what extent a migration and asylum pact can be advanced or reached during the Spanish presidency of the Union.

Despite the discrepancies that may exist with the migration policy between Spain and Italy, the truth is that this country continues to form part of MED 5 --made up of Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Italy itself, the countries of first entry of migrants to the EU--. In fact, they issued a joint document on March 4, after the last meeting of the interior ministers of these five countries.

Spanish policy in this matter has focused on agreements with 'positive' incentives with the countries of origin and transit of immigrants, which, in addition to including return agreements, also include aid to control immigration and technical preparation. from local authorities. Frontex is even encouraged to make this type of agreement with 'positive' incentives as opposed to the policy of other countries, which raise 'negative' incentives using visa policy or development cooperation.

In this context, sources from the Executive indicate that the President of the Government is not going to get into national issues on immigration regulations, but he does want to send the message that during the Spanish presidency of the EU he would like to reach the broadest possible consensus in this issue. In addition, Spain wants the vision of the countries of first entry to be taken into account in this Migration Pact.

In any case, the goal is for agreements on this matter to be based on European migration values, which include solidarity, responsibility and humanity towards migrants.

It is also not ruled out that other issues such as the rights of women and the LGTBi collective are addressed, since one of the Spanish priorities is to continue advancing in the pillar of social rights of the EU.

In addition to the topics that will be dealt with as a priority by the Spanish semester of the EU, other issues that arise bilaterally could also be addressed with Italy, such as the potential for collaboration between the two countries in the recovery plans, which are already underway. and halfway through. In other words, the opportunity to carry out joint projects in matters such as digital, energy, renewable or industrial.

In fact, from the Executive it is highlighted that the relations between Spain and Italy transcend the governments because they are brother countries in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and with many similarities in the European agenda because Spain and Italy have a position very similar geography. They admit, however, that the relationship with Meloni is not as close as with Conte or Dragi.

Trade relations with Spain show exports to Italy worth 26,560 million in 2021 and from Italy to Spain, 22,600 million, with which the coverage rate is 117 percent.

The reverse occurs with the investments of Italy in Spain, which two years ago reached 723 million compared to the 231 that Spain invested in this country. As for cultural relations, these are very intense, with Italy being the one with the largest number of Spanish cultural institutions, highlighting the 4 Cervantes institutes or the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

On this tour, the first country that Pedro Sánchez will visit will be Cyprus, where the last visit by a Spanish president was in 2009 with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The head of the Executive will arrive around one in the afternoon Spanish time. The meeting will be the first with a European leader since the new president, Nikos Christodoulides, took office, so his government wants to give it a more official character.

Spain is the ninth supplier of Cyprus, with exports worth 315 million in 2021, while exports to Spain from this country rose to 30 million. Regarding investment flows, they are small but with a tendency to increase in Cyprus. The company Alsa has recently landed there with several transport lines.

After the meeting and a statement without questions, the head of the Spanish Executive will travel to Malta, the smallest economy in the euro zone, but which in 2019 received 2.7 million tourists, and where Spain exports a value of 381 million and imports by 94. Although Malta's investment in Spain is greater, 40 million, than vice versa, which was only 6.6 million.

Pedro Sánchez will arrive in this country late in the afternoon and after being received by his counterpart they will make a joint statement, followed by a meeting and an official dinner.

The Spanish president will also address the issue of immigration with the leaders of Cyprus and Malta given that they are countries of first arrival, as is the case with Italy, and Cyprus has the specific problem of the so-called Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, which Spain does not recognize .