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UKRAINE

Spain to kick off EU presidency with PM visit to Ukraine

Spain will take on the EU's rotating presidency this weekend with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visiting Kyiv to show steadfast European support for Ukraine as it battles Russian forces, officials said Thursday.

Published: 30 June 2023 09:37 CEST
Spain to kick off EU presidency with PM visit to Ukraine
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L) delivers a speech next to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during their press conference in Kyiv on April 21, 2022. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

Sánchez “will kick off the EU presidency on Saturday, July 1, in Ukraine… to demonstrate with his presence the unfaltering European Union support” to the country, said a statement from his office.

The announcement was made as Sánchez attended an EU summit in Brussels, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, participating via videolink, confirmed the visit.

From July to the end of December, Spain will hold the EU presidency which rotates among the bloc’s 27 member nations. It takes over from Sweden.

The role puts ministers from the EU presidency country in the chair of most EU meetings, influencing the agenda and priorities of topics being decided.

Zelensky told the summit that Sánchez’s visit “says much about the importance… for our Europe and the membership candidacy of Ukraine for the EU”.

Ukraine received EU candidacy status a year ago and hopes to begin formal negotiations this year on what it needs to do to firm up its membership bid.

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POLITICS

Socialist win in Catalan election ‘ends decade of division’: Spain’s PM

Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez said Thursday his Socialist party's success in the Catalan elections ended a "decade of division" in the wealthy northeastern region, long governed by separatists.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:16 CEST
Socialist win in Catalan election 'ends decade of division': Spain's PM

“The Catalan Socialist party’s victory… ends a decade of division and resentment within Catalan society and will doubtlessly open a new era of understanding and coexistence,” the prime minister said in his first remarks since Sunday’s election.

The Socialists coming top in the vote was a blow for the Catalan separatist parties which lost their governing majority in the region’s parliament that they have dominated for the past decade.

Since becoming premier some nine months after the botched independence bid of October 2017, Sánchez has adopted a policy of “reengagement” with the wealthy northeastern region to “heal the wounds” opened by the crisis.

In 2021, he pardoned the separatists jailed over the secession bid and has pushed through an amnesty bill for those still wanted by the justice system in exchange for key separatist backing that let him secure a new term in office.

That bill is due to become law in the coming weeks which will allow Carles Puigdemont – the Catalan leader who led the secession bid then fled Spain to avoid prosecution – to finally return home.

Despite Sunday’s result, in which the separatist parties secured 59 of the parliament’s 135 seats, Puigdemont – whose hardline JxCat party came second – said he would seek to build a ruling coalition.

READ MORE: Catalan separatist kingpin refuses to give up on ruling despite ‘pro-Spain win’

“We have an opportunity and we will make the most of it,” he said in the southern French town of Perpignan.

ERC, JxCat’s more moderate separatist rival, lost a lot of support in Sunday’s vote, triggering a crisis within the party.

Even so, it is likely to play a key role in Puigdemont’s coalition-building efforts as well as those of the Catalan Socialists, who won with 42 seats — also a long way from the 68 mandates required to rule.

Analysts say the most likely option would see the Socialists allying with the radical left party Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and ERC, which won 20, giving it exactly 68.

READ ALSO: Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

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