First of all, I would like to give you all a very warm welcome to our country and my satisfaction at being able to share with you, as the people ultimately responsible for community affairs in your respective national Parliaments, a few thoughts regarding the situation in Europe and the development of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Spain is a deeply pro-European country that has constructed its scale of democratic values and aspirations for modernity and progress by looking to the rest of Europe as an example and as an ambition.
Since we joined the European Union - we are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary - Spain has fully assumed its responsibilities in the project to build Europe and during this, our fourth Presidency of the European Union, we have sought to strengthen that commitment at a crucial moment for Europe.
To do so, we proposed an agenda focused on two priority areas: the full application of the Lisbon Treaty, with the consolidation of its new institutions; and the strengthening of joint action to overcome the crisis and guarantee economic recovery.
Furthermore, we also decided to organise and successfully hold a series of Summits with third-party countries; in particular, the multilateral Summit with Latin America and the Caribbean; as well as to foster debate on a European policy regarding cooperation for more effective development.
Finally, we wished to place the European citizen at the centre of our actions by promoting initiatives aimed at enhancing the exercise of their rights and the fight against discrimination and gender-related violence.
The depth and complexity of the economic crisis around the world and in Europe has continued to set the pace for intense action, to which we have all been forced to adapt.
There has been no time for transition. Europe has needed to react quickly and decisively to the scale of the challenges, and the new institutions and new Presidency have had to work with the utmost coordination right from the outset.
I sincerely believe that we can feel satisfied with this joint action. Despite there still being certain grey areas in the distribution of competency, despite there being a need to allow time for consolidation of best practices and balanced and effective institutional relations, the truth is that everything would have been far more difficult without this new Treaty.
The Spanish Presidency has offered its complete support from day one to the President of the European Council, Mr Van Rompuy, and to the High Representative, Mrs Ashton, and we have maintained maximum fluidity in our contact at the most delicate times, with both them and with the President of the European Commission.
We have not tried to place the spotlight on ourselves but we have rather tried to join forces and foster a more coherent image of the European Union within the region itself and beyond.
The experience of the Spanish Presidency over the course of these last few months simply confirms that the new Treaty offers numerous possibilities, but also demands shared responsibility from all the institutions, both the old and the new, the executive and the parliamentary, the genuinely European and those of a national nature... to involve themselves yet further in the process of building Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that you will have the opportunity in the debates at this Conference to undertake a detailed analysis of the role played by national Parliaments in this new legal framework.
There can be no stagnant compartments in the legitimacy of representation, in co-responsibility or in inter-institutional dialogue.
From the national Parliaments, we must contribute towards laying the foundations of the European project, towards promoting its acceptance by our citizens, towards completing its control in the specific issues of subsidiarity and proportionality, and towards supporting great European policies.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As I said, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has been defined, within an economic framework, by the need to tackle the consequences of the most serious crisis suffered by the European Union in its history.
A crisis that has resulted in a severe contraction of European GDP, -4% in 2009, the worst in 30 years; an intense increase in unemployment, more than 7 million people in the last 20 months; and a significant deterioration of European public accounts, with a public deficit of -6.3% in the Eurozone in 2009, when it stood at -2% in 2008, and with all Member States of the Eurozone in a situation of excessive deficit.
Spain has advocated a coordinated response since the international crisis first began.
At the start of our Presidency, we were already announcing that this would be our priority and that we would therefore be working with the European institutions and the other Member States to strengthen coordination on the economic policies of the European Union.
Subsequent events, especially those related to the Greek crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, have done nothing but confirm the need to have stronger and more effective economic governance in Europe.
Europe has demonstrated its ability to increase coordination in the face of the various blows struck by the crisis.
A coordinated response proved fundamental in stabilising the financial markets in the autumn of 2008.
It was again fundamental in defining an ambitious European fiscal stimulus programme to tackle the recession and avoid the collapse of European economies.
And it is again proving fundamental now, it will definitely be fundamental, in intensifying the fiscal consolidation processes and structural reforms needed to put European recovery back on solid and sustainable ground.
In no way can it be said that the task is proving to be an easy one because no-one had designed the roadmap for tackling a challenge of such magnitude. Not in the European Union, nor in the Member States of the Union.
However, we are taking some very important steps; decisive steps with a historical perspective. Decisive for the future of the Monetary Union, for the single currency, and for a now necessarily coordinated economic policy to sustain it.
We managed to define the financial support operation to Greece. And, faced with persisting instability, the Heads of State and Government of the Eurogroup created the European Stabilisation Mechanism, capable of mobilising up to 750,000 million euros in the defence of any Member State in difficulty caused by extraordinary circumstances.
The implementation of this veritable safety net for the entire Eurozone has been accompanied by exceptional liquidity provision measures, such as the Central European Bank buying public debt in the private market and the Member States accelerating their fiscal consolidation processes in order to guarantee medium-term budgetary stability.
Alongside that, the Working Group led by President Van Rompuy is preparing specific measures to strengthen economic governance in the Eurozone, which will be ready within the next few months.
Furthermore, there is also agreement to strengthen both the preventive and corrective arms of the Stability and Growth Pact, and to create a solid framework for managing the crisis.
Over the course of these last six months, important steps have been taken towards improving the regulation of the financial system in Europe, in parallel with the proposals at the G-20.
Work is being finalised on the design of the European Systemic Risk Board and the European Supervision Authorities for banking, insurance and the stock exchange markets which, among other things, will regulate credit rating agencies throughout the European Union.
Furthermore, and for the first time, discussions will take place regarding the regulation, in a European Directive, of alternative management funds; the so-called Hedge Funds. Also, progress is being made on analysing the involvement of the financial system in the cost of the crisis; an issue on which Europe will make a joint proposal at the G-20 Summit in Toronto.
Another responsibility assumed by the Spanish Presidency is the responsibility to contribute towards the launch of the new 2020 Europa Strategy for Growth and Employment, the importance of which is clearly enhanced by the progress of the economic situation. Promoting our structural reform agenda now will help generate confidence and improve our potential for economic growth in the future.
Through the 2020 Europa Strategy, we propose moving towards a new economic growth model that will enable us to tackle the challenges shared by all Europeans: globalisation, climate change and an aging population.
With this in mind, we are going to equip ourselves with quantitative targets at a European level that will then be specified at national levels in the autumn through the National Reform Programs on employment, R&D, education, climate change and social inclusion.
Also, at the same European Council in June, we will approve the so-called integrated directives (on economic and employment policies); the formal vehicle of the Strategy.
Furthermore, and taking note of the functional flaws of the previous Lisbon Strategy, the 2020 Strategy will have a new governance framework.
At the end of the day, European Monetary Union has taken some very important steps over the course of the last six months in its economic integration and policy strengthening process, overcoming fundamental flaws in its functionality that the economic crisis brought to light.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of parliament,
Another of the priorities that we defined at the start of our Presidency was to strengthen Foreign and Common Security Policy, with a view to the European Union making its voice, its values and its interests heard more loudly on the international stage.
The Presidency is promoting the European External Action Service, approving the proposal made by the High Representative within the period set by the European Council; before the end of April. And it is discussing with the European Parliament the financial and personal regulations that must guarantee the necessary provisions for the implementation thereof.
As rotating Presidency of the European Council, Spain is taking on tasks that it will undertake in the future of the European External Action Service, such as representation of the Union in certain non-EU countries and Presidency of the Council working groups on issues of external relations.
We have played a decisive role in the task of coordinating the joint response by the Member States to the earthquake in Haiti; a humanitarian crisis of extraordinary magnitude. And we supported the debate on a European civil protection force to guarantee the best coordination and efficiency of our actions.
Spain has hosted various Summits over the course of these six months. The first EU-Morocco Summit is worthy of special mention.
Morocco, a privileged partner that enjoys an Advanced Statute, was the first southern Mediterranean country and the first Arab country to hold a Summit with the European Union.
I would also like to emphasise the importance of the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit.
We approved an ambitious Plan of Action, the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Foundation was created and the Financial Facility for Latin America and the Caribbean was implemented and allocated 125 million euros for the 2010-2014 period.
To this can be added the success represented by the closure of the EU-Central America Association Agreement, the sealing of the multipartite trade Agreement with Peru and Colombia and the formal resumption of talks to reach an EU-Mercosur Association Agreement.
This last agreement represents a significant step forward as it opens the door to what will be the most important free trade agreement to be signed by the European Union; a clear sign of confidence in the face of the protectionist tendencies being generated by the crisis.
As for the Summits with other countries, such as Canada, Japan, Pakistan and Russia, the Spanish authorities have worked hard to ensure their smooth development.
And I would not like to end without mentioning one issue to which the Spanish Presidency has dedicated a great deal of time and effort.
For the first time, the European Council in June will debate issues related to cooperation for development.
This debate will enable a consensus to be reached on a European position ahead of the forthcoming United Nations Millennium Review Summit to be held in September 2010 in New York.
Another of the strategic objectives was to develop the potential offered by the Lisbon Treaty regarding progress towards a more democratic Union with more citizen participation. Over the course of these six months, we have been working towards the implementation of the citizens' initiative and we soon hope to have a mandate for adhesion by the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
We have also achieved progress in the fight against gender-related violence through the implementation of the European Observatory for the eradication of violence against women, the proposal for a European telephone information and assistance service to victims, and the presentation of a Directive on an "European order on protection for the victims of violence against women" in which Spain has placed high hopes.
Furthermore, and in order to bring the Union closer to the public, we have worked hard in the field of matters related to justice and home affairs, with approval of the internal security Strategy, the creation of the Internal Security Committee, the adoption of the plan of action from the Stockholm agenda, and the preparation of the first assessment of the European migration and asylum pact.
I said at the start of my speech that we are living through crucial times for the process of building Europe; times in which, shortly after having overcome a long period of institutional uncertainty, we have been forced to tackle an economic crisis of unprecedented scale. And this crisis has tested not only the strength of our single currency but also our very commitment to the project of Europe itself.
We are therefore living through a special moment of responsibility. We must all stand up to the challenge. And there is only one way forward: to firmly bind the fight against the crisis and struggle for recovery to the process aimed at strengthening the Union, our single currency and the economic foundations that underpin it.
There are no national paths. There are national contributions and efforts and duties at the heart of a single European path.
I would like to conclude by wishing you productive debates that, I am sure, will contribute towards enriching reflections on the future of Europe and the indispensable involvement of national Parliaments in European life.
Good work and thank you very much.