“Spain is experiencing one of its best moments in recent decades” [Presidente/Actividad]

news-location">New York (United States)

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has started his agenda today at the United Nations with the opening of the 79th session of the General Assembly. He has also held various bilateral meetings with other leaders, and has closed the ‘Global Economy Forum’, organized by the Spain-United States Chamber of Commerce and the newspaper El País.

The Forum, under the title ‘Spain, Latin America and the United States in the Global Economy Forum’brought together representatives from the business world of Spain, Latin America and the United States. The Forum also featured, among others, the opening speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Government of Spain, José Manuel Albares.

Pedro Sánchez has stressed that Spain is going in the right direction and that the Government’s economic policy is working. “An economic policy that has a clear roadmap, to protect the incomes of the middle and working classes and the purchasing power of families,” he stressed.

In this regard, he stressed that Spain grew by 2.7% year-on-year in 2023; six times more than the Eurozone average. He also highlighted that Spain has been the country that has best contained the inflationary crisis among the major European economies, which is largely explained by the energy component.

The President of the Government has referred to three factors that have contributed to this milestone, such as the impact of the “Iberian solution”, the massive deployment of renewable energies through the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and the ambition “to become a great power in the production of green hydrogen”. In this sense, Sánchez has highlighted that “these data consolidate an unprecedented scenario in our economic history”, since, for the first time, “we have overcome an inflationary episode by generating competitiveness and not losing it”.

In this regard, the President took the opportunity to refer to three examples that show the strength of the Spanish economy, such as the performance of our labour market, highlighting that, in 2023, one in three jobs created in the eurozone were created in Spain and that it has experienced a 35% increase in high value-added sectors since the pandemic. He also highlighted the diversification of our foreign sector and Spain’s performance in the area of ​​new or greenfield investment. All of these aspects are contributing to strengthening social cohesion, Sánchez stressed.

Pedro Sánchez, beyond the achievements, has reviewed the pending challenges, such as strengthening the Welfare State, which involves a progressive tax model that distributes wealth more fairly and a financing system that guarantees resources to the administrations that have the powers of health, education, dependency and social services.

He also referred to guaranteeing housing as one of the main challenges of the legislature, and stressed the need to expand the public housing stock, as well as to resolve the tension between tourism activity and the well-being of residents.

Thirdly, Sánchez highlighted the third challenge as being that “we must remain at the forefront of the energy transition” and highlighted the approval today by the Council of Ministers of the new Energy and Climate Plan, which will be even more ambitious. “We aspire for 81% of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030,” he stressed.

Finally, he highlighted the challenge of improving European competitiveness, in line with the recommendations of the Draghi Report, which Spain shares, and he placed special emphasis on the need to invest more public resources in research, in the development of new technologies and in green infrastructure. “This is the path that Spain has followed, doubling public investment in R&D and allocating two out of every five euros of the Recovery Plan to the ecological transition,” he stressed. In this sense, Sánchez argued that “our country paid a very high price under the neoliberal dogma of austerity. We lost precious time.”

In this regard, he stressed that Europe must increase public investment, not reduce it, and that it must involve the State in the generation of wealth, not push it aside. “We have been applying this public-private collaboration policy for six years and now we know that it works, even in a complex international context marked by uncertainty, because the data is there,” he stressed.

Bilateral meetings

During the morning, Pedro Sánchez held various bilateral meetings with other leaders, both to strengthen Spain’s bilateral relations with other countries and to exchange points of view on issues of common interest.

Pedro Sánchez has held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Morocco, Aziz Akhannouch, with whom he has reviewed the excellent state of bilateral relations, the best in decades. In addition, both leaders have discussed the management of migratory flows and the commitment to orderly and safe migration.

They also discussed the organisation of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

The President of the Government also met with the President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, with whom he discussed collaboration on the Africa Avanza plan and contributing to joint development and prosperity in West Africa.

In this regard, both countries have discussed the preparatory work and close collaboration to ensure the success, with concrete and ambitious results, of the IV International Conference on Financing for Development. In this regard, Pedro Sánchez has held a meeting with the President of Mongolia, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsük, with whom he has discussed the enormous potential for the development of bilateral relations between both countries and the deepening of relations in the political, cultural and economic spheres.

On the other hand, the President shared with His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan his concern about the risk of a regional escalation. They also agreed that the Euro-Arab voice in favour of the two-state solution must also be heard at the United Nations. Both leaders called on all actors to reach a ceasefire that would allow the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and access to humanitarian aid.