Macron says UK’s return to EU would be ‘excellent news’ • FRANCE 24 English

we

have

had to face many

crises unprecedented

ones such as

the pandemic sometimes

there

were differences of opinion but we have

always wanted to find

an

agreement a consensus

between

our

two countries as they are two sister nations

france

and spain

i want to share this with all

the spaniards listening

in

all the conversations we had in france and in spain

we have always had

this spirit of building

a

stronger

and solid europe

it has

always been the red thread our compass we

want

to

defend europe's values europe

that does not want to give up its soul or change course i think one of the main values of this european project is

something

that is summarized in the word solidarity solidarity which has made it such that we have launched innovative and unprecedented measures to build a different europe a type of fortress during the pandemic

these

were mechanisms to protect many many jobs throughout the pandemic this solidarity which today

is

helping us move forward when we see firefighters

on

both sides of the border in the pyrenees to fight fires to deal with the most dramatic effects of climate change that is the fires we have had in france

and

spain

and

very dramatic ones at that

as

well

spain

recognizes and thanks

president

macron

for the calls

during

these crises

where solidarity of france was expressed

with

spain

and also with the autonomous city of sauda

and this has guided our work and relations between france and spain

are

at an extraordinary point

i'm

talking for example during the official dinner

i

was speaking with the king

when

we spoke of the dual citizenship

treaty and

i thank you that it was in the french town multiple

manuel and manuel

afania was there

and i

thank you

for

the honors

bestowed

upon this person who is so important for the history of our country so thank you very much for this gesture it is truly a gesture which we respect

and

which we consider very

special

this

link is one we see also in economic terms we spoke of the forum the different meetings of the president of the republic with the business community both the french business

community and in

spanish companies investing on the other side of the border so for all these reasons

i must apologize president macron

for

the negative

vote on

the treaty of friendship

within

our senate

it

has

been rejected

and

in any

case i would like

you

to know that there

will be

approval of this agreement

soon

because this treaty

reflects this feeling

of

fraternity and friendship which we have

with our neighbor and friend friends

so with

regard

to the

um

charter of the european

project we

must

work

together hand in hand and we share a common vision as to the direction and the measures that must be taken within

europe

this

vision

has been

called

into question

today

unfortunately

there is a

reaction throughout

the world

trying

to divide and fragment

europe trying

to have a europe where there is

confrontation

it's a trend

we're

trying to get europeans to renounce their democratic values and their values of social

cohesion

i

believe that

governments

and countries such

as france and spain

we

are in a specific situation

france

and spain are this european resistance to these enemies of our continent and of the european model the sources of the base of our project is one in the same and that's

because we

know how we it's

the only way to protect

europe president macron many

times

spoke of the need

to increase

european sovereignty

of course in

the field of technology

as i had said in the field of technology

we

are

strengthening cooperation of

the

spatial agencies there's the iris european project with over 290 satellites and we are trying to provide a new impetus in europe within the united nations to protect minors so that oligarchs cannot destroy minors and youth now i want to talk about the very important role being played by president macron in

the european community in a unilateral way

we spoke

during

our conversations

about the agreement concluded which will

be soon signed to enable spanish companies to work from

in french guyana

and

i want to thank president macron there's also

re-industrialization

of a green

economy now in

terms of

energy interconnection and transport this is very important to have a true european union you know what our position is so i will not talk about it at length but given the

european

council coming up i think it's important to say to spanish public opinion that the two governments the two countries have a shared vision

european

budgets must be much more ambitious than they are at present on paper and i think in this topic france and spain are in agreement to have a pluralistic plan that's more ambitious so that the european union will be well armed to deal with security issues 360

and

we cannot add much more than what

you already know well with

regard to misinformation it is obvious that

this

month with france and spain and other eu countries have launched an initiative to enhance european initiatives on a digitalized electorate we need more transparency on algorithms better control on fake accounts and we need to protect ourselves from possible

interference

foreign interference during elections upstream we have to protect our sovereignty and therefore we have to protect our environments and our democratic processes i don't want to speak at too much length in this introduction but i want to recall that above all france and spain share

a

global

mission

that

is we

have a very similar

vision

of

what's happening

in the middle east

especially

with regard to the war in iran we want to bring solutions that's why france and spain are working hand in hand to promote peace justice and respect for international law we're doing this in iran in palestine with the recognition of two states and i recognize

the

role

the

leading role of president macron and we have taken a step forward to recognize the two-state solution this was discussed at the u.n general assembly i don't want to talk only of iran and palestine but also ukraine lebanon where we're working very closely with the armed the french armed forces

so

the french and spanish armed forces within the framework of the united nations and we're doing this because we believe in something essential and that is how i will conclude we believe we do not when we have to look at the law of the strongest as described by president macron

in

a previous statement i think that france and spain will continue to

defend

multilateralism and international order based on laws and standards

this

is on principle and in the general interest of our countries because a world without standards governed by force is not a safe and secure one so the responsibility that we are renewing today is the reason why the friendship between our two countries

continues

and will be one of the great strengths of europe i have said all i had to say thank you ever so much now i give you the floor

thank you very

much

dear

pedro president prime

minister of spain and

i

want to

thank you for the discussions

we have had and the ones we will continue with our teams

here i also want to thank

his majesty

the king for his

welcome and this state for the state visit you have just said you've said everything

with regard to the bilateral

relationship we have in our european relationship more broader and international one and i echo what you have said but there is also very clearly a friendship

great

esteem

and vitality of this bilateral relationship and it

is

part of the history we talked about yesterday together with you and his master's d the king the struggles for freedom have always seen the spaniards and the french

side

by side

this is

true during the struggle

for the republicans of spain

and in the liberation of france and we

remember

this this has fueled our imagination and it's true

for

all human relations we cannot decree them we can accompany them and provide tools but it's striking to look at the vitality of our relations the intensity of all our cultural linguistic and uh school-related buildings and the bashi back which we created at barely 15 years ago has been a great success which has further improved things and when we talk about erasmus which obviously is the embodiment

of

the greatest embodiment of europe

i

see that we are privileged uh participants in this within europe and it shows the strength of these ties and we see this in our trade relations in cultural and human relations and you have said this i was with his majesty the king at the opening of the economic form of our businesses and economic cooperation and when we were together

just

three years ago in barcelona

we

said that there were 80

billion

euros of

trade

now

we're at

90

billion france

is the

first client a first foreigner and the third supplier so there is a great amount of strength in these ties and we've seen this in our delegation we have major employers in your country like orange which has just made

a strategic investment

going and also renault

with

its different sites in

berlin there's veolia carrefour edf and angie

and more this is a

relationship we want to continue to buttress we in defense as well

we

are partners that go back

a long way in the 400

m

and nh

410

in

aerospace as well we have spatial projects there's tales as decide

and air

airbus descent

space and the probable project which is very important for our

industries

and we are intensifying these relations

there

were several remarkable companies from new space and there's the iris caray project which

has

common funding joint funding which will enable us to go further in many sectors we have new ambitions to multiply

our

economic and strategic partnerships we are also continuing cooperation

across

borders and in connectivity and this agenda is extremely important for us

to first

in

terms of railways i

want to

reaffirm the liaisons

we have we have high-speed trains tour

bordeaux

team

montpellier and others going to spain and i want to say that we have this we want to link

paris to

madrid and

last

year there are new projects that have been set up and will be implemented together we are

mobilizing a lot to

have requisite

european funding for

these common european projects

now

in terms of energy

interconnections we've

made

a lot of progress

in recent

years there's the bay of biscayne on one side there's the ash de med

which

is for hydrogen and equipment

and

then there's the interconnection

of electricity across

the pyrenees

and even if

sometimes on the ground

we have some reticence

but that's

the

work

we have we

have to convince

but

going beyond that we

also will mobilize european funding because these interconnections are very important

everywhere but if we want

to accelerate them we have to

follow

through and show that they're important for the entire european network that's why in this respect and i recall this this morning

with

the deputy prime minister we have to pursue two goals we agree on technological neutrality and electrical interconnectivity that's how we will be able to accelerate these trans-pyrenees

connections

now the above and beyond bilateral connections

we

also have a european agenda

where

here

again

the complicity is very strong

and

the president has just recalled this there's support to ukraine

the

role we are playing in the coalition of the willing the clarity that we have in this respect

the

defense of the people of ukraine and its sovereignty security of europeans consolidations of a european pillar within nato and the fact that our two countries are among those who own that we do not have double standards so we have to defend sovereignty in other regions of the world

you

have the clarity of recognizing palestine

speaking

also of the security of israel's security and not

giving

in to anything in terms of peace and stability and also working to ensure the territorial sovereignty of lebanon i think that this is extremely important

now

on our different european agendas

i

think we also have the competitiveness agenda together we're working on

digital

projects

where we are calling for greater investments in a european system that would make it sovereign in the entire chain of values in quantic uh ai quantic and 6g

so

this is a very important element we need an ambitious approach in investments and we support as well an ambitious approach for the european budget

on

this i want to highlight you've just done so but

what's

important for us is we have to have a budget that will enable us to maintain our ambitious plans for

cohesive

policies and also develop in new sectors and to be able to

maintain our

savings and investments the ambition of the european budget and our capacity to decide on our own resources in october and to defend this ambition

and

the right

size

of this budget this is something we share now besides this there's the need to deploy a european preference on

public

tenders and with the industrial accelerator accelerator that's what we want to do and we want to defend european content and protect our industries we see that's important our countries are exposed for example the automotive industry needs its clarity and ambition we're defending it we had a very sound discussion on this with the prime minister

on

the relationship

with

china we both think that

europe

must remain and that's what we do for diplomacy a place of openness and diversification of strategic discussion

every

year

i

have gone to china and we have very important relations and you go there regularly as well but we want to have fair competition

in

this respect we share an approach that consists

of saying

we have to produce much more and better in europe

and

that's what we want in europe when we talk about these new economic models which will begin to be implemented in october and we want to have fair competition

as

long as it doesn't exist that is to protect our industrialists as when we need to

and

we have to convince our chinese partners to do technology transfers we've done some in

spain

in france that respect european employment and on some high-end chinese technologies you know something that we did 20 25 years ago this is a unified european approach

and

this is what we will continue to defend so ambitious budget

innovation

innovation policy joint funding and european preference on key sectors we spoke of our solidarity after the sauta migratory crisis because we share the same attachment to balance found between responsibility and solidarity

and

which

means

that we have this

uh

migration

and asylum pact so we have to continue to develop

firm

solutions to protect our common borders

efficient

policies

respecting

european laws and our values and on return and cooperation and depending and we have to look at what the people who are trying to smuggle those into our country we have to be firm but also show solidarity among europeans and in keeping with our history and our values finally

we

have

mobilized

ourselves on protecting our democracies and our youth and

to

have a digital europe we have strongly mobilized

both

together france and spain to implement the dma dsa initiatives and our common mobilization with some other colleagues was decisive just a few days ago we were at the united nations

to

preside together with the australian and kenyan presidents to protect our children

with

regard to progress in ai and our initiatives made it possible to

come

up with european decisions and i'm gratified by the european act to protect children and

this

is the european commission's president who has been at the head of this and we want to be part of europe that protects its children and youth protects democratic digital spaces from foreign interference and algorithmic control we are in favor of innovation we want to benefit on this innovation and in the development and growth it provides we don't want

predators

to be capturing the hearts and souls of our children and we don't want to concentrate this in the hands of just a few this means we need to have information that is of quality within european content and arte is working on this with arte plus content

a

major landmark

at

the european level

there

you go ladies and gentlemen that is what i can add to what has been said and further confirm what the prime minister of spain has said and dear pedro

my

delegation and i were delighted to be here with you

and i'm

delighted personally to be here side by side with you to continue our work thank you very much thank

you very much mr president we will begin this press conference

so

thank you for

being here in such great numbers we'll start with our

french

colleagues from france television go ahead

good

morning or good day in your statement you said that france

and spain are not aligned on

trade

with china so mr president do you think that spain is not showing enough solidarity in its european response faced with china

and

mr prime minister is spain not being disloyal to europe on this matter now on the european budget how do you plan to convince the reticent countries with regard to uh being in favor of an increase of the european budget i said that we have some players

and

some differing voices dissenting voices because not everyone has the same opinion what i had said is that our role is to

find

a common ground

we

had a very substantive discussion on this and it was not the first one of its kind

and the

prime minister can correct me if i'm wrong i think we're both convinced that we have to protect our european players

on

both sides of the pyrenees we have people that when they have unfair competition they must be protected we have safeguard clauses we have modernization of trade instruments and we are fully aligned on this point second point

we

do not think that we must start a trade war with spain no no rather with china that wouldn't make any sense

we

have players working on this

and

there are in a technological innovations which we need

so

that's where we and 18 months ago i wrote an article on this with several points from this strategy

and

that is what we have been practicing both of us it's this technology transfer spain received or hosted many uh chinese companies

and

they

carried

out this technology transfer in i2 like deo or envision

and

this is part of our electrical battery success and this is linked to technology transfer it has to be well structured

so

we have a vision we want to have a strategic vision but we want to protect

and

to own the fact that we're protecting and i want to say that if we are not unified as europeans we have no chance of being successful

i

think we're fully aligned on that point

so i

must be able to say that the line that we are pursuing now

is

not being naive

nor

are we stigmatizing

we

want to to restore the terms of fair and balanced competition with china

to

protect

the

players

that

are victims of unfair competition

and

enable our economy to benefit from chinese innovations when we need them

through

these technology transfers and to do this by being unified us europeans to protect our markets that is why we believe in a customs

a unified

customs policy these are the terms i believe that is the only efficient european policy and i think that it does reflect the discussions very good discussions we had with the prime minister of spain

on

the european budget here again

we

have a very strong convergence

in

our vision we have to increase the budget no doubt we increased it through budget with

through

repower you

when

we have challenges in defense and security technology green technology ai and quantum

if

we don't increase our budget either we will not make these expenditures and we won't be in the race or we are going to throw it back to the individual countries and we will no longer have one market we will have 27 different policies in aerospace and this would be simply stupid

because

we will not have the critical mass to do this so we have to have a more ambitious budget the key to have this

is

without increasing our national contributions it's to be innovative

first

discussion which we will have in october is the agenda we will work together

we

will have clean resources that is our own resources

the

european budget needs to have its own resources in order to have a more significant budget without increasing national contributions second thing perhaps innovative with regard to the reimbursement of loans from year ago can we not prolong or extend the maturity of our states

the

maturity for these loans goes up to 30 years europe is a strong signature second element

third

point

well

this

is the fruit

of the discussion where can we adjust things

and

have reasonable

budget

cuts that's how we think and in what order but an ambitious budget is the key

to

the main issue here it's lack of innovation in europe

we can

only innovate if we have public funding and private funding hence the importance of a greater capital market

fund thank

you very much for your question

i

would like to recall

there

are two

important things

in

building

europe is

versailles and grenada

thanks

to france and spain as the

leaders

we defined and developed the idea

of

strategic open strategic autonomy

for

citizens to understand what we mean

we're

trying to look at how we can make europe more independent

we're

re-industrializing it and strengthening the single

market we

spain and france agree that france has to be more independent

so

we have to reduce our independence

we

can't do this overnight

in

one fell swoop we have the european project we have trade agreements that have been signed

but obviously we have to improve

and

be more independent in

defense

in energy

france

is doing this thanks to nuclear energy spain is doing this as well with the impetus in renewable energy

we

agree on this vision and we want

europe

to be one not insular but one that is independent

autonomous that

is why it's

important

to

re-industrialize europe and strengthen the single market we've always been clear

the

commercial trade of spain and

europe

it's over 360 million in 2025 that's unacceptable the chinese authorities know this spain was very clear on this point

on

this position

we

have always had a very frank relationship every time we could cooperate we did this on topics where we had competition we've been open and when there were differences of opinion we always try to manage things in a constructive way in order to overcome differences

as

said by president macron

it's

obvious

that

there is a

technology

transfer in sectors where let's admit it

china

is far ahead there are sectors

important

to the spanish and european economies

the

automotive industry

development

of electric vehicles

this

development that's happened in recent years so there is a need for this technology transfer and we did this 20 25 years ago

especially

german and french companies

as

president macron said this few minutes ago

so if

we are separated we're weak together we are stronger

at

the outset spain has always had the same position position that is we have to seek agreement where we will have some common base to be

linked

to each other and be able to face major powers like china we're not far from achieving that

we

need this strategy and it's coming faced with china it has to be a common strategy because our goal is the same we want to re-industrialize our continent strengthen the single market and have a european project that is more independent that is what we depend in spain and with the two statements these the statement of

versailles and

grenada now with regard to the uh european community's budget well in politics it's just like at home

you

cannot ask one household to do more with less yes we can tighten our belts yes indeed we can improve things

but

with the resources we

have or

if we have fewer resources as some countries are saying how will we be able to face problems

of

european citizens how will we be able to provide solutions i'm not only talking about security and defense let's talk about climate emergency adaptation how are we going to act so that europe can be more resilient in terms of climate change we see europe is not prepared

so

we need to have more economic resources france and spain we have to open a debate on clean resources

this

has to be opened up at the european level

because

the budgetary margins are what they are after the

uh

financial crisis uh the pandemic the war in ukraine which is ongoing the war in you in iran which is causing the cost of living to increase for everybody it's true that from brussels we look at things

with

a certain distance for those who

within

national governments and are doing everything to find a solution for our citizens we need to have some empathy and more commitment in order to have commitments that are in keeping with the demands of citizens the imperatives of citizens

and

so we in this given context

we

are

constructive

but we're also very clear we must open up this serious debate on clean resources we have to be more ambitious in terms of the european policies not enough to say we have to abandon or reduce

policies

for instance the cohesion fund or the pack

which hold us back

the

cap

we

want to improve technology science they

reduce the digital divide we cannot do all that we cannot say that europe has to play a european

um

role not

everything can be reduced to just one thing there's the mediterranean there are other aspects to be taken into account but ambition is one that we must maintain and this ambition unfortunately is part of the debate and we need to come up with figures and then we will see what the political project

that

one

country or another will come up with france and spain have an ambitious ambitious vision of things and we have to look what will happen in the next seven years we don't

know but

we know

what

the trends are the basic trends

affecting

citizens

there

are conflicts wars

digital

transformations energy transformations that will need and demand significant investment so we will have to be more

competitive

bet on science and innovation

very

important for

the

present and future prosperity of our world we're at a crucial moment in time in europe and the

figures

show it

the vision of a country

shows

this

so

thank you

france and spain have the same

vision

and

opinion on

this we will continue with nuria val

good day mr president the

the

spanish right

rejected the treaty of friendship

friendship and cooperation between

spain spain and france what do you think do you think something has to be uh amended

with

with spain and in this

treaty

and

now

for

the

prime minister i'm representing my colleagues and i'm going this uh treaty of friendship and cooperation was rejected what can you say could this change relations with france and what has been agreed on housing the leader of the ipp mr feijo what do you think when he says that the decrees on housing are contradictory and when on friday the two decrees are rejected if there's no majority do you think that it will be the right time to organize elections

thank

you

okay

to answer the first part of the question

i

had presented my apologies to the president of the french reply this is not a treaty of friendship and cooperation between the two leaders the president of france and the prime minister france it's between two countries that have a common future

in

europe

and

they have bilateral relations

so to

politicize the debate going beyond politics

we're

talking here about many things culture human relations there are over uh 370 000 spaniards living in france and many french in spain do we really need to have a plenary to vote

against

the problem

was the constitutionality of the treaty and it seems that that was not the problem in the end because the magistrates of the constitutional court that have a more conservative view have in fact validated this trade treaty unanimously so quite honestly

i

don't know what to say we will work in

order to be able to approve this

treaty

within the parliament the situation is regrettable

and

i understand that

politics is

sometimes irrational if you will

i

can understand them but to work against the interests of one's own country is something i don't understand and i do not know what the strategy behind this is with regard to this uh strategy that i mean the strategy of the party vox

there

are conflicts that are being opened up with all

the

neighboring countries i don't know i think we have to use common sense go above and beyond political debates and be aware that it is not a treaty between the government or between

the

president of the french republic and the nasty pedro sanchez it's a treaty between france and spain that goes far beyond

our

governments the governments of france and spain

on

the

second question

we

have approved the decrees within the council of ministers to

be

able to

to

approve them in parliament

so you're

asking me to look at the worst of scenarios but i want to look at the best possible scenario

but

i can say that i am reasonably optimistic with regard to as the ipb says i'm a traitor i don't know what that means i'm a traitor vis-a-vis whom

the

people who are speculating on housing perhaps

i

could be a traitor to them when we're talking about these types of interests but this entire debate let's bear in mind is a debate

which

is taking place because there's a dehumanization insensitivity of certain people

within

this uh

um

popular party which has not done anything with regard to the expulsions

but

we have found solutions

and

the city of paris also could have come up with such

a

solution

so

here there are many expectations in this respect

we

have worked on the two decrees

and

one is

one

that we worked on for months and i hope that they will be approved

on

friday thank you for having answered or asked your question in french

listen i

can only regret yesterday's vote of course i respect the vote that is the very principle of democracy you

were

listening to the joint press conference there in madrid between the french president and spanish prime minister pedro sanchez as emmanuel macron wraps up his a two-day visit in spain uh the uh the two men uh showing a united european front in the face of a changing world for more on the story we can go across the ceremony standing by in madrid uh sarah uh good afternoon to you talk us through some of the main takeaways there essentially um talking about the commonalities that france and spain have and they particularly mentioned china which is seen as one of the differential areas as pedro sanchez has had a close relationship with the chinese government in terms of visits and connections but both of the leaders said that they are wanted to be diplomatic with china but that they needed a robust and a growing eu budget when the negotiations come up for the budget to ensure that europe can lead on many of the technologies and they talked about the need for technology transfers in terms of the car business for instance um they also um talked about um well um pedro sanchez praised emmanuel macron for his uh leadership in terms of protecting children online and said that that was one of the areas uh where france had led and that was an area uh where both uh men agreed uh the tougher uh digital laws uh needed to be um respected uh macron um actually said uh that we couldn't uh uh create let uh predators uh control the hearts and minds of children uh lots of of questions are being asked about the fact that during this two-day visit uh the

the

treaty between france and spain was actually rejected in the senate it's already been uh ratified in france and the idea is uh for it to um emphasize and build on those uh connections diplomatically in terms of cross-border controls uh but the conservative dominated senate uh rejected it last night during this visit uh in connection with the far right uh party vox worried about uh some of the um elements of that treaty which would allow different ministers from different countries to actually attend each other's cabinet minister um cabinet meetings and uh pedro sanchez said that the conservatives needed to remember uh that that this was a treaty between the two countries not a treaty as he put it uh between emmanuel macron and nasty pedro sanchez they're hoping that treaty can still be ratified

these

two leaders could be considered lame ducks if you will we just had a poll come out a couple of days ago here in france and it showed that emmanuel macron's popularity stands at just some 18 percent france as you know is going to the polls he cannot stand for re-election similar picture over in the united in spain where you are of course uh pedro sanchez we have elections in the country next year what value does this visit really bring

it

certainly shows how much um um the two leaders and the two countries have done in recent times uh they were asked about um migration for instance and um pedro sanchez the spanish prime minister pointed out that emmanuel macron had actually called uh when there were those thousands that came across the border at morocco um to pledge france's solidarity uh he said that that uh was a very welcome and of course uh 22 other leaders did not do that they wrote um a letter saying that they were concerned about uh spain's uh regularization of uh many migrants and that that had uh perhaps uh led more migrants uh to want to come in and uh so the whole two men of course will be hoping that they can um send out a strong european message which will also probably um they hope benefit the two of them personally

um