Italy and Spain are the engines of full European political cooperation, to give young people a future without shyness and reticence. Sergio Mattarella arrives in Madrid for the last planned state visit of the seven-year period, welcomed with the highest honors by the king and the premier of Spain. “Without Italy there is no Europe” King Philip VI greets him during the state dinner at the Royal Palace. Next to the king, Queen Letizia who converses with the daughter of the President Laura, a little further on the premier Pedro Sanchez. “The response to the pandemic, in its health, economic and social dimensions, has shown what steps it is possible to take in the European Union towards full political cooperation” explains Mattarella, for which “the Next Generation EU provides us with the opportunity to build more just and inclusive societies, projected into the future “. And having as their common “destiny” the “European horizon”, Italy and Spain “must continue to offer their impulse, their contribution of thought, their common sensitivity”. There are many fronts in which Rome and Madrid can push the Union to remove the brakes that still slow it down. First of all, the management of migrants, for which a “fair commitment” on the part of Brussels is needed, just as a member country rains cannons of water on the migrants on the borders of the continent on the refugees who flock to enter.
But also on the southern front of the continent, Italy and Spain can assert their weight, representing a quarter of the entire European population: for the President, «the African continent is the natural partner of the European Union. Not understanding it now could lead us to realize, in a few years, that we have been silently, but inexorably, relegated to the periphery of the planet ». The Mediterranean is “a sea full of opportunities that we will be able to fully grasp only if we are able to work more decisively, all together, for the stabilization of the countries and the development of the peoples who inhabit it”. And therefore, “twenty-five years after the Barcelona Declaration, the policy for a new Agenda for the Mediterranean recently adopted by the European Union must be strongly re-launched, to transform the difficulties of common challenges into shared opportunities”.
For the President of the Republic, then, it is clear that the success of the NextGenerationEU depends on the success of the plans of Italy and Spain: in fact, the two countries received about 40% of the entire resources allocated under the program. We often talk about the role of the Visegrad group or the so-called “frugal”, but the Mediterranean group – MED9 – can have strong impetus in its action from the Italian-Spanish coordination and the action carried out by the two governments for the approval of the NextGeneration and the common position on the revision of the Stability and Growth Pact are an example of this. Still in the European multilateral context, both Italy and Spain share the opportunity of a European Defense in synergy with NATO. For the crisis in the Sahel, both countries are engaged in the coalition for the stabilization of the area, while in the Middle East they have launched the joint initiative for the restoration of conditions of trust between Israel and Palestine in order to restart negotiations between the parties. . Common ground for a strategic partnership is also the quadrant of Latin America. As regards the always excellent bilateral relations, Italians are the fifth foreign community in Spain, third among the European ones; Italy is the third commercial partner and in Spain there are about 2200 Italian companies.
After the reception at the Royal Palace, the Mayor of Madrid gave the President the golden keys of the city. – “The Golden Key that was given to me represents the symbol of the renewal of that tradition of fraternal friendship that binds Madrid, one of the capitals of the common European aspiration, and Italy is a pledge for the future of the relationship between our peoples “. Tomorrow Mattarella will hold a lecture on European issues in the hemicycle of the Congress, then he will be in Malaga to participate in the Cotec symposium.