At 39 years old, the socialist MEP Javier López (Madrid, 1985) He has just made his debut as one of the vice presidents of the European Parliament, a high position within the structure of the European legislature. He spoke to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA minutes after presiding over the plenary session in Strasbourg this Wednesday, in which they debated how to recover European competitiveness in line with the Green Pact and in which his colleague Teresa Ribera intervened for the first time. , first vice president of the European Commission and the Spanish woman with the most power today in the European Union.
López, who comes from the PSC and was number three on the Socialists’ list in the European elections in June, is also one of the key people in the negotiation for the entry of Catalan, Galician and Basque into the European Parliament.
He is part of the working group of the so-called Table on Citizens’ Language and Linguistic Services…
There we see the request of the Government of Spain regarding the use of co-official languages in part of the Spanish territory. It is a live request and one that is being studied constructively by the working group.
What would it mean if it goes ahead?
There are two petitions underway. What the European Parliament Bureau is observing is the request of the Government of Spain regarding the use of these co-official languages in the Plenary Session of the European Parliament. And then, at the same time, the General Affairs Council of the EU, made up of the Foreign Ministers, analyzes Spain’s request that they be official languages in the EU.
Would it be reflected in simultaneous translation in the European Parliament?
Officiality at the European level would automatically mean its use in plenary and the simultaneous translation of the entire community acquis, including all European legislation.
Who, how and when will decide it?
The working group has to decide first. And then, in the last case, it will be the Bureau of the European Parliament who would make the decision. I understand that in the coming months we should make a decision on this.
What is your position?
We are defending the request for linguistic justice, for representativeness and for greater proximity in European institutions with the citizens of Spain and the 20 million Spanish citizens who live with those official languages. It would be a positive measure and in the right direction.
We are entering a start to the year that everyone predicts will be quite turbulent. Concerns range from the weak economic and political position of France and Germany to Ukraine, to Trump’s arrival in the White House. How is the EU preparing?
Europe has to be able to take the reins of its destiny. We have open fronts in the economy, security and strategic autonomy, energy and protection of democracy. We know that Trump’s arrival at the White House entails relevant implications in economic and security terms for the European Union. A Trump who, in addition, this second term is probably going to be different from the first and will not have the checks and balances of Congress or the Supreme Court and with a Republican party subject to his political position. And more internationally related to the global extreme right as a whole and also to some political forces here in Europe. And that he wants to start a new tariff policy with Europe.
How do we prepare for an eventual tariff war?
The European Commission is carefully studying the possibility of trade-restrictive measures by the new administration. We are going to want to maintain the logic of good cooperation with the United States. But, at the same time, being honest and sincere, we Europeans cannot depend every four years on what 25,000 people in Pennsylvania are going to vote for.
And what does that imply?
We need to strengthen ourselves in terms of economic security. Probably recover industrial capabilities in strategic sectors. That is why President Ursula Von der Leyen has launched several strategies: clean industry and industry linked to the great digital and green transitions.
And Spain?
It is, by far, the best functioning economy in the euro zone, with growth of 3%, especially while we have Germany in recession and France and Italy with flat growth. Probably economic anxiety is not being perceived as much in Spain due to the sweet economic situation we have. The Economist has rated us as the best economy this year among developed OECD countries, but in the rest of Europe there is a certain feeling that we are losing capacity in competitive terms.
Is a model change necessary?
The European prosperity model after the fall of the Berlin Wall is based on having cheap American defense and security, cheap Russian energy and cheap Chinese consumer goods. All three things, for different reasons, are over. Europe will only be able to get out of this situation and reinvent its prosperity model with more Europe. It has to take charge of its security in a very competitive geopolitical environment and with actors who are real threats, as we have clearly seen in Ukraine. We must take charge of our energy supply to be energetically autonomous, reinforcing our commitment to renewables. Spain is a success story in this, with 50% of its electricity from renewable sources. Thirdly, we have to recover strategic industrial production.
What can be done in that sense?
The reports by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta have two major theses on how to improve our competitiveness. One says that there is a lack of investment; another, that there is too much regulation. I think we have to promote intelligent regulation, without twists and turns. But the biggest problem that Europe has is investment, with a structural investment deficit for the last 15 years. European tax rules do not leave room for the necessary investment. The Next Generation EU European funds are being a success in this sense, and help to modernize and improve our competitiveness.
Should we invest in military industry? There are those who discuss it because if you invest in Defense you do not invest in other things.
We have to be able to commit to a clean, competitive and socially fair industry. But, at the same time, one of the phenomena that Europe is experiencing is that the security umbrella that we had had since 1945 is no longer reliable…
It is not guaranteed…
And, at the same time, we live in a geopolitical environment marked by two major wars on our doorstep, in the Middle East and in Ukraine. And with threats that have increased exponentially in recent years. What many of us here defend is that we have to invest more in our security. But invest European: more European industry, and more coordinated. Always in line with the commitments that we have already acquired within NATO, of 2% spending. This does not detract from the fact that Europe must continue to be a space of peace that projects peace in the world. But the current geopolitical environment is what it is. What you cannot do is puff and sip at the same time: I cannot want to not spend more on Defense and depend less on the Americans.
He has talked about the economy and security, we are missing the political part. Trump’s arrival has strengthened the far right, for example in Hungary. The Parliament that has just left and of which you are vice president has one in four extreme right deputies… Have you noticed any change in the atmosphere or in the debates?
There are about 200 far-right MEPs out of a total of 721. And they have three political groups. They are in the Government in Italy and Hungary, and increasingly coordinated among themselves and internationally. That’s a change. But the balance of the large political families in the EU has been maintained. It has emerged more fragile after the elections, but the tsunami that some predicted in the last European elections has not occurred. We have been able to form a European Commission. That it has moved to the right, yes, because the center of gravity is further to the right, with more national governments in the 27. But, at the same time, we have a magnificent president of the European Council, Costa, who is a Portuguese socialist . Not only do we have the first vice president of the European Commission Teresa Ribera, the first time in history. In addition, we run one of the large financial institutions, with Nadia Calviño at the European Investment Bank. The European press described Teresa Ribera not only as the most powerful member of the next commission, but also her portfolio of powers as the greatest that a commissioner had ever had in Europe.
In exchange, the PSOE had to pay the price of voting yes to a commissioner from Meloni…
But we were going to have a commissioner from Meloni, yes or yes, because the treaties say that the national governments appoint the commissioners. What we did is strengthen the position of the left within the European Commission.
Any more changes after the May elections?
That for the first time in history we see here a strategy of the European People’s Party where there is the explicit temptation to reach agreements with the extreme right. We have seen it on different occasions during the last few months. We see it in some national scenarios, the case of Spain is clear with the Popular Party and Vox. But they had never arrived in Brussels and we fought to maintain the cordon sanitaire.
This gives the European People’s Party a position of strength when they negotiate with you: they can tell you that if you don’t vote for what they want, they always have the far-right bloc to push the laws forward. Have you already noticed that triangulation?
It is a false, unreal alternative majority. Because it adds up arithmetically, but you can’t govern Europe with the extreme right. The extreme right will not approve laws or budgets or committee governments in Parliament.
But why not? If they add up…
Because its rejection of the European institutions means that institutionally it is not an operational majority. We have to reclaim the positive heritage of the old Christian Democracy of the PP, which has contributed to the construction of Europe and which fulfilled a historical function. It seems that some within the European People’s Party, such as the Spanish PP, are willing to resign from that historic role. In Germany, for example, which is about to have an election, there is a center-right candidate with a candidate, Mr. Mertz, who is more conservative than Angela Merkel, but who literally refuses to shake hands with the Alternative leaders. for Germany. Let’s hope that this positive spirit ends up guiding the European PP and ends up influencing the Spanish PP.
