2023-06-30 19:37:12
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travels to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Saturday to take over the scheduled EU Council Presidency. He wants to underline the continued support of the European Union for the country attacked by Russia. The fourth largest EU country will succeed Sweden for the next six months.
“The war in Ukraine will be one of the top priorities of our presidency,” Sanchez said on Friday following attending the EU summit in Brussels. One wants to “guarantee the unity of all member states”. That’s why he decided to start the six-month period in Kiev and with a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The left-wing minority government has big plans. Under the motto more justice, she wants to promote the introduction of common minimum standards for corporate taxation, the fight once morest tax evasion by large multinational corporations and the completion of the banking union.
However, Sánchez may have little time to realize these goals. Because in the parliamentary elections on July 23, the opposition conservative People’s Party PP is likely to receive the most votes according to polls and then take over the government together with the right-wing populist Vox.
The 27 EU member states take turns presiding over the EU Council every six months. The presidency chaired numerous meetings in Brussels, Luxembourg and in its own country, set its own priorities and tried to mediate in controversies. Austria last held the presidency in the second half of 2018.
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