 Dear friends, let's move on with our agenda. Now, point 18, we'll have a debate on the priorities of the Spanish presidency. It is my great pleasure and honor to welcome the Secretary of State for the European Union from Spain, Señor Pascual Navarro. I ask you to take your seat. I invite you to take your seat. Now, I will give the floor to the Secretary of State to present us an initial statement on the priorities of the Spanish presidency. And then we will open the floor for the political groups because we have a little time constraint, so it's only the political groups as agreed previously with them that will intervene. Señor Navarro, you have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you very much, President. Honorable members of the European Committee of the Regions, ladies and gentlemen, I compare in the name of the Council against this plenary session of the European Union local and regional representatives assembly, I reflect on the plurality and diversity of Europe and its citizenship. As you know, the motto of the Spanish presidency of the Union is Europe closer, closer to Europe, to all its territories and to all its citizens. And for this reason, my presence today in front of you requires this relevance. Spain has assumed the presidency of the Council of the Union at a decisive moment in the construction of the European project. The Spanish presidency is the last complete before the European elections and the next European legislative cycle. We are negotiating a large amount of key experience from the point of view of European integration, approximately 120, which are major advances in the social, environmental and economic area and which are positively reflected in the well-being of our citizens. aware of this, the presidency has begun with the maximum determination, taking into account a deep European vocation and surpassing the Ecuador, we have celebrated about 30 trilogues, about nine formal advice and about 18 informal ministerial meetings. The pace will increase even more in these months and we are facing a huge opportunity to show everything we can contribute to Europe. I want to point out here that the Spanish presidency is a real country project that is nourished by the work and knowledge of multiple actors, particularly the autonomous communities and local entities whose active involvement guarantees the correct territorial implantation of the Spanish presidency. This has been reflected in itself in the celebration of informal ministerial meetings and events throughout the Spanish geography, proposed in this case both by the autonomous communities and by the local entities. The presidency program is articulated in four priorities, the line with the concerns and demands of European citizens, because the Spanish presidency's driving force is precisely the European citizen, that is, through European actions we can improve the well-being of people and solve problems. The first of these priorities is reindustrialization and open strategic autonomy. We have been working together for years in open strategic autonomy, but recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian aggression have shown the need to accelerate our work and solve, as soon as possible, our most serious vulnerabilities. We are trying to build a strong Europe. The international opening has been very beneficial for the European Union. However, we cannot deny that the Union has become excessively dependent on a very low number of countries in key sectors, and this has also negatively affected the well-being of European citizens. We have to prevent and build a Union together, which at the same time benefits from all advantages. The international trade does not depend on a very low number of actors, especially for essential goods. We have to diversify and stretch ties with our most reliable partners. In this sense, the third summit with the European Union has been a collective success that contributes to strengthening the network of external alliances of the U.S. and its strategic autonomy, resulting in the benefit of everyone. We must promote reindustrialization, placing the European Union at the head of the technological revolution, at the same time that we diversify our sources of supply. In this sense, we must advance in experiments such as the law of raw materials, the platform of strategic technologies for Europe, and the Artificial Intelligence Law, issues all of which have been set up in the final discussions and declarations of the European Council on Grana de Granada recently. The second priority is to advance in green transition and environmental adaptation. To stop the climate crisis and the degradation of the environment is not only an ineligible necessity, but also an opportunity to drastically reduce our energy dependence and our electricity bill, making the European companies more competitive and eliminating the energy poverty among our citizens. The reform of the electric market, the gas and hydrogen package, the relative normative to conservation and restoration of biodiversity, or the law of zero net emissions industry are part of the central experiences of the Spanish presidency. Thirdly, we need to promote greater social and economic justice. We need a more competitive economy, without a doubt, and also a more fair and solid economy, and both objectives are perfectly compatible to strengthen the state of well-being. Among the great experiences is the review of the Plurian annual financial framework, as well as the reform of the economic governance rules that have a structural character for the Union. We will continue, at the same time, in the initiatives and goals set in the action plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights, as well as in the adoption of measures in favor of the equality of treatment among people and its inclusion, paying special attention to gender equality, to children's issues, disability, as the directive proposal of the TARGETA de Discapacidad, which recently presented the Commission and we hope to be able to approve it soon. The fourth priority is to strengthen the European Union. It is crucial that if we continue to support Ukraine under the principles of unity and solidarity, as it is also essential to offer a real approach to our partners of the Western Balkans who, like Ukraine, want to be part of the Union. One of the most consistent messages of the presidency was the visit of the Spanish President Kiev on July 1, the first day of the presidency, which expressed in a very clear way that we are and we will be with them the time that is necessary. A message that has recently been received by the foreign ministers of the Union in its meeting precisely in Kiev on October 2. At the same time, we must advocate for an optimization of the decision-making processes so that we can act with the rapid efficiency that requires a vulnerable context. We must finally be able to agree on a more efficient and coordinated management of the migrations and asylum procedures, a management of the migratory fruits that are hand-ordered, solidary and responsible. So far, some agreements have been reached, relevant to those that would highlight the law of data, the law of support for the production of munitions, the agreement relating to the new distribution of funds in the European Parliament, the free trade agreement with New Zealand, the Unlockment of the Post-Cotonous Agreement or, as you recently know, the Agreement on the Regulation of Crisis in the Pact of Migration and Asylum. Mr. President, from the beginning of the Spanish presence, we have been maintaining a very close collaboration and coordination with the European Committee of the Regions that, consequently, is having a very active presence in our presidency. First, I highlight the consolidated document of political priorities consensualed by all the autonomous communities of Spain, presented before this meeting on February 8 by the Rioja Autonomous Community that detects the presidency of the Spanish delegation of the committee. In this document, both its collaboration with the presidency and its participation in the work of this committee in a series of policies are promoted. It is a priority of the presidency to reinforce the identity and cohesion of the Union. The Union must be involved to ensure that the benefits of belonging to the Union reach all citizens and all territories so that no one is left behind through the promotion of the balanced development of the territories and its social and territorial cohesion. In the field of territorial cohesion, the Spanish presidency impulses actions to the territories with risk of depolation, the insular territories and the ultra-peripheral regions. We share the positive assessment of the Dictament of the Committee of the Regions of February 8 on the RUB strategy, the ultra-peripheral regions of the Commission, in which the creation of a European Tourism Agency, which is of interest to Canaries, as possible, is supported, and we share the request directed to the Union to put its support policies and the investment instruments for the ultra-peripheral regions to address the weaknesses and structural limitations of these territories that require an adaptation of European policies, as established in Article 349 of the Functionary Treaty. We also promote the debate on the development of strategies for maritime regions with common geographical specifications, such as the Atlantic Marque region, and the Spanish presidency shares with this committee this same focus, and we are working to achieve the required consensus with which to advance to develop this proposal and to present it to the Council as soon as possible. We also work on a territorial issue that takes into account the natural and geographical peculiarities, promoting new initiatives that address the demographic challenge in the areas of abandoned population, progressive aging, and regions that seem to have important population fluctuations. Last September, there was a conference at a high level on aging to promote a European strategy for older people, and the conference encouraged that demographic issues, especially emphasis on aging, are an object of exchange during this semester in the Marco del Consejo in the General Issues Council. The Commission has announced that it will present approximately a box of tools, specifically today, in today's Commission, and it will be addressed in the next General Issues Council. This conference has followed a forum at a high level on rural policy in Siguenza last September 27, in which the need to promote infrastructures with activity and digitality in the rural environment, as there will only be a future in the rural world that will be sustainable and profitable. Thirdly, on November 3, a conference on demographic and policy challenges against the population in the Segovia farm focused on addressing demographic challenges and territorial challenges from the retention and talent attraction and the participation of the Committee of Regions. The Commission, dedicated to the policy of cohesion, celebrated an informal meeting last September 29 in Murcia, in which the President took part. He discussed the so-called policy of cohesion 2.0, that is to say, the direction that this policy should take once the current Marco Financiero Plurianual in 2027 and the challenges that are faced. The Spanish Presidency has found clear support between that this policy should offer greater flexibility and precision in the identification of the needs of the regions. With the aim of estimating the debate, the Spanish Presidency requested the Committee of Regions, as they know, a report on the mechanism of recovery and resilience and policy of cohesion towards a policy of cohesion 2.0, whose general lines were presented at the meeting by the President of the Committee of Regions. This report, which in the framework of this collaboration between the Spanish Presidency and the Committee, at the end of the meeting, was edited 5 dictamens, as part of the preparatory work of the Presidency. The already mentioned and other 4 on the role of the regions and cities of the Union in the fulfillment of the ODS, the trans-frontal cooperation in emergencies and fighting fires, a particular issue and the cities as health promoters. Finally, I want to remind you that on October 31, we will receive the Committee or the table, in La Rioja, where the external meeting of the table is celebrated, centered on demographic challenges, precisely and political issues. In short, we have a huge task ahead as Presidency. We are, we have a fundamental and we firmly believe in Europe and we are fully aware that the well-being of all Europeans goes through a union more united, stronger, more social and closer to the citizens. Thank you very much, President. Thank you so much. On behalf of the EPP group, I give the floor to member Marcula for 4 minutes. Please speak up. We need to bring in a few key factors that we need to be aware of. I am sure that when we are talking about the three-day meeting of the regional committee, we need to bring in the key factors that we need to be aware of. And it is very natural that Europe should be a more innovative, more responsible and safer country, where life-saving work, the opportunity to try, and the learning are the best in the world. In Europe, well-earned, sustainable growth and competition are based on the development of a much greater part of the economy, of the distribution, of the population, of the population, of the population, of the population, of the production, of the transportation industry, and of the previous experience and of the innovation. We have actively recently launched a commission on the development of a very well-prepared EU mission in the new innovation management and still in the active field, in the innovation industry and in the development of those. Spanish areas are, for example, very actively preparing and bringing together many good-looking social activities to promote innovation and innovation. In Europe, this means that we all, hopefully in every way, want to learn new, new ways to do it, to promote the development in different ways and to promote it in an environmentally friendly way and in all of society. We have long-term, strong participation in the field. We are currently taking into account the opportunities of the right to mechatrend, such as digitalization and tech, but also a number of needs, And our responsibility is also to create solutions to global problems and to respond to international questions. The Spanish-speaking leadership is very strong in the field of technology and EU innovation, but especially in the open, strategic autonomy. It is very good and wonderful that you have brought the energy, health, digital technology and food to the present. These are certainly the substances that we are no longer interested in. We especially want to emphasize that we have the opportunity and the public, that the single sector is much more vulnerable to the development of new innovations. We need them in the course of the project. The European Union has long been the target of three percent of the country's production goal, but we are still a lot after that. There is a lot of work to be done here and every leader of the conversation needs to correct this, because it is the basis for the development of innovation. And here we are waiting a lot for the Spanish-speaking leadership. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of the PES Group, Member Catatuto. Thank you very much for the floor, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Mr. Navarro, for being with us today. Maybe this is not the perfect time for new legislation like few months before the European elections, but I think this is a perfect time to be focused on the things that has already been decided. There are a lot of goals, a lot of missions going on. I think implementation is as important, make them become real as important than having new things. So focusing on it is really good. Also interlacing strategies. We have many strategies, but we are not interlacing them. So if I look at the Green Deal, it should be interlaced with just transition. It should be interlaced with gender equality. And please don't forget the already existing city's mission. We had 112 cities in a mission to become climate neutral. Many of us are sitting here. We are cutting 112 paths, new paths, setting examples to become climate neutral. Strong support is needed. If you look around, you will find a lot of ambition in this room. A lot of ambition. But it doesn't meet the resources. So maybe this is a good time again to rethink about new resources that can be channeled into the European budget. It's a great opportunity. You were talking about the blueprint Spain is putting out. I think that's absolutely true. If I look at just transition, if I look at fighting energy poverty, or if I look at fighting violence against women. So please use this opportunity to put a spotlight on all these things and set examples. Thank you very much. Thank you. On behalf of the Renew Europe Group, I give the floor to Vili Borsus. Three minutes. I would like to focus my reaction on a particularly important chapter of your exposure. The chapter dedicated to the strategic autonomy in the efforts of reindustrialization of Europe. I see that these priorities are absolutely crucial. And I would like to mention three or four points. First, our support, our willingness to develop very important efforts in terms of research, innovation, translation in activity, in business and in employment of these efforts in research and innovation. Of course, we have the support of the Renew Europe Programme, innovation funds, dedicated funds such as the European Fund for Defense, or specific mechanisms such as alliances or the IPCU. In this context, and this is the second part, the fact that we can have skills, human resources, whether it is the fruit of education, initial training, continuous training throughout the career, is an absolutely crucial element and a priority for us. In the same context, the digital transition, which also allows Europe, our regions, our countries to remain competitive, to become competitive in a certain number of new activities and new industrial characteristics, must also, of course, be able to develop European policies, to be amplified. I finish by mentioning two more points, if you wish. The fact that it is the third flight, the access to energy, a more neutral energy in carbon, but a guaranteed energy in volume, in continuity, but also an energy at a cost that is competitive is a whole pan of the capacity of our companies to conquer global markets or to remain competitive. And the last element that I would like to highlight is that these different efforts of reindustrialization, of support for the initiatives of industrial activities must not be raised on a new competition within Europe, between regions or between countries. Thank you very much for your presentation and I am happy to continue with the Belgian President a certain number of your priorities. Thank you. Now on behalf of the ECR Group, our member Garcia Gallardo, you have the floor for two minutes, two and a half minutes. Thank you very much, President. Pedro Sánchez said a few days ago in Granada that Europe in the future will only be able to get up on the cement of security, stability and prosperity. Allow me to ask you a series of questions about this, Mr. Secretary of State. Do you think that they are betting on European security while they are on the southern border, keeping an open border policy and collaborating with people's illegal trafficking mafia? Do you really think that the growing crime in the neighborhoods linked to the illegal immigration that you promote contributes to security within the European Union? Let us know, Mr. Navarro. Do you think that it facilitates the stability of emitting with Argelia one of our main providers of natural gas in the middle of an energy crisis? Or do you think that they are betting on stability blocking an institutional and European declaration when they treat their government partners with ambiguity the terrorist acts of ever? Let us know, Mr. Navarro. Do you think that they are betting on our prosperity by financing the agriculture of extra-community countries that introduce their products into our common market without fulfilling the same health requirements as our producers? Or do you think that they are betting on the prosperity of Europeans with their industrial policies inspired by climate alarm? Let us know, Mr. Navarro. Or, if you prefer, save us. Europe supports us with more lies or more opinions, as its boss says. The reality is that its policies are the opposite of security, stability and prosperity. Europeans live in safer neighborhoods because of a multiculturalism that has failed, as we see constantly in Bilbao, Sandinis or Molenbeek. Europeans enjoy less stability because of their radical foreign policy and our lack of strategic independence in fundamental issues such as energy. Europeans have a horizon of less prosperity because of their expensive experiments of green social engineering that are facilitating the enrichment of our main competitors. I must make a concession. Mr. Sánchez does not lie when he says that the future of Europe will only be able to focus on security, stability and prosperity. The problem, as it is common in his government, is that you are doing the opposite of what they say. You have nothing European, on the contrary, that is the end of the European project and our fundamental principles. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you. Now the floor goes to the European Alliance Group, Sergio Perez Garcia. Thank you, Mr. President. Dear Secretary of State, Dear Pasqual, Good morning. Allow me to translate my joy by knowing that reindustrialization and the development of strategic industries and their technologies are one of the priorities of the Spanish presidency. As you will surely know, Navarra is the region of the most industrialized state and with a very superior level to the European media. Our industry represents 30% of the contribution of our GDP. Therefore, and in line with European policies, we are working to support and grow this data through the active listening to our industrial strategy. We were pioneers in the development of renewable energies in an innovative and strong industry. We are an innovative region according to the Corbworth Regional Innovation, one of the four strongest regional innovations in the state, along with Catalonia, Madrid and Basque countries. And we are a region with an industrial fabric that is working to apply the criteria of circularity in the processes and products and services, in line with the Green Deal and with the green European industrial plan. Because, yes, we believe in Europe. All this in the framework of our Smart and Sustainable Specialization Strategy, S4, whose sectors highlighted as strategic allow us to develop public support for the industry so that it has to face this double transition, ecological and digital, to give a brief example. In a month, the British Commissioner, competent in the industry and the domestic market, will attend Pamplona, Iruña, with the occasion of the second meeting of the Auto-Motion Regions Alliance, in the European Committee of Regions, and that unites 34 European regions that demand a fair transition of the vehicle of fuel to the new sustainable mobility. Another example of renewable sectors, we close the year with an investment of 150 million in projects of green hydrogen or strategic in the circular economy. The first recycling plant for the European generation is being built in Navarra, in Cortes. Or also the agro-food industry, where Navarra, the epicenter of the green food, is worth it. It is a last message of collaboration and to call for collaboration. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now, on behalf of the Greens, the floor goes to Member Una Power for two minutes. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Navarro, for joining us today and outlining the work already done by the Spanish presidency on its priorities. In seeking to rebuild European industry to strengthen our economic autonomy and food security and to make us resilient to external shocks such as those that we have seen over the last few years, we must ensure that this work is done within environmental limits. A green and just transition is necessary for an economy that is stable, secure and works for its people. Our dependence upon imports of fossil fuels has left us particularly vulnerable to external factors. And I'm glad to hear you raise this today. The war in Ukraine has highlighted this in a shocking and immediate fashion. Our citizens were left at risk of energy poverty and inordinately high costs as we moved away from dependence on Russian imports. The danger of such reliance and fossil fuel imports has been echoed again recently with the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. We must invest swiftly and heavily in truly renewable sources within our union. The move to renewable sources not only insulates us from market shocks it also provides opportunities as you have said, providing more green jobs in construction and maintenance. And it also ensures that our investments are not placed in the hands of dangerous regimes. And naturally, such a move helps us to fight against the challenge of mitigating or to fight against climate change. We can look to Spain as an example of a country that has made substantial strides in decarbonisation using the Just Transition Fund and other European mechanisms to transition away from coal power and help the related workforce to adapt to green energy jobs. But we must always look for more and more ambition. The challenges of climate change and fossil fuel dependency are enormous and immediate and our action must match that scale. Thank you. Thank you so much. This concludes the interventions. The floor goes again to S. Navarro. You have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you very much. Before doing some general observations I would like to respond to the friendly interventions of the parliamentary groups of this committee. First of all, both Mr. Marcula and Mr. Borsus have been interested in the issue of strategic autonomy and reindustrialisation. Mr. Power has also mentioned the issue of reindustrialisation. And I am sure that that is the main priority of the Spanish president, that is, to attend to the economic situation in which the Union is located, the needs of the citizens and, consequently, we all have the awareness that the solution is in adequate reindustrialisation and to achieve strategic autonomy. The previous debate in which we are, precisely, had a presentation of a series of prospective reports that the President has made, the Commission has made, whose objective, precisely, is to deepen the strategic autonomy of the Union and one of its elements in reindustrialisation. And, very important, innovation, I agree with Mr. Marcula, and very important is the issue of skills, training, also, as Mr. Borsus has said. Ms. Tito has mentioned something important and it is that, more than new legislation, you have to apply what there is. I totally agree. The Spanish president, what is being concentrated is to conclude the most important legislative experiences of the agenda of this commission. The agenda of this commission, as you all know, is basically green and digital. Some of you have also mentioned it. All digital sales are important. We are in it, data, artificial intelligence, but, above all, it is the green agenda. There is a total commitment of the Spanish president to do everything possible to complete this legislation. It is not easy. There are certain economic circumstances that advise to take into account some elements when it comes to reaching the definitive agreements, but the commitment, Mr. Tito, Mr. Appower, to complete the legislation, the program of the environmental legislation of the union, is total in the Spanish president. And Mr. Pérez García, to remember that also one of the important elements of our presidency is everything that has place with mobility, urban mobility, circularity, apart from the environmental agenda and the environmental transport agenda. In fact, there are several informal meetings in Spain that have been dedicated precisely to this whole issue, which I know is very important both for the regions as well as for local centers. Local centers, everything that is urban mobility is something essential and it is something that we have tried to focus on during our presidency. We will continue to do it until the end of the same. As I have already mentioned, if you allow me, President, some general observations. As I mentioned in my first intervention, the motto of our presidency is Europe closer and we have tried, we are trying, trying to approach Europe to all its citizens and all its territories. And proof of this has been all these ministerial meetings, seminar conferences that in collaboration with some of them, especially seminar conferences with autonomous communities, we have done. The presidency, I insist, is sensitive to the diversity of the territories and works to reinforce the economic, territorial and social issue of the Union, promoting an action in favor of the territories, I insist, with the risk of insulating, insulating, insulating, insulating, insulating, is what I want to insist in conclusion in what I mentioned at the beginning of working on the issue of insularity to fully develop Article 174 in which it affects many of the territories of you, which are islands. We will continue to work on the Atlantic region. Spain, as you know, has come to support the current Atlantic maritime strategy and that it evolves towards the creation of a regional framework strategy for the regions of the Atlantic. I have had meetings with the Atlantic arch and we hope that it is this macro region that this committee decides to have a place as soon as possible and we are working with the Commission and with the other states to achieve it. I want to insist again in the ultra-perifera regions. It is an important issue. There is a conference of ultra-perifera regions in November, as all of you know, and we hope that it advances in everything that is the revision process of the strategy towards ultra-perifera regions that have to be renewed from 2024. And they can advance in that sense. And this conference, as you know, will take place on November 8 and 9 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. And I think this committee participates, obviously not. A mention of the linguistic regime is undeniable the increasing participation of regions in the European Union's policy, even through a decided role in the debates about the future of the Union. In a moment in which the Union works constantly to increase its proximity to citizens and that worries us the disappearance of a part of the European citizenship to our common project, we are convinced that there is no better communication policy or a more direct way to approach the Union to citizens than to allow them to use in their relations with the Union the language in which it is expressed in their home, in their work and in the usual treatment with their authorities. And in this, the Committee of the Regions is a perfect example. For this reason, Spain has presented in the Council of General Affairs of last September 19, the proposal of the Government, Spanish of Modification of the Regulament 158 to include the Catalan, the Euskera and the Gallego in the linguistic regime of the Union. For the last two questions that I want to insist that they are demographic and policy of question. I have already mentioned before all the activities and proposals in demographic. I think it is very important to put in the European agenda all the issues of demographic are several, are despoilation, abandonment, aging, inequality and that there is definitely a series of initiatives and proposals and policies that put in the European agenda in a way decided in the next in the next legislation of the European Union all the issue of demographic return and all that affects to various territories that have difficulties to access inequality of conditions to the policies of the Union. In this same line I want to remember finally the important question for this Committee which is the policy of coercion. I insist that we have worked in it in our meeting on September 29 with the collaboration of the President and we hope this review of the policy of coercion that is in progress that takes into account all the territorial issues that in this debate were put to manifest at that time. In short, we have a huge task as a Presidency in which we will not waste efforts in favor to work in favor of the well-being of citizens and we have the Committee of the Regions both in what affects territorial issues specifically as in those issues of the European agenda that you have mentioned that affect in particular to the territories to the regions and to the local entities. We are at your disposal to listen to you and to collaborate with you and thank you very much for your invitation We are the ones who thank you Mr. Secretary of State for taking the time to be with us and to share with us your thoughts and reflections about the priorities of the Spanish Presidency. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you.