Diego López Garrido: 'The outstanding issue in EU foreign policy is the southern neighbourhood'

The current situation in Europe revolves around three main themes: reconstruction funds, the growing tension in the Mediterranean with Turkey as the main agitator in the region and the approval of international law by Boris Johnson in the Brexit case.

Diego López Garrido, a Spanish politician, former Secretary of State for the European Union and now Executive Vice President of the Alternatives Foundation, a centre for study and analysis, spoke about this in Atalayar's latest programme on Capital Radio.

The Foundation has an important Europeanist vocation. Last Friday there was an Extraordinary European Council which, although it did not take any important decisions, was a meeting to continue discussing projects and especially the budget and the recovery plan. How do you think the question of recovery is going to arise? Because the countries of the North are still hostile and the conditions that are going to be put in place are not clear.

I see it with optimism, but the difficulties are undoubtedly a reality. The fact is that the decision has been so spectacular. That is to say, betting on €750 billion by injecting it into the investment fund economy is such a huge sum, such an impressive sum, that this political decision by all the heads of state of the European Union cannot fail.

This is why it is important that Spain, from our point of view, where 140 billion euros are supposed to come to us over the next two or three years for major economic transformation projects, gets down to work.

From the Alternativas Foundation we are already doing this, we are working from all angles and helping to create large-scale projects that transform the economy. Based on the three points of view that the European Commission puts forward, the three philosophies that the projects must have in order to be funded: the ecological transition perspective, that is, the just transition, digitisation and the health perspective. These are the three fundamental elements.

If the projects proposed by the countries go in this direction, the Commission will finance them. If the countries raise issues that do not have this sense of transformation, not only of spending, but of moving into a new form of production based on renewable energies and digitisation, the Commission will say whether or not to fund them. Let's not think that everything that is proposed to the European Union is going to be financed, it has to go in that direction, and that is the work of the Fund that is currently being asked of us in all areas: government, the private sector and also civil society.

Is there a risk that economic reconstruction following the VIDOC-19 injury will be a two-tier process? In other words, that countries in the North, known as "frugals", could experience a rapid rebound, while those in the South could experience more difficulties and a crack in the EU?

This is a danger that must be avoided, and it could even happen, because there is no doubt that situations are different in European countries.

And there are countries with a higher GDP, greater employability and significant industrial development, such as Germany. They also have more developed welfare states, but that is why the European Recovery Fund will reach more of the countries most affected by VIDOC-19.

In other words, the countries that should receive the most money, if they do things right and if the projects continue on the path of transforming a new production concept, are Italy and Spain. Italy is the one that will receive the most money and the second is Spain. We are going to receive much more money than the countries of the North, and we are going to take the risk of receiving it there.

Italy is the one that will receive the most money and the second is Spain. We are going to receive much more money than the countries of the North, and we are going to take the risk of receiving it there

Will you present, if possible, a project within the framework of this recovery plan? Because the government should open up the possibility for civil society to present projects for this plan within certain limits.

I believe that civil society must participate, because there are above all different perspectives, and each one is different, and this is very important. Architects understand this very well. When you look at a house, if you look at it from one place, you see it in a certain way, but if you look at it from another place, the house is not the same because you have seen it from another place, and that is what is interesting in these projects.

The government has to be attentive to these initiatives and the private world has to be involved as well, not just the public world. But there is no doubt that at the end of the day, the path goes through the government, through the ministries, and through good relations in certain areas such as education, or the digitisation of education, or the issue of health, where the Autonomous Communities have a lot to say, and this must be present. In the end, the common thread is the government as a whole, which will finally present the projects to Brussels.

It is a challenge for the Spanish State. It is no longer a question of how to receive money, but of how to invest it, and that is the challenge

The government's attitude must be as broad as possible, where billions of euros are to be invested. We must bear in mind that the money that is going to come to Spain is impressive. It is more than the Structural Funds that for so many years have changed our face, our infrastructures, the Cohesion Fund ... much more. So it is also a challenge for the Spanish public administration. Is it going to manage this money well? It is a challenge for the Spanish State. It is no longer a question of how to receive money, but of how to invest it, and that is the challenge.

Of the funds the EU has allocated to Spain in 2019, only 35% have been implemented ...

The government has not had enough power to carry it out, which is why it is necessary to reform and strengthen public administrations and public authorities, and they will need the collaboration of private entities, companies and investment organisations, as well as civil society. Think tanks, such as the Alternativas Foundation, which are already working on this issue. I hope a lot of people are working on it because it is necessary.

This is the great challenge of the European Union. In the history of the Union, there has never been a challenge as great as this one, there has never been anything like it. If the European Union really responds to this challenge, it will irreversibly strengthen the European project.

Since Atalayar, we have been completing important projects in the world of European communication, because there is no real European media with this weight, such as CNN, for example, which has influence with an audience.

It's true, there is none, and this type of project is a wonderful idea for communicating Europe and unifying much more Europe than it is at the moment.

In this situation, Europe is thinking about what to do in the hegemonic struggle between China and the United States, and Europe must see what role it plays in future geopolitics.

This recovery fund must go in this direction and in many others. Von der Leyen again raised the question of the European Bauhaus, a century after this great architectural invention in Europe from the point of view of artistic creation, and we must also work in this direction.

We are at a crucial moment when Europe can make a qualitative leap forward and consolidate itself with this great project that the world must realise at this time.

Last week, the European Union opened a legal battle against the UK by warning it of the opening of proceedings for non-compliance with the withdrawal agreement. How will it end? Because it should end with an agreement between the parties on 31 December, but the British Prime Minister has broken the game?

It's unacceptable, I don't think Boris Johnson will get away with it in the end, because what he has done is to violate international law, to violate the law that is sacred. If what we have at international level, regulation on a planet, is that there is not just one state but several and it is governed by international law, it would be chaos, also at the moment and this is a very responsible position and there is a lot of criticism in the United Kingdom and I hope that there will not be this crazy decision to destroy the law.

International law is there to be respected, otherwise coexistence will be impossible.

Another hotbed of tension is the Mediterranean, we wonder how it values the position of the European Union, which threatens, but does not stop sanctioning Turkey for its attitude in the Mediterranean, and what is the situation in Libya, which affects us very directly, Europe and the Spanish.

This is an aspect that the European Union's foreign policy has not sufficiently developed; we must bear in mind that the European Union has aspects that are similar to those of a State, for example, a single currency. No one imagined that such a thing could happen, which is a matter of State sovereignty.

It is not a common currency, but a single currency and a free internal market. This system resembles a constitutional state, but it also has shortcomings, such as the fact that the issue of health is not sufficiently developed at the level of health coordination, which has proved to be deficient.

And one of the things that the European Union lacks is a powerful foreign policy because, as things have to be decided unanimously in the Council, it is a constant obstacle that any state, big or small, can veto, and this weakens the European Union a lot in the international field, and one of the things in which the European Union is weak is what we call the southern neighbourhood.

Those countries of the Mediterranean, which are sometimes failed states, where there is a total lack of institutions, where, as in Libya, there are two governments and we do not know which one is real, where there is terrorist activity throughout the Sahel area, that is where the European Union has not developed its strength sufficiently. This is one of Borrell's outstanding issues: the southern neighbourhood.

The EU has pivoted, since its birth mainly through the Transatlantic Pact, since most European countries belong to NATO, and has pivoted more on the defence of the northern flank in order to have a foreign security policy oriented towards defence against the Russian threat. This is what needs to be changed and made more balanced, not only towards the north but also towards the southern neighbourhood.

This is an outstanding issue that Alternativas Foundation addresses in depth in the report on Africa that it has produced. It explains this division between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, where the European Union does not have sufficient strength to be able to contribute to the stabilisation of the area, and this affects us directly, especially Spain, because it is the part of Africa closest to our country and I am going to reflect on it and act on it.