The second working session of the Reflection Group for the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, entitled “Europe of the Future”, has taken place today and was chaired by the State Secretary for the European Union, Pascual Navarro. The Reflection Group is part of a listening and discussion process aimed at bringing experts’ views on European affairs into discourse concerning the Presidency. The first session was held on 30 May, entitled “Geostrategic Europe”, and think tank representatives, academic institutions and EU-related organisations met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares.
The Spanish Presidency is understood as a country project, which listens to every sector of Spanish society. Therefore, cooperation has taken place with the Autonomous Communities through CARUE (Conference for European Union Affairs), with the Parliament through the Joint Committee for the EU and with civil society in the Civil Society Forum for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. To expand this process, the group of experts on European affairs that make up the Reflection Group for the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council has been convened for the second time.
Spain assumes the Presidency with an international backdrop requiring the EU to face short-term challenges - with Russian aggression recalling the worst moments in European history - without neglecting long-term demands. Building, on the one hand, a more geopolitical Europe, and, on the other, a Europe of the future, prepared to face major changes marked by technological development and the global scale of challenges such as climate change and pandemics. This means strengthening the Union's capacities in terms of energy, digital connectivity, food security and health: four areas that will form the backbone of the informal European Council to be held on 4-5 October in Granada.
The construction of this Europe of the future is also closely linked to the perceived legitimacy of the European project in the eyes of citizens, who expect the EU to provide tangible solutions to the problems of their daily lives. The dual ecological and digital transition must therefore have a strong social focus. Europe's unity is also its cohesion, which today faces structural challenges such as depopulation, demographic ageing and the difficulties of the young in accessing housing and the labour market.