Debate contributions by Jonás FERNÁNDEZ

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, I cannot begin this speech this afternoon here in Strasbourg without taking up the last words of Vice-President Ribera and without thanking the Socialist Group for the work, tenacity and effort to make an important decision; A decision that, in a way, also comes to discuss some of the rumors and threats that came to us from the other side of the Atlantic about the European ability to exercise its regulatory sovereignty. I believe that, apart from other issues that are being negotiated and that have to be discussed with the United States and with other countries, it is important that, with this decision, European citizens are certain and have the certainty that the European institutions - and, in this case, the Commission - enforce the laws that this Parliament passes and that, in this case, the last legislature passed. But beyond the courage and the need to implement our laws, in our continent we continue to see risks on freedom of expression and on the plurality of public debate, especially in digital networks. It is important that this fine not only remains a fine for concrete competitive behaviour, but also, in Parliament, that we are aware of the need to protect the ability and freedom to discuss and debate and to put an end to the captive and twisted debates that we see on some social networks.

Madam President, Commissioner, the truth is that one tries to maintain optimism, positive spirit, and sometimes it is not so simple. We have been talking for too many years about the Banking Union, the Capital Markets Union and, in this legislature, that Union of Savings and Investments. And the truth is that we still believe in it. And this report - and I would like to congratulate the rapporteur and all the shadow rapporteurs - shows that, in this Parliament, there is a broad consensus - not unanimous, but a broad consensus - to strengthen and improve the depth of the capital markets, to end the banking union at once, and I know that that is also on the Commission's agenda and I just want this report to somehow serve to redouble efforts, to redouble the commitment, so that we have a functioning banking union. We await the proposal to revise the supervisory framework in the banking union, which has to be a step forward in the Europeanisation of banking supervision as well and, of course, that package of capital markets proposals. Strength, encouragement and optimism for all, which – at least I – think I need.

Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, I believe that the report - and I would like to congratulate Francisco Assis on his good work on it - reflects the effort that the Bank has been making mainly in recent years, since Nadia Calviño has been President, to modernise and accelerate its pace of investment, but I wanted to limit my intervention to two points where I believe that the bank has to do something else. On the one hand, the European Investment Bank should support regions in energy transition, and the Just Transition Mechanism provides avenues for the EIB to act in those territories through Pillar 2 and Pillar 3, providing financing to the public and private sectors. I think we need to improve a lot there. My second comment – and this is a broad request from the S&D Group – is on the Bank’s efforts in social housing: I know that the Bank is working on that, but the effort has yet to be very substantial, because the problem runs throughout Europe.

Madam President, Commissioner, it is a pleasure to discuss at this moment the evaluation and implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which, as has been said previously, has been a key piece to jointly overcome, all Europeans united, the harsh crisis of COVID-19. Perhaps I can add two notes on what has been said: it is important that we spend well, it is important to speed up implementation, as the Commissioner said, but we need to find a solution by next summer. I understand that it is difficult to review the own resources decision referred to by the Commissioner, but in June 2026 we need to be able to continue funding projects that are already underway and I believe that there is broad agreement in this Parliament to request such an 18-month extension, which would facilitate legislative reform. There is a majority in this House for that legislative reform. Finally, today the President of the ECB writes in the Financial Times in favour of maintaining a risk-free asset in Europe. We need RRF for the future.

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would certainly like to thank the rapporteur very much for his work in these months, a few months of discussion and debate in which we have been able to come up with a reasonable text, a text agreed between the pro-European forces that makes an analysis of the situation of the banking union. Now, the positive news I think ends there, because the banking union is languishing, and I think we have to be aware of this situation. We have been negotiating deposit insurance for more than ten years. We got a text in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs last parliamentary term, but we know nothing about the Council. We are negotiating in trilogues the revision of the resolution framework, where we find a Council with a text that moves diametrically away from the Commission's initial proposal, which does not meet the objectives that we all share - or that we in this House share - of trying to Europeanise resolution systems. Finally, if we do not continue, we must be aware that we either take the banking union seriously or we cannot continue wasting our time.

Madam President, I would like to congratulate MEP Wolters on this report and, of course, the Vice-President. My full support for the decisions on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act and the fines recently adopted by the Commission. It's a good way. I believe that, in terms of competition, I would like to convey two messages to the Commission very quickly: The first is that we know that the Commission is working on the review of the merger framework. We need larger companies in the European market, but I believe that, in order to be able to undertake that mission, we need to remove the obstacles that we have in the European market and that prevent the Commission services from considering the European market as the reference market in such operations. If the relevant market is domestic, we will not be able to grow companies, and I see a difficult way to facilitate these operations without making significant progress in consolidating the single market. The second concerns State aid: We need more aid, but we need an innovative system that allows companies, regardless of which state they are in, to have similar support.

Madam President, first of all, I extend my solidarity, support and affection to the mining family of Asturias and León. Coal mining has been the history of Asturias and has accompanied steel, which has been and continues to be the present and hopefully the future of our region. That is why I would like, secondly, to congratulate the Commission on first of all assuming the need to offer a future to this sector, a horizon. And I want to thank this report that orders the measures that we have to take, but that, in addition to ordering, it needs to already implement. We cannot delay in debates and discussions. I have to say that the revision of the CBAM, which the Commission has proposed within the framework of the omnibus package, raises serious doubts for me, because it opens up avenues or may open up avenues for disintermediation of the tariff. I welcome the activity to strengthen the safeguarding of steel, because we need to protect ourselves from imports of cheap steels and brown steels. The price of energy is key. And I believe it is necessary to re-emphasise the improvement of energy interconnections in order to strengthen the single energy market.

Madam President, Commissioner, an initial note to try to gain some optimism: The forecast for the European economy is that we will grow by 1% this year. It is little, but the United States faces a fall in activity in this first quarter of the year of more than 2.5%. So we already know what we should not do and we need to focus on what we do know and what the Commission is proposing with this report: this road map which I believe is welcomed by the majority in this House. In any case, I would like to make two points about the Clean Industry Pact, which I think - as I say - is correct and timely. The first is the need to improve funding mechanisms. If we are going to do industrial policy in Europe, we cannot do it in such a way that funding is decentralised. This creates a serious risk for the single market. I think we need to think about how to finance it. And, secondly, and being from Asturias, we expect on March 19 that Action Plan for steel, so necessary for territories like mine.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, I believe that in this debate there are at least three points that I would like to highlight. The first concerns the debate on administrative burdens and simplification. My group is prepared to negotiate the omnibus package and negotiate how we can simplify European rules. But I believe that the real problem of administrative costs, which is none other than national barriers, which continue to impede the proper functioning of the single market, is being left out of the focus of the Commission and many of the honourable Members. And here there is an immense space for work and I would like to ask the Commission to broaden the focus, to look at those national regulations, because, in addition, in the report on the Competitiveness Compass I miss a greater vitality of the bet of the single market. We need a new Single Act, we need a determined impulse to consolidate capital markets, banks, energy, telecommunications... if we want to make industrial policy, if we want to make competition policy or review it. And we miss, obviously, in the end a little more clarity about the numbers, about the funding. But we'll have a lot more to talk about.

Mr President, Commissioner, Madam President, it is a pleasure to have you here and to take advantage of this debate that we have every year not only to discuss the details of the report that we are voting on tomorrow, but also to talk about monetary policy and the activity of the European Central Bank. And I believe that, in view of the indicators, the estimates, the data that we know, there is still room to reduce interest rates, and we believe that we must go there because growth rates are also very much off in the European Union as a whole. But believe me, in that margin to reduce interest rates there is a remarkable uncertainty, as you mentioned previously, and it is none other than the new government of Donald Trump in the United States and the tariff war that we seem to have started. I think it's important to be blunt: I think it is important that Europe strengthens its strategic autonomy and responds strongly, and there are instruments to do so that may not collide with the objective of price stability, and there are many. But, speaking of strategic autonomy, I would also like to say to the Commission and the ECB that my group, the Socialists and Democrats Group, is ready to negotiate the digital euro and we hope to make progress in the coming months, and that, moreover, if we want to improve strategic autonomy, we have to ensure the security of our European banking system. And when other jurisdictions like the U.S. seem to delay sine die With the implementation of Basel, I believe that in Europe we need to start talking about revising the equivalence regimes of US banks: We cannot share a race to reduce regulation in supervision.

Madam President, Commissioner, without a doubt, I think we could all agree on the need for such international standards for the crypto market. That is how I understood the Commission's words, appealing to the need to set these minimum standards. But certainly, looking at what we are seeing on the other side of the Atlantic, I think we should start reconsidering the good intentions and start working more to protect Europe, at a time when Donald Trump and even his wife are issuing their own currency - as my colleague Markus Ferber said - in the days before taking office, showing little respect, in my opinion, for institutionality itself. We should get the message in Europe, and I think the message we need to get is that we can't count on the U.S. Administration for years to come to any kind of minimal agreement on cryptocurrencies. Therefore, instead of appealing to the good intentions in which we have been committed for years, we should have a much more assertive position and be aware that this scenario will be almost impossible and that, therefore, we have to apply the MiCA Regulation - of course, the MiCA Regulation must be applied - but we also have to protect our financial sector, our banks and our insurance against possible impacts of financial instability derived from crypto beyond Europe. And we must also accelerate the negotiation to have a digital euro in Europe that allows us to offer our own response to the needs, apparently, of some investors.

Madam President, Commissioner, Mr Letta, it is a pleasure to have you here at a time when we are beginning to define the priorities of this mandate and, no doubt, accelerating the integration of the single market - especially in the area of services, where we still have significant problems, as you have stated in your report - is absolutely necessary. But you will allow me to tell you that what has caught my attention most in the report is the demand to avoid the flight of European savings to other jurisdictions. Because some of us in this House have been asking for years to reduce the current account surpluses of some countries - current account surpluses that, in some cases, reach double digits in relation to the GDP of those countries - and certainly in the debates we had here in these years, no one or very few were following me. And I think it is important that, now that we are asking for savings to be invested in Europe, we are able to explain to the House that what we are asking for is more domestic demand and reducing the current account surpluses that are stifling the growth of the European Union.

Mr President, Commission, it is always an honour to speak in this House and especially in debates such as the current one after a term of office. I wanted to thank the Commission as a whole. We have made a very remarkable effort to improve the fairness of tax systems. And, without a doubt, international agreements, such as the one reached within the framework of the OECD to put a minimum tax on large corporations, were significant steps in the need to improve tax justice. Because for decades we have accepted a downward competition in the taxation of national tax schemes that has undermined not only the progressivity of tax systems, but also their sufficiency, putting in jeopardy in many cases the sustainability and strength of the welfare state. And, after the issuance of debt that we have had to assume in the last crises, with the social challenges we face, it is necessary to recover the progressivity and sufficiency of the tax system. And it's okay that internationally, in institutions such as the G20, this debate moves forward with a commitment from Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, it is certainly a pity that Commissioner Vestager has not been able to be with us in this debate, although I am obviously very grateful for her presence, because I wanted - and I think all of us here should - to thank her and the Commission as a whole for the work and effort of these years, and especially in this case that has allowed us to put a point and apart in this type of agreement that some States make with multinationals. We have worked hard in this last legislature to harmonize the tax of large companies, we have had to implement in Europe the OECD agreement to have a minimum rate and we should move quickly also in that pillar 1. I believe that judgments like this, which force a large multinational that has been evading or using tax avoidance strategies to tax the profits of the whole of Europe in Ireland, is, in my opinion, a point and apart. That is 13 billion that we have recovered for the citizens, for the European workers. And this is the way forward for the future Commission.

Madam President, we are undoubtedly debating this report at an important moment in which we must decide on the future lines, the lines of work, of this mandate that is beginning. And I would like to highlight two important issues in the report. Firstly, it is important to recognise the problems we continue to have in mind in order to consolidate the single market: We still don't have a capital market, we still don't have a full banking union. The report talks about the need to boost the energy union to also help reduce electricity prices or the union of telecommunications markets in the industrial sector. There is an industrial policy agenda linked to this single market and there is also a strong need for public investment capacity at European level. The pandemic crisis we managed to overcome quickly, much faster than previous crises, thanks to Next Generation EU. The Union needs a permanent instrument of public investment to help us revitalise the competitiveness of the European Union and ensure a future for our continent.