Now it's Rajoy's turn

The European Council held in Brussels at the end of last week should do something to relieve the pressure on Spain's public debt. The Spanish economy would be among those worst affected by the breakup of the euro zone, a possibility that is now less likely after the summit. But that doesn't mean that the summit will lead directly to economic recovery. That will depend on what the incoming government does.

The outgoing prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, attended the summit confident in the knowledge that he had taken decisions to limit spending - backed by a Constitutional amendment ? that were in line with the EU's most stringent requirements. The incoming premier, Mariano Rajoy, attended a meeting of the European Popular Party in Marseilles, where he backed that Constitutional amendment and its commitment to balance public spending.

Both men worked well together to coordinate a strategy that we can only hope will be the model for future efforts to manage the economy and that will see national interests continue to take priority over electoral concerns. In short, Spain has made a serious commitment to maintaining the viability of the single currency.

But the teamwork shown by the two leaders was not sufficient to prevent decisions on the euro zone's rescue mechanisms being made by majority vote rather than by unanimity. The Franco-German plan aims to avoid having the decision-making held up by just one country, as happened earlier this year when Slovakia's domestic politics delayed ratification of the current bail-out fund. Under the proposal, a super majority ? corresponding to 85 percent of capital in the European Central Bank - would be enough to secure use of the fund's money.

The system gives a veto to Germany, France and Italy, but not Spain. It would make sense for the four big economies of the euro zone to have the same voting rights; Spain rarely exercises a veto, instead preferring to unblock processes. What must be done now is to defend Spain's presence on the board of the European Central Bank and its membership in the European Banking Authority, based in London, and which is clearly biased against Spain.

The incoming government must now build on the polices that its predecessor has implemented so successfully. Rajoy used the European Popular Party meeting to announce that one of his first decisions would be the adoption of "deep-rooted labor reform," rather than his involvement in influencing the "reformation of the euro zone." He is right to include labor reform among his priorities, but it would be a mistake to think that this in itself will do anything to create jobs. Reducing investment and public spending will do little to help economic recovery, ease the credit crunch, or immunize Spain from the instabilities of the international money markets.

Rajoy needs to say what his polices are going to be as soon as possible, particularly regarding a tax on the super wealthy, and in particular his ideas to prevent Spain from remaining on the margins of the EU's new decision-making processes.