As it happened: EL PAÍS hosts dialogue on the future of Spain in Europe
Jean-Claude Juncker and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa among the speakers who discussed Europe’s future
Scroll down to read our live updates as the event happened.
Politicians, journalists, writers and business leaders took part today in the forum Spain in Europe: A Common Future, organized by EL PAÍS in Brussels. The panel discussion looked at the challenges faced by contemporary Europe and was organized as part of Spain 40-40, a cycle that commemorates the 40th anniversary of Spanish democracy.
Populism, for now, has triumphed in Europe. And the European Union, despite the doomsday warnings, has grown more than the United States and United Kingdom – its highest rate in more than 10 years. The scars of the Great Depression remain but today the crisis in Europe is less about existentialism and more about territory.
Political and economic uncertainties are easing. This is the case even in Spain, which was forced to ask for a bailout of more than €40 billion in 2012 but is now one of the EU’s best performing economies – despite the ongoing issue of unemployment, which is still above 16%, and high levels of public and private debt. When added to the Catalan independence push, this makes for a cocktail of political and economic uncertainty.
The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González took part in a discussion on Governing Europe today. Nobel-prize winning author Mario Vargas LLosa and Juan Luis Cebrián, an academic and chairman of Grupo PRISA, the parent group of EL PAÍS, also shared their thoughts.
A forum on how to build Europe from Spain was attended by Joaquín Almunia, the former vice president of the European Commission, Ana Palacio, a former Spanish government minister, Ignacio Faus from global consulting firm KPMG, and Itxaso del Palacio from Microsoft. And a second panel, sponsored by BBVA, Iberdrola, Iberia, NH Hotel Group, Repsol, Santander and Telefónica, was presented by EL PAÍS editor-in-chief Antonio Caño and closed by the Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis.
