Fundación Ideas para el progreso

Modernize the economy, guarantee energy security, fight against climate change, foster the international presence of the EU, promote the policies for gender equality and fight gender-based violence are the main objectives set by the government of Zapatero for the period of the Spanish Presidency of the EU. Other challenges for this semester are to foster European citizenship through social rights and strengthen the internal security policy. All these challenges are shared by IDEAS Foundation, whose basic principles include that of reaching sustainable economic, social and environmental development.

Since 1st January, and for the next six months, Spain will hold the presidency of the EU for the fourth time in its history, with the challenge to consolidate the fight for economic recovery and design an economic plan to generate economic growth and employment for the coming ten years that substitutes for the failed Lisbon strategy. Another priority of the Cabinet of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is to make progress in the creation of an economic government for the EU. This is the first presidency after the approval of the Lisbon Treaty, thus he will have to share responsibilities with the president of the permanent European Council, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy.

For Zapatero, the priority in terms of economic policy, besides fighting against the crisis, is to make progress in the creation of a genuine economic government for the EU, especially in the euro zone. It is about strengthening cooperation among countries that share the common currency in order to overcome the imbalance caused by the existence of a common monetary policy against 16 different economic policies.

For this, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has called for tomorrow Tuesdays to La Moncloa, the former president of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, the leader of the Reflection Group on the future of the EU and the former Spanish Prime Minister, Felipe González, and the former Spanish Vice-President for economy, Pedro Solbes and the current Vice-President for economy, Elena Salgado.