After months of cold relations and high-profile confrontations with the CEOE, this morning the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, made a gesture of rapprochement with businessmen by presenting at his headquarters the strategic autonomy plan that will be discussed in the Council. Informal EU European on 6 October. The proposal, which La Vanguardia has advanced, seeks to strengthen the strategic autonomy, economic security and global leadership of the European Union.
However, Sánchez has also entered into current affairs, such as the controversial entry of Saudi Telecom into Telefónica. The president has assured that the Government will ensure that this operation does not involve any undue influence. “I guarantee you that the Government is carefully analyzing the investment operation, that we have the appropriate mechanisms to exercise the necessary controls and that we will guarantee at all times that the population and national security, understood in a broad sense, are safe,” Sánchez stated, adding that "the limit that exists for foreign investment is the protection of our legitimate national interests.
The president's underlying message is similar to that maintained so far by the first vice president and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño. That no door is closed to Saudi investment in Telefónica, but that it will be subject to rigorous conditions to ensure that strategic interests are respected. Along these same lines, Sánchez has insisted in general terms that "foreign companies should not be expelled, but rather attracted."
He also added that Spanish legislation on investment control is one of the most rigorous in Europe. A reference to the regulations reinforced during the pandemic and that received a final boost before the elections.
The Saudi group secretly planned its entry into the Telefónica shareholding and made it a reality at the beginning of September. A purchase operation of 4.9% in shares and another 5% through derivatives that it would execute as long as it obtains authorizations from the Government. If the operation is carried out, Saudi Telecom would become the first shareholder of Telefónica, and what is also at stake is its potential entry into the Board of Directors.
Sánchez's presence at the CEOE headquarters to present his European strategic autonomy plan can be interpreted as a rapprochement, after the bad relations that the two parties have had recently. In the coming weeks, it will be seen if the protocol “This is his house”, which Antonio Garamendi used today to give him the floor in the speech before the businessmen, represents any change in the relationship. Until now, the CEOE was making efforts to distance itself from the Government, as evidenced in its efforts to avoid any government presence when the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) was signed in May.
In any case, yesterday what they asked Sánchez for was a common complaint, less regulation that they consider undermines companies by imposing new burdens, especially on SMEs. A demand made by both the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, and the president of the European employers' association, Business Europee, Frederik Persson, who intervened via telematics.
For his part, Sánchez anticipated the proposal that he will make to the European Union to develop strategic autonomy, one of Europe's weaknesses that has been revealed by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the growing rivalry between economic powers that have put revealed the vulnerability of supply chains
Sánchez raises the “need to reindustrialize Europe, the days of massive deindustrializations have to end,” which should not mean that everything must be produced within the European Union. “We must be strategic,” he added and bet on the sectors where Europe is strongest. In this sense, he has asked to strengthen strategic capabilities and flee from simplistic temptations, such as those that he maintains that we must return to protectionism.
