Sánchez reorganizes his team to promote industrial autonomy

Pedro Sánchez has decided to reorganize the organization chart of the Presidency of the Government, as La Vanguardia has learned, to promote an area that, at this moment, is one of the main priorities of the Executive in economic matters: reindustrialization and the debate on autonomy strategic.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
14 February 2023 Tuesday 04:33
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Sánchez reorganizes his team to promote industrial autonomy

Pedro Sánchez has decided to reorganize the organization chart of the Presidency of the Government, as La Vanguardia has learned, to promote an area that, at this moment, is one of the main priorities of the Executive in economic matters: reindustrialization and the debate on autonomy strategic. In other words, how Spain and, by extension, the European Union reorient themselves so as not to depend so much on other countries in the production processes and search for raw materials. Moncloa wants the issue to be a central axis during the EU presidency and that the conclusions of the Granada summit, which will bring together the heads of state and government, reflect an express commitment to the industrial reconversion of the continent.

The changes in Moncloa will consist of reinforcing the national long-term country strategy and prospective office led by Diego Rubio, which will become a general secretary (until now it has been a general directorate), at the same level as the department of economic affairs, headed by Manuel de la Rocha, and the office for the coordination of the EU Presidency, headed by Aurora Mejía. In turn, the high commissioner for Spain, an entrepreneurial nation, which Francisco Polo has held, disappears, thus lightening the structure of the cabinet. This new configuration is approved by a decree, which is published in the Official State Gazette this Tuesday.

"Promoting open strategic autonomy will be one of the priorities of the Spanish presidency of the EU," Sánchez said last week. The Government considers that Europe must give a change of direction to industrial policy after the commitment of the United States and China for regionalization and fiscal strategy, and Spain wants to lead this debate during the second half of this year.

A senior government official explains that the lack of strategic autonomy has caused Spain and the EU to be and are dependent at the worst of the pandemic, with the absence of a mask or respirators, and in the midst of the war in Ukraine, with energy and cereal, for example. The Government considers that the current Spanish presidency, the last full one before the 2024 European elections, is an opportunity to redefine the production chains in Europe, not only the current ones but also creating new ones. A piece of information: in the old continent barely 1% of the installed solar panels are produced.

Spain also considers that, within this redefinition of European industrialization, it is necessary to regain a presence in Latin America and Africa, continents from which raw materials come from that the EU lacks, or bet on reinforcing recycling and eco-innovation.

The Moncloa foresight office is already working on an intergovernmental research project that will use a multidisciplinary, empirical and prospective approach to analyze which are the main strategic vulnerabilities of the EU in four key areas (energy, food, health, and digital technologies), the most effective ways to deal with them, and the effects that doing so could have on citizens and companies. The project will involve 25 Member States and more than 50 ministries from all over the Union, in collaboration with the prospective network of the Vice-Presidency for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight of the European Commission, and with the support of the Council of the EU.