The 28th S'Agaró Economic Meeting closed yesterday with a warning about the risks of the current economic situation. In a recorded video, the vice-president of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, warned of the "high uncertainty and slowdown of the European economy in an intense technological change to respond to climate change". It was precisely the challenges of energy transformation that focused one of the debates in s'Agaró in which the president of Enagás, Antonio Llardén, warned of the need to move towards a new model in which hydrogen can play a featured role
Although the vice-president of economy warned of possible future risks, she also put on the table one of the main objectives of the legislature, that of achieving effective full employment. It is a distant horizon today, since, according to the INE, the unemployment rate stands at 11.8%. To reach full employment, the percentage of unemployed should be reduced to less than half of the current level.
According to the head of economy in the Government of Pedro Sánchez, the dynamism of the labor market has been precisely what has allowed the country's GDP (everything produced in a year) to advance more than other markets in the environment "The differential growth of the Spanish economy is based on the dynamism of the labor market", he added, recalling that there are more than 24 million active population. He highlighted the "qualitative" improvements such as the "drastically" drop in temporary employment, the increase in wages and employment in high-productivity sectors such as information and communication technologies (ICT), research and development or science.
During the short recorded speech, Vice President Calviño pointed out that the axes of economic policy in the coming years will focus on "fiscal responsibility, social justice and reforms". The politician also emphasized that "we must certainly avoid complacency, because the challenges are enormous".
In his speech he listed some factors that demonstrate "structural change" and the "great strength" of the Spanish economy, such as the current account balance of payments surplus of 3% of GDP. The other element that stood out was the deleveraging of families and companies, with a debt that was reduced "thanks, in a large way, to the rescue of the public sector during the pandemic". In this scenario, he also described the disbursement of European funds as "key".
At the same time, the vice-president appealed, in "an increasingly turbulent world" like the current one, to the fact that both the public sector and business leaders convey "confidence". He opined that it is "more important than ever to find common ground" to ensure political and financial stability, sustainable growth, and social cohesion and peace. The five qualities he highlighted were dialogue, flexibility to adapt, attracting talent, ambition and vision, and social responsibility. Calviño assured that the Government of Sánchez has committed to these values from the beginning.
At the debate table on energy transition, the CEO of Agbar in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, Narciso Berberana, assured that water regeneration is the best solution to guarantee supply. "We must be able to regenerate 100% of the water", he defended after stating that the cost of this process is half of what is paid for water coming from a desalination plant. The president of the Spanish Association of Petroleum Product Operators (AOP), Andreu Puñet, warned that more than 16.5 billion investments in energy transition are at risk if the extraordinary tax on energy is maintained.
The last colloquium was about SMEs, in which the president of Pimec, Antonio Cañete, demanded to legislate with the small ones in mind. The president of SMEs, together with the director general of the Chamber of Spain, Inmaculada Riera, committed to creating spaces for public-private collaborations to promote the sector. Cañete added that thanks to Europe, the law creates and grows has been created, because it "changes the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, because it injects liquidity into the system" and saves companies and jobs.
Earlier, in the session on geopolitics, Guillem Colom, adviser to the Jemad - Defense General Staff, pointed out the importance of a united European security.
