22 Oct. 2009
Zapatero brings the American Business Council Summit at Universidad Europea de Madrid to a close
Universidad Europea de Madrid
At a presentation before the Summit of the American Business Council in Spain held at Universidad Europea de Madrid, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stated that it was "a necessity" and “a priority" to reach a salary agreement that would pave the way to "creating trust" in recovery, especially after the halt in meaningful dialogue between the interested parties and the government in July. According to Zapatero, unions believe that the discussions are going "quite well" while businessmen see it as only “fair”, and he stated that the Administration is willing to support the process in order for an agreement to be reached.
Zapatero briefly referred to his “roadmap” for “improving the job market”: firstly, in terms of negotiation of the salary agreement and then, when progress is stating to be made, in terms of revising collective bargaining and the active employment policies to “adjust them to the new professional demands” and the much needed “sector-based reassignment of employment".
Moreover, he pointed out that a review of collective bargaining would serve to drive the so-called “internal flexibility” of companies to organize “the working conditions and in the adaptation and assignment of human resources”.
Regarding his view on coming out of the crisis, Zapatero insisted that there is still no guarantee as to when the economic crisis will end or when employment will start being created at a steady rate. He also warned that one must be "very cautious about making predictions" about Spain or indeed any other country.
“Neither economic recovery nor its rate is guaranteed, especially when considering the rate needed to create jobs", he stressed: "we do not know when we will be able to say ‘that's it’, in Spain or in any other leading economy.
Even though, he emphasized, the stimulus policies have already shown "clear signs of stabilization" since the second half of 2009 and there are now "fledgling signs of recovery that should be confirmed in the coming months”, particularly, the recovery of world trade and trust and more favorable progress of financial indicators.
The Prime Minister thus spoke to an institution which brings together the CEOs of the 53 largest American companies in Spain and before the Chairmen of several large Spanish companies (Antoni Brufau-Repsol, Luis del Rivero-Sacyr and Juan Miguel Villar Mir-OHL). Also present were the ministers of Industry, Miguel Sebastián; Education, Ángel Gabilondo and Culture, Ángeles González Sinde.
Significant forum for attracting investment
Zapatero then praised the role of American investment in Spain (7% of the Spanish GDP and more than 300,000 jobs) and informed the businessmen of plans for "a new, large-scale cycle of investment” from the US in Spain and for consolidating Spanish investment in the United States.
Specifically, he reiterated the initiative launched during his visit to Washington to create a "significant forum for economic cooperation" between the two countries, with governmental and corporate involvement and focused on sectors such as renewable energy, aeronautics, biotechnology and transportation. He also announced that the following week the Minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastián, would be traveling to the United States to continue to foment reciprocal investment.
Renegotiating the agreement against double taxation
Subsequently, moving towards more specific topics, he announced that the Spanish government is willing to revisit the agreement for avoiding double taxation, which dates back to 1990, and that the Cabinet of Ministers will present proposals before the end of the year to improve the protection of intellectual property rights. Furthermore, he hoped that communications networks operators and content creators would be able to reach a “consensus” that would protect intellectual property rights but at the same time foster the development of the information society.
"Economic crises are always untimely, but they also give rise to opportunities", stated Zapatero, who defended the measures being taken by his Administration - pointing out that they are in line with what was agreed upon by the G20 - and would like to highlight the parallels between the crisis in Spain and the crisis in the United States, including the problems that have caused the real estate bubble that led mortgage debt to reach 90% of its gross income available in Spain and 95% in the United States.
In fact, he began his speech reflecting on his meeting with President Obama a week earlier in the White House and stated that both shared the "diagnosis" and “ambitions for coming out” of the crisis, by backing sustainable growth, social policy and a true change of the model that would not allow us to act “as if nothing had ever happened".
Finally, he stated that, despite the crisis, reciprocal investment between Spain and the United States has continued to grow, thus demonstrating mutual trust, as well as an appropriate level of legal protection of foreign investment in Spain, which he proposed to further improve through Judicial reform.