Sánchez goes to the EU summit confident of growing support for his position on Gaza
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, participates this Thursday in the European Council in Brussels, whose conclusions the Executive hopes will demonstrate the growing rapprochement of community partners with Spain's position on the situation in Gaza.
The existing humanitarian crisis in the Strip will be, together with the war in Ukraine, one of the axes of the Twenty-Seven summit convened less than three months before the European elections and which has a busy agenda.
Gaza will take up a large part of the debates, and Government sources highlight the importance of the leaders addressing this issue to which, while waiting for the conclusions to be agreed upon, Sánchez will defend that there is a call for the cessation of hostilities, since be it in the form of a pause or humanitarian ceasefire, to be able to serve the citizens of the Strip.
The Executive reiterates its condemnation of the Hamas attacks of October 7, Israel's right to defend itself and the demand for the release of the Israeli hostages, but emphasizes that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza must end.
For this reason, he welcomes the maritime corridor that is being launched, but demands that it is important to also open land corridors so that humanitarian aid can arrive.
The cited sources consider it essential that the EU takes a stand regarding the announced Israeli ground offensive on Rafah and tries to prevent it from occurring by all means, as they warn that it could have unimaginable consequences.
At the same time, they defend continued support for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), considering that it is the only organization that has real capacity on the ground to effectively, quickly and urgently distribute humanitarian aid to the community. international.
That is the position that Sánchez will take to the European Council along with his commitment to a political process to achieve the solution of the two states, Israel and Palestine, and that Spain wants it to also be included in the conclusions of the summit.
Given Israel's attitude, last month the head of the Government sent a letter signed together with his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar (who has resigned from his position), to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the who asked him to review whether that country is complying with its agreements with the European Union regarding respect for human rights.
The Spanish Government is awaiting a formal response to that letter in the coming days and reiterates its conviction that the summit that begins this Thursday will demonstrate that many countries are shifting towards the Spanish position regarding the situation in Gaza, in part due to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip but also due to pressure from Spain in Brussels.
Regarding Ukraine, the Government continues to highlight the need to maintain unity in support of this country in the face of Russian aggression and to do so urgently and also affirms that this summit will demonstrate that the EU renews that commitment against those who think it can having reached a point of certain fatigue in that help.
At the request of Spain and other member states, European leaders will also address how to respond to the demands of farmers, who have mobilized to denounce the bureaucratic burdens they bear and the competition from markets that they consider are not subject to the same demands.
Before participating in the summit, Sánchez will attend the usual previous meeting of the European socialist leaders, while the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is also already in Brussels to be present at the meeting of the leaders of the European People's Party.