- As EU summit fails to reach consensus on conclusions
A hard Brexit could cost the Spanish economy €1bn (£870m) in lost exports and have “innumerable repercussions” for the 800,000 Britons who live in Spain and the 300,000 Spaniards in the UK, according to a leaked Madrid report.
Written for the Spanish government’s Brexit commission and obtained by el País, the report says the UK’s departure from the EU will leave Spain hugely exposed economically and will affect everything from fishing rights to the careers of Spanish footballers playing for British clubs.
It says Brexit will see Spain’s GDP fall by between €2bn and €4bn, force the country to increase its EU budget contributions by €888m, and could result in some regions losing their European funding.
Tourism and the food, pharmaceutical and automotive industries will be hit the hardest, with exports forecast to drop by between €500m and €1bn. The report says that well-known Spanish companies with significant UK operations, such as Banco Santander, Telefónica and the energy giant Iberdrola, would suffer if the pound weakened and the UK’s rating were lowered after Brexit.
The paper goes on to suggest Brexit will have an impact on Gibraltar, migration policy, agriculture, universities “and could affect Spanish footballers in the UK”. Britons constitute the third largest national foreign group living in Spain after Romanians and Moroccans.
The findings, based on information from different ministries and input from the Spanish embassy in London, says that while the UK will feel the effects of Brexit most sharply, the EU and Spain “will also suffer negative economic consequences”, adding: “The economic bonds between the UK and Spain are very tight.”
According to el País, while the paper does not set out Spanish government policy, it implies that “Madrid wants a soft Brexit and not a punitive approach that makes London suffer”.
The report argues that Brussels needs to consider Spanish interests – such as social security, free movement and tourism – when negotiating with the UK.
Spanish sources told the paper: “The aim is to get some certainty for citizens and to help the [European] commission in its role as a negotiator. At the end of the process, the UK can’t find itself in a better situation outside the EU than in it. But if London doesn’t play dirty, the best thing would be not to do mutual damage.”
Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, called for calm in the run-up to the negotiations.
In the meantime, the European Council on Friday conceded that its member states have failed to reach consensus on summit conclusions for “reasons unrelated to its substance.”
“The European Council deliberated on the attached document.
“It was supported by 27 Members of the European Council, but it did not gather consensus, for reasons unrelated to its substance,” said the conclusions of the EU spring summit, released in the name of the European Council president, rather than the council as usual.
“References to the European Council in the attached document should not be read as implying a formal endorsement by the European Council acting as an institution,” the conclusions added.
Recognising difficult situations between the countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel still assessed positively about the progress on security and defense policy made in the summit.
“We agreed that it’s important that the European Union’s defense policy should be complementary to NATO, to strengthen it,” Merkel told reporters after the summit.
The leaders reportedly discussed how the EU should function in the future and how to maintain unity amid severe political and migration pressures during the two-day summit.
It’s believed that Poland, disgruntled over Donald Tusk being re-elected the president of the European Council, refused to give its nod to the conclusions.
Tusk on Thursday won another term despite opposition from his home country Poland.
“The European Council today re-elected Donald Tusk as its president for a second term of two-and-a-half years, from June 1, 2017 to Nov. 30, 2019,” the council announced in a statement.
Tusk was also reappointed as president of the Euro Summit for the same period.
Poland had earlier proposed Polish member of the European Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski for Tusk’s position.
After Tusk being re-elected, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo announced that she would block the summit’s final conclusions.
“I won’t accept the summit conclusions, so the summit won’t be valid,” Szydlo told a press conference on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Szydlo wrote a letter to MEPs, in which she underlined the lack of Poland’s support for Tusk.
Guardian with additional report from NAN
