Sánchez visits Kyiv on the day Spain begins EU presidency to underline bloc’s help for Ukraine

MADRID (AP) – Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez began Spain’s six-month presidency of the European Union with a lightning go to to Kyiv on Saturday to underline the bloc’s help of Ukraine within the face of the invasion by Russia.

Sánchez arrived within the Ukrainian capital by practice from Poland.

The Spanish authorities mentioned he would handle Ukraine’s parliament at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT) after which meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two will give a information convention round 1030 GMT (6:30 a.m. EDT).

Zelenskyy introduced the go to Thursday in an handle to European leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels. He highlighted the symbolism of the go to and the significance of the following six months for Europe. He added that it was the second to start negotiations for Ukraine’s entry into the EU.

Speaking Friday in Brussels, Sánchez mentioned, “The war in Ukraine will be one of the great priorities of our presidency, with the focus being on guaranteeing the unity (on the issue) among all member states.”

This was Sánchez’s third time in Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Sánchez will return to Madrid by Sunday, when he meets with the European Council President Charles Michel, a day earlier than the arrival of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the faculty of EU commissioners.

Besides Ukraine, Spain hopes to make progress on a number of main EU points throughout its presidency, which ends on Dec. 31.

Sánchez believes that the EU will finalize a controversial pact on migration regardless of lingering variations throughout the 27-nation group with Poland and Hungary nonetheless evident on Friday.

Earlier this month, EU international locations a breakthrough on asylum legislation reform, sealing an settlement on a plan to share duty for migrants getting into Europe with out authorization. Only Poland and Hungary voted towards.

EU lawmakers have warned that this can be the final probability to unravel the problem earlier than EU-wide elections in a yr’s time, when migration is more likely to be a hot-button situation as soon as once more.

The rotating presidency comes as Spain faces an early basic election on July 23, which polls reveals may oust Sánchez’s leftist coalition authorities and change it with a conservative administration, or perhaps a coalition with the acute proper, and observe a development occurring in a lot of Europe.

Sánchez has mentioned that he desires to give attention to rebuilding intra-European provide chains to keep away from shortages and assure power sovereignty. This would come with establishing European dominance within the fields of synthetic intelligence and digital safety.

Spain additionally hopes the EU-Latin America summit set for July 17-18 in Brussels, the primary in eight years, will characterize “a qualitative leap” in relations between the 2 areas and can result in a robust funding agenda with Latin American and Caribbean nations.