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The agreement for European reconstruction entails obligations and commitments that, according to the Vice President of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, does not prevent the Executive from carrying out the PSOE-Podemos agreements at all. It could be understood, therefore, that the Executive is in a position to repeal the labor reform and has no obligation to reform pensions. However, the pact does include measures and mechanisms that oblige the European recommendations to be followed, among which precisely are always to maintain Rajoy's reform and touch pensions. And it also allows other countries to question and paralyze national policies.

What should countries do to receive the funds? Present a National Reform Plan with the actions they are going to carry out, a document that is already presented annually along with the Stability Program. But now, in this text, the reforms and actions in which the governments are going to invest the European funds should be included, inspired and based on specific recommendations that Brussels makes to each country. And what does Brussels recommend to Spain regarding labor and pensions? That it maintain the labor reform carried out by the Rajoy Government and act on the pension system. It is a constant in successive reports on Spain that has been reinforced by statements such as "the labor reform has been positive for employment" and that they should even have gone further to end temporality and duality; and suggestions to the effect that current retirees must also suffer part of the adjustment required by Social Security or that linking pensions to the CPI can generate dangerous increases in expenses. Does that mean that the National Reform Plan will already include these two actions? Not necessarily, since the first actions can focus on other areas that the Government considers more urgent. And Brussels, when evaluating the document, can understand that what the Executive has proposed is on the right track without specifically forcing it to maintain the labor reform and act on pensions. But it is a first filter. Which one is next? The member countries themselves. If only one government has doubts about the measures proposed by, in this case, Spain, that nation is in a position to express them publicly and have them discussed. It is the conditionality that the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, insisted on introducing and that, without a doubt, he is willing to use to make the countries of the South reform pensions and control their labor market. Reforms? No, but it would oblige the heads of government themselves to discuss the content of the text. For its approval or rejection a qualified majority would be necessary and therefore the so-called frugal countries could do nothing by themselves. They would need a good number of supports. But it would freeze both measures and funds, and would cast doubt on the country in question. In addition, it would reduce the time to implement the reforms, more vital if possible in the case of Spain given the country's problems to implement complex projects. What, therefore, is the exact answer to the question posed in the headline? / Dt> There is no question, at least not a blunt one. The document is somewhat ambiguous at some points and can effectively allow different readings. But what does seem indisputable is that the mechanism reserves more than one way for countries to act in the direction that Brussels wants, and in pensions and the labor market it is clear what it is.

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Know more

  • Pensions
  • Labour reform

Negotiations: Maintain labor reform, raise VAT and touch pensions: the measures that Brussels requests from Spain but that Sánchez ignores

Covid-19The number of pensions rebounds slightly after three months of falls caused by the coronavirus

Social securityThe pension for new retirees grows at rates of more than 10% in the midst of a crisis and now exceeds 1,400 euros

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