Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of : State Secretary for the European Union commits to greater attention to the depopulation phenomenon in EU policies in visit to Valladolid

The State Secretary for the European Union, Juan González-Barba, made a working trip today to Castile and Leon, to address European affairs with a great impact on the autonomous region.

By making this trip, Juan González-Barba thus completes his visit to the three autonomous regions with the provinces with the lowest population densities (Soria, Cuenca and Teruel), and which form part of the Talavera Pact for the Demographic Challenge: Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha and Aragon.

Within the framework of his visit, the State secretary met with the Regional Vice-President, Francisco Igea, to address the demographic challenge in the EU, cross-border cooperation with Portugal, the participation of the regions in the Conference on the Future of Europe and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The first issue of importance was the question of the demographic challenge. The State secretary conveyed to the authorities of Castile and Leon the efforts made by the government to address the demographic challenge at an EU level. The visit precisely coincided with the participation of the President of the Government in the National Fair to repopulate Spain - 'Presura' - held in Soria, a few days after presenting the Plan of Measures to Tackle the Demographic Challenge to Spanish mayors.

For his part, Juan González-Barba expressed his interest in working, within the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe, on strengthening the system for regions with structural deficiencies, such as those regions that are sparsely populated, mountain regions and cross-border regions. This will complement the work that the government has undertaken to defend the interests of the regions that receive the most regional aid, which was reflected in the recent adoption of new Guidelines on State aid for regional purposes by the European Commission.

Juan González-Barba also met with the President of the Regional Parliament of Castile and Leon, and with representatives of all the parliamentary groups to exchange impressions on the European dossiers with the greatest impact on the people of Castile and Leon, such as the fight against the pandemic and the employment of the recovery funds - issues that require the collaboration of all political parties and tiers of government.

The institutional visit included a meeting with the Mayor of Valladolid, Óscar Puente, to whom Juan González-Barba conveyed his commitment to cities as key players in Spain's foreign action in Europe, both at an EU level and in regard to bilateral relations. To this end, he encouraged the former to get involved in the Conference on the Future of Europe, within the framework of which the government plans to propose more active participation by cities in the European project.

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