00:00The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is hosting a raft of left-wing world leaders,
00:05including the presidents of Brazil, Colombia and South Africa.
00:09Our EU editor, Maria Tadeo, is there for us and just before the show sent us this update.
00:16Well, good morning indeed, Marit.
00:18We are in Barcelona where the Spanish government is hosting a convention today and tomorrow
00:24bringing together heads of states, intellectuals and activists of what it calls is the progressive social democratic world.
00:32In a way, you could argue this is the opposite, the complete opposite of the CPAC convention
00:38led in multiple occasions by President Trump.
00:41And of course, it's not a secret that the Spanish Prime Minister and President Trump
00:44have clashed on pretty much every subject, including the war in Iran,
00:49which this country, Spain, says is completely illegal and will set the region on fire.
00:55Now, in terms of today, I spoke with Teresa Rivera.
00:58She is the Executive Vice President of the European Commission,
01:01also a former minister in the Spanish government.
01:04And I began by asking her in our interview, why is it that the world needs progressive ideas,
01:10but also has the European left lost the working class
01:14because of a disconnect between their vision and their needs?
01:18Let's take a look.
01:20My conviction is that we need to think on how to solve the problems.
01:25So it is not against anyone, but to be fair and solid on the type of responses that we are
01:30proposing
01:31and that we are playing and walking the path.
01:34So I could not say.
01:36Obviously, there is a political view that is pretty different from those political views
01:42being supported by the most conservative voices.
01:47But the main intention is to say what we want that probably provides a different view of the things that
01:55others do want.
01:56But since you talk about the idea of progressive Europe, some would say the left has lost the European working
02:03class
02:04because it doesn't have the right priorities.
02:06I wonder, is this also a moment where the left needs to do a form of soul searching too?
02:11On the contrary, I have the impression that climate action is providing opportunities to people that could feel the harm,
02:21the penalties of not taking climate action.
02:25Energy transition means counting on sources of energy that do not create additional problems
02:31and that allow people to have lower bills.
02:33So it is part of the discussion that has been distorted in purpose to prevent action in those areas that
02:41could help people to do things
02:43and to count on the high quality of life.
02:46Over the weekend, there was a very important election in Hungary in which the Hungarians voted for change.
02:52Prime Minister Viktor Orban will be leaving office after 16 years.
02:55He was obviously a big ally of President Trump in Europe.
02:59I wonder, what does that election, that result, that call for change say to you when it comes to Europe
03:06at this stage?
03:10We've seen that Hungarians did decide that they wanted to be Europeans, that they wanted to fight for their rights,
03:17that they thought that this was important in terms of democracy, and they decided to vote massively, massively.
03:24It was not a tight election. It was very clear.
03:28So I think that it shows to what extent this narrative against Europe, against working together, against being united,
03:36against the defense of the civil rights and the integration is not something that can win in the middle and
03:42long run.
03:43On the contrary, it probably exposes the limitations and the harm that people could feel in the absence of these
03:51joint forces,
03:54joint efforts of the European nations to develop the European program.
03:59Just a final point on this.
04:00There's been reports now that the Commission, and obviously this now touches the core of your portfolio,
04:05this is a massive job that you have when it comes to the competition laws in the EU,
04:09and these reports suggest that there is now a plan to massively dilute some of the regulation
04:15to allow for mergers to create major European champions.
04:19Is that the case? Are you preparing for this?
04:22We are entering into the last phase to adopt an updated version of our merger guidelines.
04:28So we have already a very sound draft.
04:31After having hurt everybody, we know that we need to update our reality to today's economy.
04:38But that doesn't mean forgetting the core bulk of our mission,
04:43which is protecting consumers from abuses of dominance.
04:47So this means that we may take into consideration innovation, long-term sustainability, resilience.
04:54This means that we need to be ready to understand the global context
04:59and the impact in the national and the domestic economy.
05:02But this doesn't mean forgetting about the importance of keeping the level playing field.
05:07So you're not, just as a final question on this, because it's important,
05:10so you're not preparing major deregulation to allow companies to come together?
05:15That is not in the pipeline?
05:16No, no, no, of course not.
05:17And I say this because you have said in the past that too much simplification at times has made things
05:21confusing.
05:21So your fundamentals is still to say deregulation would be bad for the EU.
05:27This is not a product to deregulate.
05:32This is a product to modernize and to be transparent of the criteria that we will be using to assess
05:39when emergency is pro-competitive and provides positive effects to the economy
05:44and when it is a real risk and it is not proven that the operation does not comply with what
05:53it is being said,
05:54either if it is innovation or sustainability.
05:57So I think that it allows much more innovation and much more security for all,
06:02but at the very same time it is quite clear that we will remain defending the interests of the consumers
06:08and not accepting whatever as a blank check.
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