Dialogue forum between Italy and Spain, interchange over 28 billion. Orsini: 'EU puts urgency at the centre'

"We need Europe to be quicker and we need to be quicker so as not to lose that competitive edge in comparison with other continents at the moment," stressed the president of Confindustria Emanuele Orsini speaking at the 21st Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum. The meeting was organised by Arel, the research and legislation agency founded by Nino Andreatta, with the Spanish Confindustria Ceoe and the Sbees of Catalan industrialists. We must 'put urgencies at the centre, and we must do it quickly. I'm thinking,' Orsini explained, 'of the European single market, of the simplification of the regulatory framework, because we need to run and make our companies truly competitive at this time. The subject of energy was touched upon, you know how fundamental and out of scale the cost of energy is for Italian industry. I hope for a single European energy market, hoping that we will also be able to buy energy from Spain at a sustainable cost and that we will soon be able to do the same in Italy with the long-awaited energy decree'. Orsini then recalled the theme of the Single European Defence: 'To be able to build,' he said, 'that supply chain necessary to be more competitive here too and to put a European project at the centre'.

The president of Confindustria spoke of the agreement with Mercosur. "We know how important the Mercosur agreement is for us and we hope that the European Parliament will be able to finalise the construction of this agreement," said the Confindustria president. As for exports, Orsini said, "why not also India, because I believe that these new markets at a time like this, where perhaps we have a chance to lose some market to the United States, we can recover it in new markets by building new trade agreements".

Between Italy and Spain, also between companies, there is 'a strategic alliance'. It is an 'asset, an added value, something extra that we have'. And 'the ultimate goal is to stimulate the competitiveness of the European Union,' said the leader of Spanish industrialists, Ceoe president Antonio Garamendi. "We have the potential to work in the same direction, to strengthen the economy and the competitiveness of our companies," he explained, speaking at the Forum. "We are proud of our relationship with our Italian counterparts, from Confindustria: we have an excellent relationship, we have an important space to defend our economies." An alliance that is expanding, added the president of the Spanish confederation of industry, to the entire Mediterranean area, for 'a common cause'. To Europe, he indicated as priorities, among others, those of 'reducing energy prices and ensuring that technological neutrality is at the centre of the agenda'. And we need to 'accelerate the creation of a true savings and investment union'.

The economic ties between Italy and Spain, according to some data published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are at top levels and the two countries have never ceased to represent fundamental markets for each other, for goods, services and investments. ISTAT data for 2024 show record levels for bilateral trade, which, with almost 68.5 billion euro (+3.4% compared to 2023), also exceeds the ceilings reached last year. Compared to 2023, both Italian exports, amounting to more than 34.5 billion euro (+4.3%), and our imports, amounting to almost 34 billion euro (+2.6%), increased. The trade surplus in Italy's favour stands at just over EUR 620 million. In relative terms, Spain is the fourth largest trading partner for Italy globally (bypassing China) and the third largest at EU level. In 2024, the main items of Italian exports to Spain are confirmed to be mechanical and electrical machinery (28.3% of the total), automotive components (7.5%), plastic processing (4.9%) and pharmaceutical products (4.8%). As far as Italian imports of Spanish goods are concerned, the main item continues to be cars, followed by fruit and vegetables, foodstuffs (in particular, olive oil) and gold.

With regard to Latin America, 'Spain and Italy can explore those markets both commercially and politically. We must be more and more interlocutors and not leave that part of the world to a Chinese presence'. This was the exhortation given by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to the audience gathered in Rome for the Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum. "We have historical, linguistic, value and even religious ties with that part of the world, as we do with the African one,' he said. 'Italy and Spain should, and must, play an even more meaningful role there. Even within the EU we can push in that direction: much more can be done in South America'.