The State of the European Union. The European Parliament faces its most important elections yet

137 1. Spain and the future of Europe – Spain must position itself in favour of the consolidation of political, economic and social union during the new EU political cycle that will begin once the European elections of 26 May 2019 are over. This means continuing to push for the realisation of one of the two scenarios proposed in the White Paper on the Future of Europe: 5 (doing much more together) or 3 (those who want to do more). – Spain must stand with Germany, France and Portugal as part of the EU vanguard, providing leadership in the Mediterranean region and Member States desiring greater cohesion. – The defence of European principles, values and rights must be one of Spain’s top priorities. The Spanish government must continue to assume a pro-active role in EU affairs. – Generally speaking, the people of Spain have shown themselves to be firmly in pro of a wide range of policy initiatives at the EU level that would suppose a significant step forward towards integration. This favourable atmosphere of public opinion could serve as lever- age for the implementation of these initiatives or others of a similar nature. – In spite of their Europeist sentiment, Spaniards have been critical of what they perceive to have been a failure on the part of the EU to shield average citizens from the impact of the Great Recession. Should another severe economic crisis come to pass, the EU must be ready to assume a more active role in protecting EU citizens from Recommendations European Affairs Council of the Fundación Alternativas* * The European Affair Council of the Fundación Alternativas is composed as follows: Diego López Garrido (presidente), Nicolás Sartorius, Juan Moscoso, Carlos Carnero, Vicente Pala- cio, Manuel de la Rocha Vázquez, José Candela, Jesús Ruiz-Huerta, Enrique Ayala, Carlos Closa, José Manuel Albares, José Luis Escario, María Muñiz, Emilio Ontiveros, Maria João Rodrigues, Francisco Aldecoa, Soledad Gallego, Irune Aguirrezábal, Josep Borrell, Doménec Ruiz and Xavier Vidal-Folch. Permanent guests at meetings of the Council are Gero Maass, Delegate to Spain of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and María Pallares, programme coordina- tor, also of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.