The Treaty of Friendship with France returns to Congress with the PP as arbiter of its approval

The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and France faces a new parliamentary examination this week after its ratification was frustrated a year ago in Congress. The text, signed in 2023 by Pedro Sánchez and Emmanuel Macron, returns to the Lower House with the unknown of what the position of the Popular Party will finally be.

The initiative seeks to strengthen political and institutional cooperation between both countries following the model of strategic agreements that France maintains with Germany and Italy. However, its processing in Spain was blocked by doubts raised by the PP about the possibility of French representatives participating in meetings of the Spanish Government.

To overcome this obstacle, the Executive modified the Government Law and subsequently negotiated an interpretive agreement with France that clarifies that French ministers may be invited to specific work meetings, but not to the Council of Ministers in the strict sense.

The new text will arrive this Wednesday at the Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee, where it is expected to once again obtain the support of the investiture bloc. However, the real test will come in next week's Plenary Session, where the PP's vote could be decisive if Junts and Podemos maintain the abstention that already caused the failure of ratification in 2025.

The leadership of Alberto Núñez Feijóo has not yet clarified whether it considers the modifications introduced sufficient to clear its legal objections. Its position will be observed with special attention by both the Government and the French authorities, interested in definitively unblocking the agreement.

From Paris, confidence is conveyed that the treaty will eventually be approved. The French Executive considers that it is a strategic alliance between two neighboring countries that transcends the governments in power and that will allow bilateral cooperation to be raised to a level similar to that which France maintains with its main European partners.