MADRID, June 5 — There is "no risk” that Spain’s upcoming European Union presidency will be affected by an early general election in July, Spanish Prime minister Pedro Sanchez said today.

Sanchez last week dissolved parliament and called a snap election on July 23 following heavy losses for his Socialist party in local and regional elections on May 28.

Spain is slated to take over the rotating presidency of the bloc from Sweden on July 1.

Asked if the general election would affect its turn at the helm of the bloc, Sanchez said the goals for this presidency were shared with the other EU member states and the European Commission.

"There is no risk that all the goals which we set before the elections were called will not be met during this presidency,” he said during a joint news conference with his visiting Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson.

"Other nations have held elections as well during their presidency and absolutely nothing went wrong,” he added.

Kristersson said he "fully shared” Sanchez’s assessment that there is "no problem at all”.

He recalled that Sweden held elections just before its presidency of the bloc while France held presidential elections in April 2022 during its EU presidency.

"Every country is very well suited to handle all the activities at the same time,” Kristersson said.

Sanchez had been scheduled to address the European Parliament’s plenary session on July 13 to outline Madrid’s main policies during the six-month presidency, but he requested it be delayed to September due to the early elections.

That would allow the speech to be delivered by a new Spanish premier in the event that Sanchez is defeated in the election. — AFP