Antonio TAJANI, EP President, opens the EU Ambassadors 6th meeting in the EP in Brussels. He expresses himself on Africa, Turkey, Balkans, Russia, China and on NATO. Family picture&nbsp;

Brussels

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

meeting

EU - Russia (T)

EU - China (T)

EU - Africa (T)

EU - Türkiye (T)

speech

EU - NATO (T)

CFSP (T)

EU Ambassadors 6th meeting: extracts from the opening remarks by Antonio TAJANI, EP President, and family picture

Atmosphere ahead the meeting , Antonio TAJANI, EP President entering the meeting room, handshake (3 shots)  

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We need you, (the EU ambassadors) you are in the first line, you are like the scouts of the EU. You are those, on the field regarding what's happening.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Africa: What we have to do? We have to have a political strategy for Africa, for the African growth. What we want to do on the climate change filed in Africa ? What we want to do for the economic growth? What do we want to do against terrorism ? How much money do we want to invest in Africa ? We cannot invest only a few hundred millions, we have to invest dozens of milliards of euro.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Turkey: I've told to Mr Erdogan while he was here in Brussels : there is a red line we cannot pass. You are asking to become member of the EU, but for being member of the EU you must respect the rules. You can decide to respect them, it is up to you . For us it is impossible to accept the death penalty ; it is impossible to accept journalists and tourists in prison. We cannot accept interference into electoral campaign of an EU democratic country, like to tell to the Turkish people living in Germany to whom to vote.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Balkans: We ca not let the Balkans to the others. Ether to the Mussulmen fundamentalists or to the Russians whom are trying to control that region. We have two types of fundamentalism, the Russians who are trying to stop Europe to the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian border, to not going further. So we have to engage at political level. We cannot accept that Kosovo becomes the rear base from where the Daesh will enter Europe. There are dozens of foreign fighters in the Balkans preparing to enter Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Russia: Russia must respect the agreements , as you know from the international law , &lt;pacta servanda sunt&gt; . If there are agreements, the Russians must respect them. Of course on the long term they will become interlocutors. We have thousands of European companies whom have worked in Russia, but we cannot accept that on the name of economic interests they are doing what they want. Even we have economic interests we have values to defend, the European integrity to defend.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, China : Is China a friend or an enemy ? None of it, it is an interlocutor. They are a big market , but we have to defend European industry in certain sectors. We have sectors of European industry working very well there, but we cannot accept that for example in the domain of ceramic or steel the Chinese are making dumping killing the European industries.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, When we are weak, when we are afraid, we are not respected. Concerning NATO, I consider that with the US, if we want to help NATO we have to have a strong European defence. If we want to play a political role, to have a foreign policy, we have to go forward for the European defence.