Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of European Peoples Party Group holds a press conference ahead of the State of the European Union debate 2023. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

press conference

state of the European Union 2023 (T)

Political groups press briefings: press conference by Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of EPP

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, Good morning. Thanks for your interest today. Welcome come back after hopefully a good summer. We have nine months in front of us until the European elections will take place. That means we will have two priorities. One is the legislative work here on the European level. So to deliver on the open pending files.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, And the second is the preparation for the campaigning in front of us. And, you know, before that as EPP, we also face some challenges on national level with the elections in Slovakia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland. So important months in front of us. Obviously, this week is dominated by the State of the Union speech, the last State of the Union speech before the European elections.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, And for me, the main message of this week is that we are we as Europeans, together stronger. We need more optimism to solve the on the open questions on the table. We can refer to what we did in the last four years about COVID, about the question of Ukraine, the EU membership, about climate change policies. We did it together and we are proud about this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, And this kind of of optimism, what we as Europeans together under the lead of Ursula von der Leyen, but what we did there is a big achievement and gives a proof that together we can do it, together we are stronger. Last week we had an youth event in Brussels where around 1000 young people, from all over Europe, were in Brussels to discuss about the debate, about the questions on the table.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, And it is that is also my sense, after all the talks, it is the first generation which will probably have less economic and personal perspectives than the previous generation. So there is a kind of a of a bad feeling towards the future. And that's why one priority on content for us as EPP is that we have to give a perspective for our economy. So we need competition in the centre of the debate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, That is also what I would say tomorrow in my contribution. Inflation is key. It's also, especially for the poor in our society, a key question. That's why competitiveness, economic strengths, industry policy, SME, less bureaucracy and more trade is one of the key priorities for giving an answer about a positive perspective. And the second priority I want to mention is migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, We are still not ready as Europeans to have a common understanding, but we have a chance to do so in autumn. You know the situation that in a lot of cities and villages and regions in Europe, we reached the reception capacities. So we have a huge problem to welcome everyone in a good way. And that's why migration must be the second priority for the end of the mandate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, I want to see the partnership agreement with Tunisia that this is becoming really reality and alive. Both sides must benefit from this agreement. But I expect also that the numbers of illegal crossings in the Mediterranean are going down. And the second thing in this regard is the legislative migration pact.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, To know about the details there, we have a huge opportunity, even the moral obligation, to solve the migration challenge in legal terms on European level, it would be great to see that all European leadersm Scholz, Macronm Ursula von der Leyen, everybody goes out next year and can tell the Europeans we found a solution, we have a common understanding how to manage migration flows in the future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, That would help a lot to stabilise the symptom. And finally, just to mention this, you know that we have also on the Green Deal a next chapter in front of us. First of all, I want to underline again that EPP voted for 32 out of 34 Green Deal files, so only on nature restoration law and on the combustion engine we had a different opinion on content, but we are proud about what we did there and we are committed to deliver now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, But this next chapter now means for us to deliver now on the deal, on the business case. I want to see that European products are benefiting from this development and not, first of all, Chinese products. And we have a global responsibility, you know, we have now a new commissioner responsible or in front of us after the hearings of the new commissioner. And there I want to underline that from now on our global role is in the centre.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of EPP, So we did a lot on climate change, but we have to convince now the rest of the world during the COP 28 negotiations. So there is the issues on the table currently. And again for us, the State of the Union is first of all a message of we can do it together as Europeans. If we are united, we are strong.

Q&A, Question regarding the increase in coaI consumption by China to produce solar panels.

Q&A, Question about the migration agreement with Tunisia and about how the number of migrants in Europe has risen since the agreement. And another question about the way in which the EU is going to pay Tunisia under this agreement.

Q&A, Question about the prospects of the EU making migration deals with other countries than Tunisia.

Q&A, Question about the methodes used by the EU and Tunisia to handle the illegal migrants.

Q&A, Question about asylum applicants in the EU.

Q&A, Question about the Bischoff report and the latest corruption scandals in the European Parliament.

Q&A, Question about the EPP voting against or for the Bischoff report.

Q&A, Question about Mandfred Weber's declarations about creating a firewall against the Polish ruling party.