Roberta METSOLA, EP President, gives her final address to the Members of the Portuguese Assembly during the formal sitting in Lisbon (Portugal). The transcript is the result of an automated process. Please check against delivery.

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Portugal (T)

formal sitting

Portugal

Lisbon

president's agenda

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to Lisbon (Portugal) - Formal sitting at the Portuguese Assembly (Assembleia da República): address by Roberta METSOLA, EP President

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So first of all, thank you very much for this welcome and for this very lively debate. This is Democracy in Action and we definitely need more of it. You can be welcome in the European Parliament any time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I'll take a few questions one by one. First of all, Rui Tavares, thank you for reminding us about Article 51 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Few of us actually not know this by memory, but it's actually one that dominated our discussions constitutionally for many years, and especially in the context of enlargement. I agree with you should perhaps be brought back in focus.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, The Parliament has been for a very long time, even before this started to be conceived by the European Commission, to insist that the rule of law is not only talked about when a country is about to join the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I can tell you from my personal experience and the difficulty and the length of time it takes for a Member to join with all the challenges, all the goals you need to meet only for then for you to enter.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And suddenly Article 2 does not exist anymore. And not only that, that Article 2 cannot be enforced with a country that likes to think that because it's in government, it can ignore everybody else.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Thank you for mentioning Daphne Caruana Galizia. I can tell you for somebody who campaigned very actively. This is why I was in politics, is why I entered politics to fight corruption, but also because I believed that my country's place was in Europe. Nothing would have ever made me think that a journalist would be killed for doing her job. And she was killed 68 months ago today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And the response that we have seen from your country, from different countries, in order to identify and say never again for a journalist not to be allowed to do her job, simply because she was investigating the truth. And she was asking uncomfortable questions from politicians. That is not a European Union. I want to see, not in my country, not anywhere. Thank you for that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On climate, thank you very much for mentioning the Nature Restoration Law. This was discussed in Parliament yesterday for up to 4 hours, actually voted in one of the Parliament's committees, the Environment Committee. It was a huge debate and most of the votes were a 50/50 split. The vote did not conclude it will continue on the 27th of this month.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But again, it was Democracy in Action. Our parliament takes its role as co-legislator very seriously and we will do our job on this, on protection of diversity and animal protection, fully agreed. The European Parliament is on your side for this. On Afghan women and Iran, what is happening there continues to be one of our biggest concerns, and the statement women liberty now echoes in everything we say and we do.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And I am not only saying this because I am a woman, I am not only saying this because the Parliament of the European Union preaches about democracy. But it's about where we see. Breaches of rights, where women are killed, where minorities are threatened, that we defend them everywhere, both inside and outside the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But I would caution in the other direction that, when we talk about flexibility that is needed, agreed. My predecessor, President Sassoli, who sadly passed away last year, used to talk about the cruel inflexibility of rules. We found that flexibility during the pandemic. That was a hard job done also by the Portuguese Presidency. We cannot forget that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And it is easy to forget. It is easy to forget that the first instinct of Member States was to close borders as soon as the pandemic hit. It is easy to forget that when we see projects being rolled out and this green and digital area and the social area and I agree more needs to be done. But please don't forget that this is coming from the European Union. Please don't forget that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, If it were not for the European Union and the votes of your Members in the European Parliament, we would not have Next Generation EU, we would not have repower, we would not be at the moment discussing how to cushion the social and economic impact of all measures on our citizens, on our small businesses, on our families.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Now, on equality. We passed the most advanced gender equality laws. We talk about equal treatment with huge majorities and transparency. We fight domestic violence and femicide. Even though it is still too prevalent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We still have too many women being killed in our Union. And that is something we need to fight against, not only from podiums, not only by trying to attack the other, but understanding, understanding where our societal challenges are and what and where we have failed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Ukraine, On not actually before that, I would say, on adjusting interest rates. Yes, adjusting interest rates is one of the hardest decisions. It is how we try to fight creeping inflation. But at the same time, we need, as I said, to cushion that impact.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And if our young people are telling us that they are being priced out of the housing market, we need to listen to them. If our small businesses are telling us that they can no longer operate in this kind of environment, we need to address that. It one does not exclude the other. It is about doing what is the right thing to do, but at the same time making sure we mitigate the effects.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Now on Ukraine, Ms. Santos, I chose to go and address like I am doing here, the Ukrainian Parliament on the 1st of April 2022. I ask you to say what you said here in front of the Ukrainian members of Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Because to tell those members of Parliament who have not seen their spouses for weeks, whose kids can't go to school and who are currently embarking not on a conflict, this is not about standing, sitting around the table and trying to make people talk. This is about Russia needing to leave the territory of Ukraine, plain and simple. Nothing more, nothing less.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Mr. Rosa, I agree with you. First on Ukraine, on enlargement, I will need to be prepared. Mr. Capoulas Santos also referred to that on Moldova. I was there a few weeks ago. I was invited to address a rally, a crowd rally, of 75,000 people. And, you know, the first thing I thought is, look at the number of EU flags.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, What does the flag symbolise for millions and millions of people around the world, to them? It symbolises hope, it symbolises security, it symbolises values, and most of all it symbolises protection. Let us not disappoint them when they look to us.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I said in my speech that this is the most European of parliaments. I'm more convinced now than I was before, but we need to do more to convince people to vote in one year's time and vote responsibly. And I will tell you why I say these words. You mentioned the corruption scandal, Mr. Ventura, you know, this has been difficult for us. The easiest would have been for the response to be this happens everywhere and therefore, let's move on.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Myself and my colleagues had not. We look at what went wrong. We look at where we could do better. We look at how we can be a Parliament that is not being pushed into a corner by those who want to destroy the European project because of the actions allegedly of a few individuals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, You said you said that we all speak from Brussels. I'm in Lisbon today. I will go to Braga this evening. Europe is also here. This is not about Europe telling Portugal what to do, but actually listening to you and understanding what we can do with our decisions that make the lives of your citizens better.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, You spoke about immigration. This year we commemorate we can say, we remember ten years from the largest migrant tragedy we saw in the Mediterranean. I come from an island bang in the middle of it. You know what we said ten years ago? Never again. We finally have an unblockage within the Council, within the Government of Member States to move on with migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Now you can say no way, you can say, no way. My plea to you is to sit around the table and vote for it, and vote for a pact that is balanced, a pact that looks at protection of borders. Yes, that understands the difficulties that individual countries, communities have. Some countries have much bigger pressure than others. Some countries, even the word frontline member state has changed over the years.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, For a lot of countries, it is difficult to see that solidarity is used in other areas or with other crises, but not when it comes to people arriving at our shores. But I ask you not to forget this. That if for millions of people still it is safer to go on a boat simply because our policies have not worked.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And for their children, as we saw two days ago, to face an almost certain death, it is safer than that child remaining on land that it was has to be at the core of our policy because we are talking about people. And I tell you, I come from from an island that has faced a disproportionate, disproportionate responsibility, difficult responsibility.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But this fact that has been unblocked will try to balance that between the countries that need help, between saving lives, between protecting borders, between talking about with third countries, with returns. Yes, with returns. Just look at it and don't automatically say that it is not one that you will just even discuss. I would ask you to do that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, You also ask me to that what part is chosen between what matters and how you what you choose? You know, for me, the path is always to choose to be honest. And therefore where I see we can do better, we will be the first ones to talk about it. Where I see that things are not going well, we will be the first ones to address it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Where I feel, however, that we have done a lot and we can do more, on disinformation, on an election where we will have a European law that is in force even in this country from 1st of September called the Digital Services Act, where we will have 16 year olds voting for the first time in four countries in the European Union. That's for us to show to them that Europe matters for them and that they can choose who represents them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Because if they get to choose, then they can hold their representatives accountable. That is, I think, what we owe to all our citizens, where we come from, what democracy fundamentally means and what ultimately we need to, I think all of us, whether we agree on everything, whether we don't, but at the end of the day, this is what we all stand on.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So, thank you very much. Thank you for listening. Thank you also for mentioning Miss Ferreira for the precarious work on housing and referencing to to to Konrad Adenauer. Thank you. Thank you very much.