Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe 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.

Strasbourg

press conference

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

Renew Europe

state of the European Union 2023 (T)

Political groups press briefings: press conference by Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, Hello everyone, welcome to this last one, which promises to be intense. Perhaps a few words of introduction before going directly to the questions. I will be quite short.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, First of all, I want to tell you that last week, my political group was in Vienna for its back-to-school political seminar. In fact, we have adopted a political declaration now, as tradition now requires in my group. A political declaration that will allow us, including to give some major political guidelines for the months and year to come.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, Moreover, from a political point of view, we have reiterated that we always want to rule from the centre, we have reiterated our rejection of any alliance with the extremes. And then we mentioned a certain number of public policies that are currently within the scope of the coming year and that will pass.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, The last months of this mandate, which relate in particular to the speech and the preparation of the State of the Union address. And I will draw a parallel with this declaration and the objectives we hope for in terms of speeches and debates that can follow the speech of the President of the Commission.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, The messages are clear from my group. A certain number of works remain to be finalized and we hope that the last few months will be useful months and a useful year for Europeans. I am thinking in particular of the Asylum and Immigration Pact, which are important objectives for my group to finalize this legislation.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, The issue of competitiveness, with in particular the industrial package and the main laws on cleantech and the energy package, which also remain important ambitions of my group, and the finalization of the Green Deal, the budgetary component of course, with the repayment of the loan and the Stability Pact.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, Moreover, I call on all the other groups in this Parliament to also respect the mid-term agreement that we reached together. In fact, I had come for my term of office. You present him to you, as well as Iratxe García Pérez and Manfred Webber, who had identified a certain number of main priorities for this mandate and that this so-called van der Leyen majority be able to move forward on all these issues.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, As I mentioned, we still have a few points that need to be finalized. Obviously, we want this to be an important subject. Perhaps it is also at least a positive point in this mandate, which I will also raise in my speech. After the Chairwoman of the Committee, it was the protection of democracies that was very much noted by my group during the seminar.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, Moreover, when we look at what is happening in Italy with single-parent, homoparental families, with Poland in particular, the question of justice, the independence of the press and the judiciary. I always have the impression that Europe is not fully up to the plate when it comes to protecting democracies. This is a subject that is in the DNA of my group, on which we always want to make more progress, of course.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, And we were nevertheless at the initiative of a certain number of mechanisms today, which in particular guarantee European funds in relation to criteria that we have identified. In any case, this device must be effective and operational. And I will also be speaking for my group in this plenary session, so that the question of the rule of law in European democracies is raised.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, A few major issues, particularly on raw materials, climate and resilience, will also be important. Obviously on the climate issue. We are aiming to finalize this Green Deal with important objectives. I still wanted to tell you this again, but the question of the European Parliament's ambition is well established.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, During this mandate, I think, a certain number of legislative texts were passed which were the most ambitious of all national parliaments and what can be voted on today in the world on it is on this legislation. I think that now we need to be able to both reassess because we have regulated a lot, but at the same time find the important investment elements to make these transitions without losing competitiveness.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, It will be our objective today to also demonstrate to our population that Europe will probably be a leader in many decarbonization industries in a few years, also because of our regulations and therefore that it is an opportunity both for our jobs, for our industry and this regulation, so there is a battle of opinion to be waged on this subject.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, I hear quite dissonant voices now that a majority has formed on many texts to say that we need to go back. Obviously, this will not be the position of my group. Nevertheless, we will be careful to ensure that investments to make this transition do not come at the expense of tomorrow's jobs and the competitiveness of our industries and our economy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, And so, all this is something that must be held in order to be able to have the consent of the entire population and so that there is no rejection of our legislation, which is still an important and now necessary subject. We have seen every summer for several years now that global warming is no longer only theoretical, but, in practice, this may be a final word on some priorities as well, which involve the simplification and bureaucratization of our rules.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, My group also wishes to push this question to the centre of the political debate at the end of this mandate: how do we simplify and how do we arrive at each European regulation, not adding a layer of administrative complexity for our businesses? I think that contributes to what I was saying about the Green Deal.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, It is the political acceptability of all these reforms that is also in question and so it is necessary to be able to play on these two issues, and therefore it will be one of the main objectives of my group in the coming months, to push the Commission to take this subject to heart and during the various texts that will be finalized on the issues you mention. In a way, these are the few points on which I wanted to insist.

Q&A, Question regarding on the Niger and the situation of the jihad.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), Chair of Renew Europe, -

Q&A, Question regarding on the situation after the death of the Prigogines.

Q&A, Question regarding the circumvention of sanctions via, in particular, neighbouring countries in Asia.

Q&A, Question regarding on what Stéphane Séjourné expect from the Tunisia debate.

Q&A, Question regarding on Manfred Weber's statement on Tunisia. Second question on Renew's point of view on air pollution.

Q&A, Question regarding on Italian representatives in the Renew political group.

paragraph-30 Question regarding on group's position on Air Quality Directive.

Q&A, Question regarding on group's position on the text of prostitution.

Q&A, Question regarding on group's position on the Bischoff report on Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability.

Q&A, Question regarding on group's position and Stéphane Séjourné's on the integrity package, and the new rules of good conduct for the European Parliament. -