Ahead of the plenary session in Strasbourg from 7th to 10th March, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of the EPP group in the European Parliament, holds a press briefing.

WEBER, Renate (ALDE, RO)

Strasbourg

press point

plenary session

Press conference by Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President - Briefing EPP

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, Thank you so much for your interest, for your time. So there is only one really important issue on the table: that's Ukraine. The bombing of civilians is really unacceptable and really a shame for what is happening there, and for Putin.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, I told in the speech last week already that we experienced in Europe a kind of a Kiev moment, where we feel all as Ukraine, we feel as Europeans and we are close to the citizens there, the people there, and we are living politically in a new world. We have to defend our European way of life in a way like we never thought that this will happen before.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, You know that there are some concrete points now on the table. First of all, we prepare the council meeting of this week in Paris and Versailles, and there we fully support all initiatives on the defense field to go for the two percent expenditures on national level. I want to underline that we as EPP, the Christian Democrats, the Center-Right Party, on European level always defended this idea to strengthen our defense capacity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, Just as a reminder, four weeks ago, in the last plenary before the war started, the Greens opposed here in the parliament to the regular defense report on European level. So you see, obviously all the party political dimension in this regard. So we want to invest. We are clear on this and on European level, that is our request towards the leaders in Versailles. On European level, we see in a lot of fields a clear European added value to do it together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, And it is about cyber defense in the internet to defend our digital infrastructure. It is obviously better to do it together than alone. And also on a possible missile defense system for the European Union. It is obviously better to do it together and not on national level. So there are obviously some issues where an added value is there if we do it on European level. That is our request to the Council, that we need now a boost, a push, for a real European solution on these issues. Again, the national level is good, the investments are welcomed, but we need the European dimension.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, The second thing is where we see now a concrete effect on our citizens. First of all, on energy, more than 600 million euros we pay every day to Russia as European states. There is a lot of money, and that's why we have to consider how we continue with the gas, oil and coal deliveries from Russia. If the brutality of the war continues, then stop of all coal and oil deliveries to the European Union must be on the table. Is a further option for further sanctions. We cannot accept that we pay so much money to Putin and he's paying with this money we pay every day the war in Ukraine. That is what should be on short term now on the table.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, And we also have to consider what Europe can now do to contribute, having all the communication of the Commission today in mind. But the European Union can now contribute to stabilize the payments for our citizens. That's why we must make a tax reduction possible in the European Union. There are some regulations to be reconsidered and redrafted.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, We also have to consider how the state aid can look like. So competition law is now on the table, that the member states and the regions can assist, especially the energy intensive industries and companies in the European Union and the third element: you know that we have still not yet spent the 750 billion euros of the Recovery and Resilience Fund. The idea was to use this money to restart the economy after the Corona pandemic. That was the idea of this fund.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, I think now it's a moment to consider a redrafting of the national reform programs. So how do we use this money? It is obvious that this money must be now used for economic purposes, that's clear, but also to target the money in a direction which is now needed, and that is about energy and food safety.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, That brings me to the second point because energy is one issue, currently the most interesting one, but from an EPP point of view, I want to underline that the food safety is equally important. Having now in mind that in Russia and Ukraine, we are losing two countries who are the global, let me say, main producers of agricultural products. That has an impact, that will have a big impact on the global delivery on food, on the food stability.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, And that's why we need a food safety plan from the European Commission. It is not enough to talk about energy. We must have a similar approach to the future of our food safety, and that's why we call the Commission to present their also clear criteria.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, And finally, an aspect which is important because now we have millions of refugees. They hit that number, we are arriving to two million refugees in around two weeks of time. We show full solidarity, we support all initiatives on European level to make it for people easy to come to Europe and to find a new place. But we also ask now the member states to prepare themselves.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, We see currently on the ground in Hungary and Poland a lot of engagement from civil society, from people, from individual people, active in helping the refugees, but not so much currently the state being present and active there. And that's why, next to the activities of the society, of our citizens, we need also now the state acting on these points. That is about the Ukraine thing.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, As a second point, let me underline, probably it's not the same dimension, but let me underline that today we have also the liberation of the Women's Day. I want to underline this, especially as EPP Group we are proud because when it is about gender balance and it is about the equal treatment of men and women in our societies, we as EPP,  we don't want to make speeches out of this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President, We do it in reality, because two out of three presidents of the EU institutions are in hand of EPP and both of them are female presidents of the institutions. It's Roberta Metsola, it's Ursula von der Leyen. So that's why, as an EPP representative, I'm proud about this, that we highlight and underline this in reality, in practice and not only by speeches on such an important day like today.

Q&A Q&A focusing on the EPP position on stopping the deliveries of Russian coal and oil in Europe. Second Q&A concentrating on the idea of EU strenghtening its defence capacities.

Q&A Q&A focusing on the lack of definition on disinformation and the impact on Russian civil societies.  a legal

Q&A Q&A focusing on the need of a common refugee policy at a Europen level.

Q&A Q&A focusing on the position of EPP regarding the status of Russian soldiers opposing the war seeking asylum in Europe.

Q&A Q&A concentrating on the EPP position regarding the European Parliament's approach on the Rule of Law.