Ahead of the plenary session in Strasbourg from 7th to 10th March, Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President of the Renew group in the European Parliament, holds a press briefing.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

Renew Europe

Press conference by Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President - Briefing Renew Europe

SOUNDBITE (French), St&eacute;phane S&Eacute;JOURN&Eacute; (Renew, FR), President, Naturally, the news means that our work is mainly focused on the war in Ukraine and any possible European reaction. And I will give the floor to Petras and Nathalie, who will shortly be joining us to provide more detail on the position of this group and an analysis that we can make.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, My convintion is that our Union will be able to come up with a collective response and that the European Union has already demonstrated unity over the last few weeks. Let me start by talking about two items before I take up the immediate matter of what's in the news.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, Firstly, on the occasion of International Women's Day, Renew has been promoting gender equality for years, and this is something which I'm particularly proud of. Since the beginning of this mandate we have promoted the Simone Veil pact, which is a political commitment for governments, which our members promote so that governments legislate specifically and progressively on sexual and reproductive rights, countering violence against women, improving political representation of women and ensuring the involvement of women in politics.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, This is something which our group is supporting and promoting and we will specifically talk to you about this at the appropriate time and we'll give you information. We have an internet platform with a dedicated site and this charter, the Simone Veil pact, is something that we encourage governments and national partner parliaments and local authorities to promote, to take up and to implement this pact.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, In the coming weeks we will have more to say on this. This will take the form of resolutions in national parliaments and events in Brussels, and Renew is very committed to promoting these values.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, One other point before we come back to the news, which is often dominated by Ukraine, that's the question of the conditionality mechanism and the Rule of Law. And here I would like to mention the Wednesday vote on the Rule of Law. This is the upshot of the ECJ's verdict, rejecting the Polish and Hungarian governments' attempts to eliminate this new link with the Rule of Law and therefore the Commission no longer has any pretext for not opening procedures against relevant member states.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, Members of the European Parliament will be pronouncing upon the resolution and we will be requiring the activation of the conditionality mechanism. This is a constant ongoing commitment of our group, so it won't be surprising to you but it is something nevertheless to underline. And we will follow this matter very closely.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, May also indicate that I think we can now turn to Ukraine and make this the major topic of this press conference, but we are determined to continue working on our European priorities and challenges, and I think it's important for the European Parliament not to abandon the issues on which we have built our legitimacy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President, So much for those two issues, and I will now get to the floor the other two speakers to talk about Ukraine, the position of our group and also what is immediately happening in this regard and the appalling situation that we see in the country. So firstly Petras and then Nathalie.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), We celebrated International Women's Day today and it must be a mood of celebration. But as we speak, ladies and gentlemen, the second convoy from Sumy city in Ukraine had to be sent back since it was shelled by Russian tanks. And you know who are on those convoys: mainly women and children.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), Unfortunately, Russia's face of today is a face of war and we have to call things as they are. Indeed, war crimes are committed, and we don't see any decision to stop those war crimes to come. Indeed, the Renew Europe position on the present situation, when it to comes the Russian aggression against Ukraine is based probably on three pillars, as we call on the European Union and the west to continue the full economic blockade of Putin and Lukashenko regime. It's very important to mention: Lukashenko regime is a part of the war and all sanctions the European Union takes should be mirrored against Lukashenko.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), There are some calculations made that if it's not done properly, Lukashenko's regime might even benefit from the situation once sanctions are imposed only on Russia. And I give you an example: Lukashenko regime is looking forward to benefit from, for example, exchange operations like taking rubles and using that ruble to buy oil from the Russian Federation. So we have to be very serious. Belarus became a part of aggression and they must pay a price. And I call on the European Union and all western countries to do it as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), Second pillar, providing largest possible financial, political and military assistance to Ukraine and, definitely, its people. We do our best, but let's be frank, we are facing the largest refugee crisis. Figure for the 22 refugee influx to the European Union and neighboring countries will exceed at least two-three times starting from the influx we see in 15-16. That crisis, I mean, we went through.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), And thirdly, the EU must remain united and reinforce its capacity to act in the longer run. I think we have to be very realistic that this period of time we're facing a new Cold War imposed on us, on the west, from the Russian Federation. We have to be ready and we have to act accordingly, not to lay down our arms, but to be as strong as possible. And secondly, we expect from the Russian society to act accordingly. It's a part of our joint action.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT), If the Russian society, especially civil parts of this society, because not everybody probably would agree, I mean, to challenge the Putin's regime, but Russians must do their own to, there is a new term, de-putinise Russia. There is no good future for Russian people if Putin remains in power, if he conducts the acts of aggression around his borders and every time has a justification for so-called special operations against anybody of us. So, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the contribution of Renew Europe will facilitate the strengthening our resilience against any attempts to break down our unity and our values.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), I would like to take up hope that the triptych that Petras has mentioned, I would like to add some points on defense matters. You won't be surprised. So the triptych behind opposition is that we should support Ukraine. Secondly, that we should be firm and ever firmer on the sanctions vis-a-vis the Russian regime. Snd thirdly, we should work on our European capabilities to be better prepared for this kind of crisis.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), Supporting Ukraine, firstly, what does that mean? Naturally, humanitarian aid? But today we can see that humanitarian corridors announced by Russia are simply decoys. They haven't been implemented at all, despite efforts made, and I therefore appeal to the United Nations to commit further to provide humanitarian aid for people who are besieged and systematically hungry in a number of Ukrainian cities.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), Helping Ukraine also means welcoming the refugees properly and in dignity and making sure that, thanks to temporary protection, they have access to health care. And if they have children to make sure that those children can go to school, but also make sure that students and researchers can have grants to work in Europe. It also means providing military aid, including weapons.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), From this point of view, the European Union, in just a few days, has produced a budget that it refused to do hitherto. And the European Peace Facility is only just a few months old. I know it took a long time to negotiate it, and it was difficult because some countries were hesitant, and even when it started some member states felt that we could only send non-lethal equipment to a partnership country.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), I'd like you to just think for a second what would have happened if we had been more rapid and more determined in providing equipment before, in Mali, for instance, and then the appeal made by Mali to the Bachner group. So we have been brought out of our innocence, a period during which other people have benefited and this is why we have sent weapons to Ukraine. You know, the European Union is not saying which and when, because that information is of interest to Putin's regime, and therefore it is quite normal that we should not spell out our action.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), But, in doing this, almost all the foreseen budget for the European Peace Facility for 2022 is being devoted to Ukraine. And that means that the facility is in fact too small and it's important given mobility needs that we reinforce troops in Estonia, Romania and elsewhere. In terms of the European budget, we have not made enough available and we're going to have to revise some of our priorities because we assumed that there wouldn't be any wars on the European continent.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), This brings me to the issue of changing point of view when it comes to what we should do at the European Union. France made this strategic request, particularly since the beginning of the new Commission, and this is going to lead under the French presidency. The strategy has been rewritten not just twice, but three times taking into account the war in Ukraine, in order to spell out threats much more clearly and be aware that authoritarian countries are undermining democracies.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), This is done by cyber attacks and hybrid menaces, hybrid threats and corrupting politicians. That is how it started in Ukraine and it's ended with a conflict. Spelling out the threats means that we need to be much more resilient. There are matters today that are no longer theoretical. They're not just matters for specialists in the offices. When a cable has been cut near Norway, one can scarcely think now that it's an accident, knowing that Russia can fire missiles into the space.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR),, We're talking about the protection of our critical infrastructure that is under threat. And this is what we need to be able to deal with. And we also need to be able to deal with the question of solidarity between member states of the European Union because nature exists and nature plays a vital role in defending our continent. Nobody contests that. And we have finally come out of this rather pointless dialog as to whether we need the EU or nature. The fact is, we need both.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew, FR), There are countries which are not members of NATO and thus they are under threat. I'm particularly thinking of Finland and Sweden, and therefore in the European Union, we need to be able to think how well we are going to demonstrate solidarity. And it's not impossible to think that some of the reasons that have prompted Putin to dare declare a war against a country on the European territory and European territory, it's perhaps that the fact that European defense is still embryonic and that this was some of the many bad reasons for Putin's invasion.

Q&A focusing on the possibility a new strategy for european defenese might emerge as a result of the geopolitical and economical shifts produced by the current crisis in Ukraine.

Q&A focusing on the official position of the Renew Group on the recent report by the INGE committee on foreign interference in the democratic process in Europe.