David SASSOLI, EP President, Gunter PAULI, entrepreneur and author of The Blue Economy and Beppe GRILLO, Italian comedian and politician debate on "Will Europe be the engine of a green and socially fair transformation?", in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

social Europe (T)

public hearing

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

European Green Deal (T)

Ideas for a new world (T)

GRILLO, Beppe (IT)

PAULI, Gunter (BE)

"Will Europe be the engine of a green and socially fair transformation?": extracts from the debate between David SASSOLI, EP President, Gunter PAULI, entrepreneur and author of The Blue Economy and Beppe GRILLO, Italian comedian and politician

SOUNDBITE (English), Gunter PAULI, entrepreneur and author of the Blue Economy, Let's get the Green deal going. But let's quickly start a think tank of people who have their hands on experience in the policymaking and in the entrepreneurship so that we can transform the business models to the ones that can make Europe great again.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, We all feel that we won't be back the ones before, but we might be even better not worse than before. And probably to do this our institutions will have to open doors and windows wide open. That is why we felt the need in this period to connect to personalities from so many sectors who have so many experiences to help us better understand the perspectives.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Beppe GRILLO, Italian comedian and politician, What are our products that could form Europe today. I don't care about coal or steel anymore. Our products are, and Mrs Ursula also said, they are servers, data retention, Icloud, storing Europeans data for Europeans. Keep Italians data for Italians. They are these, they are the servers, they are the data, they are the algorithms, these are the new raw materials.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gunter PAULI, entrepreneur and author of the Blue Economy, Now if you are able to respond to the needs of people with what you have, you must adopt a different business model. And that business model will very much be based on the territory where you are.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, We have arrived at the Covid crisis convinced that Europe in 2050 should be the first zero-emission continent and that in 2030 emissions should drop by 55 per cent. And so we need to converge all our efforts around these goals.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Now you have said some very interesting things that add a possibility: it is the one that gives an awareness of Europe a new model can also be born, for example, a new trade model.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Beppe GRILLO, Italian comedian and politician, Where do we go? Who decides where we go? Who decides? It is politics and politics cannot be absent as it has always been until now because it is in check or debt or growth of mechanisms that are now old. We have the problem that old ideas don't want to die, they don't want to die. Old ideas must die, they must be born, get them out.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, In these hours, these days, we are very much taken to try to better define the tools that together have been referred to in recent days as opportunities for our communities and countries. But being able to look up and see us in the world, I believe that at this moment is very important so I thank you for this conversation and I hope it can continue soon.