Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President, briefs the press on the priorities of his group, Renew Europe, for the plenary session of October I in Strasbourg.

press conference

AZMANI, Malik (Renew, NL)

Renew Europe

Press conference by Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President - Renew Europe press briefing

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/350675/I211650Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Title: Press conference by Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President - Renew Europe press briefing

SOUNDBITE (English), Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President Thank you very much. Nice to see you all here in the room and also those who are on remote. As you already mentioned, I'm now the president in act, on behalf of Renew Europe, because, as you know, probably our president resigned yesterday. He was of his party. also selected for the presidency He decided to also devote himself fully to that mission. Publicly, I want to thank him again for all his work he has done over the last two years and also pay tribute to him because it was not the issue, of course, to build a new political force and also hold responsible force because we are, of course, the first political group in this house in this parliament, and you need to create a unity and cohesion from the start.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President He has succeeded also as our group standing now and that renew Europe has become so indispensable on its influence, what demonstrates, I think also every day. What I already mentioned, I'm now in act. That means that I'm responsible also to ensure a smooth transition to elect also a new president for our group because we have, of course, many political challenges. We must also devote all our energy to them because that's the reason why we are here to deliver concrete results to our citizens and not to be too much busy on internal processes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President The timing and modalities of the election of the Renew president will be decided tomorrow. This I cannot inform you much more, we have then and bureau meeting of the group and they will decide about the process and of course, also the timing. But I expect that it will be either more weeks than it will be months. We will do this move. And then regarding perhaps as introduction remarks to the plenary session agenda, our number one priority this week is, of course, what we already requested and abstained is, of course, the debate on the Hungarian recovery plan.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President I think it's important to discuss that. We know already that the Commission has also some reservations because otherwise they are already agreed on. But I also want to mentioned in my introduction remarks, is pointed to you out, that we launched yesterday, also our conference for the future of Europe platform. And that will be a special site for input, also for our citizens. Because, you know, Renew Europe introduced this idea of the Conference of the Future of Europe because we think we need to bridge that gap between EU institutions and our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malik AZMANI (Renew, NL), 1st Vice President That means that citizens needs to be at the core of our discussion. Also, the big teams and the big challenges where we stand in the European Union. So far, my introduction remarks, and of course, I hope to hear from you of what you want to know. Please be open and don't hesitate. And I can answer. I hope your questions. If I don't get, I'll give the answer on the questions. Then I will mention that also because I'm a little bit Dutch. That means also frank.

Question about the election of the new President of Renew and about the Recovery Plan for Hungary

Question about Andrej Babis and the Pandora Papers

Question about the Renew policies towards Afghanistan

Question about the EU-UK Parlamentary assembly