During the plenary session of the European Parliament (10-13/09/2018) in Strasbourg, Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the EC, kicks off the debate in his fourth and last “State of the Union” speech. Eight months before the European elections are held in May 2019, MEPs will take stock of the Juncker Commission’s achievements to date. Antonio TAJANI, EP President, addresses Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the ECo, following his speech on the ‘State of the Union’ at the European Parliament. He spoke about the Parliament’s lack of power of legislative initiative, the migration crisis, Africa and the need of strengthening and further developing the European economy.

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

state of the Union 2018 (T)

State of the Union 2018: extracts from the remark by Antonio TAJANI, EP President, following the address by Jean-Claude JUNCKER, EC President

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/19858294/I160317Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, <p>Dear Jean-Claude, during the course of your speech you&rsquo;ve offered us a range of points, you&rsquo;ve set out some prospects, in the coming debate we will be able to strengthen some of the positions. I believe that the Parliament, in this final months of this Parliamentary term, will be able to confirm a number of the items on the pipeline. As you said, we are at the heart of democracy so I would start by thinking for example about the need for the Parliament to have the power of legislative initiative. We are the only Parliament in the world which lacks that power to take legislative initiative. You quite rightly underscored and this was welcomed by a round of applause the need for majority voting</p>

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, When we are dealing with migration, the Commission&rsquo;s proposal and the Parliaments proposal on the Dublin reform could be adopted by the Council by a majority vote, but there is always resistance. If that reform would have passed, we wouldn&rsquo;t have had the case in Italy. So having welcomed that proposal with massive applause that we moved to qualified voting, I assume there would be support for that initiative. And then all your initiatives regarding Africa are of great interest, they are heading in the right directions the European Parliament wishes. We&rsquo;ve called for a fund for Africa, perhaps Europe has finally woken up very late in the day on the migration agenda. If we had listened to the appeals from a number of countries a few years ago, we might haven&rsquo;t been where we are today

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, <p>Significant investment is required as you quite rightly say, we don&rsquo;t want a party where we are just handing our gifts, we need development, economic diplomacy, and this is a job that needs to be worked on. So it&rsquo;s clear that the Parliament will do its part, our representatives as you will see in our resolutions are speaking out to defend the right of 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK. As for the economy, we need a stronger commitment in our part because unemployment, particularly youth unemployment has to be the main social issue we address. In the European Parliament we will be working intensively in the remaining months to come with powerful responses for our citizens. In my capacity as President of the Parliament I will do the best in my abilities to insure our institution is ever closer to our citizens.</p>