On the 18th of January 2022 in Strasbourg, Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT) is elected as the new President of the European Parliament. She gives her acceptance speech in front of the MEPs and explains the priorities of her mandate.

Strasbourg

plenary session

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

election of the President of the European Parliament (T)

Election of the President of Parliament: statement by Roberta METSOLA, the new elected President

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SOUNDBITE (Maltese), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Thank you. Dear members of the European Parliament, European colleagues. With humbleness, I feel honoured by this responsibility with which you are entrusting me. I promise you that I will work and do my utmost to work on behalf of this parliament and for the benefit of all EU citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, The first thing that I would like to do as the president is to think about David Sassoli legacy. He was a fighter. He fought, fought for Europe, for us. For this parliament, he believed in the power of Europe and its capacity to go down a special path in this world. Thank you very much, David.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Sassoli, as president, by always standing up for Europe, for our common values of democracy, dignity, justice, solidarity, equality, rule of law and fundamental rights, for the politics of hope and the promise of the European Union, I want people to recapture a sense of belief.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, And enthusiasm for our projects, I believe, to make our shared space safer, fairer, juster and more equal. The Europeans, in the next years, people across Europe will look to our institution for leadership and direction. While others will continue to test the limits of our democratic values and European principles.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, We must fight back against the anti-EU narrative that takes hold so easily and so quickly. Disinformation and misinformation further amplified during the pandemic, fuels easy cynicism and cheap solutions of nationalism, authoritarianism, protectionism, isolationism.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, These are false illusions, offering no solutions because Europe is about precisely the opposite. It is about all of us standing up for one another, bringing our people closer together. It is about all of us defending those principles of our founding mothers and fathers that led us from the ashes of war and holocaust to peace to hope and to prosperity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Honourable members. Our House matters. It matters to our judges under attack, to our health care front. Frontline is under pressure to every woman in our union still fighting for her rights to the vulnerable, to the oppressed and the abused.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, It matters to those forced to flee natural disasters to the families of those killed in terror attacks, to our armed forces and law enforcement serving under difficult conditions, to those seeking protection to our farmers, NGOs and entrepreneurs. It matters to our LGBTI communities, to those still discriminated against because of their religion, their skin colour or gender identity, to all those who believe in the promise of Europe, this house matters.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, And when people look to us to defend our values, they will find an ally. Dear colleagues, my generation sees no old and new Europe. We are the first of the Erasmus generation. We understand that equality of opportunity is different from making everyone the same. We celebrate differences in Europe because we know that that is what makes us stronger.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, What makes us unique, what makes us European. And we know that if people are to look to Europe with confidence, we must burst through the Strasbourg and Brussels bubble to bring Europe its ideals and its decisions to people in different towns and villages across Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Everyone could feel better on our planet if they can hear the strong voice of Europe. That is what Valery Giscard d'Estaing said in 2002. The call for a stronger Europe existed. We must now ensure that the Conference on the future of Europe has the support that it needs to ensure concrete outcomes. And especially, we must listen to our youth on this year that is dedicated to them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Dear fellow Europeans, climate change is ravaging our continent and our world. It is no longer a problem for another generation to deal with. If you believe science and this house does, the question is no longer if, but when. The European green deal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, And the pledge to be the first carbon-free continent is the right answer. This is not only a necessity and an urgency, but it is also an opportunity for Europe to take the lead, to reinvent itself, to ensure growth, sustainability and prosperity while reducing emissions. We must impress the rest of the world that the fight against climate change is a common destiny because tomorrow is too late.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, And we must continue to show that you cannot decouple the environment and the economy businesses from start-ups and SMEs to larger corporations across our union require legal certainty, easier access to funding and an innovative spirit and environment in Europe. They need less bureaucracy and more chances to take the risks that will see Europe once again regain its competitive edge.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, The Recovery and Resilience Fund will help our investment to relaunch after the pandemic. Like the green transition, the digital transformation creates opportunities and we need to be at the forefront of these changes and steer it. And we will. Our European way of open economies and open societies is a model that I am proud of.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, It is a model that must be given the support to withstand the pressure it comes under. And this is a pressure to look inwards to erect new barriers, to put up old borders and abandon our shared Schengen space, a space we have a duty to complete or any attempt to discredit our values and principles.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, Konrad Adenauer said 'European unity was a dream of a few'. It became a hope for the many, and today it is a necessity for all of us. Dear colleagues, the world around us is less friendly than it was a generation ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, The unacceptable attacks on Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity and a dangerous situation in Belarus are prime examples of this and our collective security is a common challenge. For the European Union to remain credible and exert its influence globally, we have to remain principled. This is our true strength for autocrats and despots.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, The EU was a threat simply by existing Europe has, after all, created the most beautiful, refined way of living that humanity has ever known.

SOUNDBITE (French), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, This year marks the 17th year of our presence in Strasbourg, a city and a rich nation that marks a separation of powers and offers a democratic guarantee. And so our house is an institution close to and serving the interests of citizens. This is a given for our institution.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, But also of healing. We can put this experience to use in helping efforts to end the separation in the European Union's last divided country, Cyprus, under the auspices of the UN plan. We can never be truly whole while Cyprus remains split.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, We must also reverse the lost momentum when it comes to our relationship with the Western Balkans. So, dear members, let me be clear to those who seek to destroy Europe know that this House stands against you. To those who attempt to undermine democracy, the rule of law, free speech and fundamental rights, who see women as a target and who deny the rights to our LGBTIQ citizens, know that this house will never accept it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, To those who try to blackmail Europe through hybrid attacks, this parliament will not weaken. Solidarity amongst members knows that dictators will never divide us. And let me say to the families of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak, journalists for doing their job killed. Your fight for truth and justice is our fight.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, To the loved ones of Olivier Dubois, abducted for almost 300 days in Mali, I say his struggle for freedom must become our struggle. Friends, Europeans, the political model that we developed, has left let our continent to democracy, prosperity and equality.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, But if we now are to raise Europe to the levels promised to the next generation, we now need to forge something even stronger, something in tune with the times that motivates a younger, more sceptical audience to believe in Europe. And ours must be a parliament that empowers, that is diverse. I know that having the first female president of this house since 1999 matters both inside and outside these rooms.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, But it must go further. Our institutions' commitments to having more diversity, gender equality, guaranteeing women's rights. All our rights must be reaffirmed. 22 years ago, Nicole Fontaine was elected twenty years after Simone Veil. It will not be another two decades until the next woman is standing here.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, And I know I stand on the shoulder of giants, the shoulders of Simone Veil, Auschwitz inmate 78651 who tore off the shackles of that painful parts of our European history, to blaze a path through ceilings. As the first woman to be European Parliament president, the shoulders of the millions of nameless women who endured so much and who fought for us to have the opportunities that they were never afforded.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, New EP President, The shoulders of Ashlin, Paulina and all the other women whose lives have already been stolen this year. The shoulders of Europe's displaced and the disappeared, on all those who fought and suffered under totalitarianism and sacrificed everything for Europe on the shoulders of all those who believed and who believe. Still, we stand here thanks to them. We stand here for them. Europe is back. Europe is the future. Vive l'Europe! Thank you. And now we get to work.

Election of the President of Parliament: statement by Roberta METSOLA, the new elected President

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