Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, attends the European Council meeting held in Brussels on the 14-15 December 2023. Ukraine, the Middle East, enlargement, revision of 2021-2027 MFF, security and defence, and external relations are among the topics on the Council's agenda. This news item shows extracts from the arrival and doorstep of President Metsola to the Council and extracts from her statements during the press conference.

Brussels

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

meeting of the European Council

European Council

president's agenda

European Council meeting 14-15 December 2023 (T)

Roberta METSOLA, EP President, at the European Council: arrival, doorstep and extracts from the press conference

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/73789240/1702042574396_I250554Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Arrival of Roberta METSOLA, EP President (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So on enlargement, our position is very clear. This is a win win situation. Ukraine should be given the moral, political, financial support that it deserves and we all need it for our own security. Same with Moldova, same with Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. And we also would like and I say this in every European Council, a decision on Schengen for Romania and Bulgaria

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I will also discuss the MFF. Some funds are finite. We need to be realistic and therefore I understand the gap is not very big and I hope that we can really find a solution. Unity is key. Everybody has different positions. Of course, everybody would need a little bit of something more for something else. But this is why we are around the table in order to find those common ground. That we can deliver with this last summit of the year.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So my final appeal will also be for the last push. Over the next few days on the migration there is still a lot of way to go. But at the end of the day, I think that we are closer than we have been in a decade to breaking a deadlock. We cannot go to the European elections in June without an agreement on migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, The parliament will seek for an agreement on solidarity, where asylum is a key part, with external border protection. We are seeing new issues with the instrumentalization of migrants, as we saw earlier in the Baltic countries, through Belarus and with Poland, and now with Finland. So this is a new element where the Parliament and the Council are coming closer together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Parliament's position on the rule of law does not change. We are looking forward for an agreement today. Thank you very much.

Arrival of participants before the meeting, cutaways (17 shots)

Cutaway, round table before the meeting (1 shot)

Cutaway presse conference with Roberta METSOLA  (EP President)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Most crucially on Ukraine and Moldova. First of all, these two countries have delivered. They've done so under the most difficult of circumstances. The next step now is to open the accession negotiations, and such a decision would not be borne out of political expediency or any fast track, but it would really be a decision based on merit under respect for our criteria. This, as I have just mentioned, also applies to Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We must also consider that the global geopolitical situation means that there is also a price to us not acting rise to inaction. If we leave a vacuum which will be filled by other actors with agendas that are very different to ours

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, This is a moment where we have to realize that we can no longer do more with less. We are at the threshold of that moment. Our long term EU budget has been stretched to its limits with the tasks that we collectively agreed upon in 2020. If you think since then, the pandemic, the war, not to mention what we will be faced with in the context of longer term humanitarian situation in the Middle East

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On our budget, we need to be realistic. At the same time, we need to be strategic. So this includes reaching an agreement on the Ukraine facility, not only for Ukraine and the solidarity we must uphold. This is also about delivering an investment in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction and modernization. As a prospective member of the European Union

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We can show we are clear about this, that Europe has the solutions for issues that our citizens care about and that, most importantly, we can deliver. So I'll leave it at this and happy to answer your questions.