European People's Party (EPP) leaders meet ahead of the European Council meeting (23/03), in Brussels. Extracts from the arrivals and doorsteps.

Brussels

statement

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

European Council meeting 23-24 March 2023 (T)

EPP leaders meet ahead of the European Council (23/03): arrivals

External views of the Solvay Library (2 shots)

Johannes HAHN, European Commissioner for Budget and Administration

Dubravka &Scaron;UICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography

Kri&scaron;jānis KARIŅ&Scaron;, Latvian Prime Minister

Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister

Annita DEMETRIOU, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus

Eduard HEGER, Slovakian Prime Minister (2 shots)

Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission

Leo VARADKAR, Irish prime Minister (Taoiseach)

Manfred WEBER, President of the European People's Party

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), President of the European People&apos;s Party , It's great that competitiveness and saving jobs is now high on the agenda of the European Union. That's why it's good the Swedish Presidency's prioritising that. This is now really a top issue. It's EPP what we have asked for that we have to strengthen the competitiveness. Europe is losing ground. We lost, in the last 20 years, 30% of the industrial production in the European on global level. So we are losing ground. We are losing jobs every day, and that's why we have to rebuild our industry in Europe.