Manfred WEBER (EPP,DE), President of the EPP group in the European Parliament, holds a press conference, to present the priorities of the group for the plenary session. The transcript is the result of an automated process. Please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

press conference

Press conference by Manfred WEBER (EPP,DE), EPP President

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, First of all, we are very sad about the passing away of Silvio Berlusconi. He was a member of our political family. He was the longest serving Italian prime minister after the Second World War. And he was always committed to a pro-European direction of Italy. And that's why we are really sad. I will personally go tomorrow also to the funeral in Milan.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, We welcome today, the president of Cyprus in the plenary. We are looking forward for this intensive discussion with the new elected president. He's a key partner in the Mediterranean, especially when it is about our relationship with Turkey. We know about the situation in Cyprus, of a occupied territory on European soil is an open wound for us. And the Cyprus issue is an European issue.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, That's why we have to care about the situation there. After the political campaigning now in Turkey, we have now, again, a clear power structure in Ankara. Hopefully this can help us to solve problems and that will be absolutely a priority for the debate today. And I'm also happy that Nikos Christodoulidīs also confirmed that he will be part of the EPP Summit. So he will be, as newly elected president, also part in the EPP family.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, We have an agreement on Home Affairs Council on the table on the migration pact. We are welcoming this very much. It's great. It's yes, even historic that after nine, ten years of ongoing negotiations among the home affairs ministers, now we have a common mandate for the negotiations with the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And it is, in a way, the balance between the right of asylum, which is fundamental for Europe, which is an historic achievement for us as Europeans, that we have this right guaranteed for all those who are asking for protection. And on the other hand, stopping illegal migration and to break the business model of the smugglers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, That's why it's good to have this mandate. Now. It's historic. The Parliament is ready to start a quick procedure to finalise it, and our common understanding is that we want to finalise a legislative work until the end of this year, during the Spanish Presidency. There is a good chance to do so to bring this alive before the European election.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, We know that this is also linked to the trip to Tunisia from Von der Leyen and the prime ministers from Italy and the Netherlands on Sunday. That is, on short term, important to bring the numbers under control, to work together with our partners again, in a European spirit of finding a good balance between helping those who need protection and stopping illegal migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And I want to thank the Swedish presidency for all their works. And if I would analyse the outcome from a politically angle: I would say that the Visegrad cooperation is gone. We have only Poland and and Hungary blocking the migration text. That is good news.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And we also see a very reliable Italian government in the centre of the European decision making process, solving problems constructively, trying to solve problems. And finally, I want to thank the Swedish presidency for their engagement in this important fight.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, We have, this week, an important vote on artificial intelligence that will be the act on the table of the European Parliament. Europe is again leading that digital legislation and is strong on this. It's an opportunity now to give this new technologies some basic criteria, some basic limits, what is allowed and what is not allowed based on our European values.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, There is a broad agreement in the European Parliament on this legislative file and we are happy about this. EPP was part of these negotiations and again, we are very happy about this. But just to mention one concrete point where we have division, and that is whether the state can use all of these new technologies for for the state activities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, I give you one example. It is an amendment from the European People's Party about the possibilities to allow artificial intelligence and use of facial recognition for law enforcement, for example, on cases where we are looking for missing children or we are fighting against terrorists.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And the question is: can we use then facial recognition and also artificial intelligence for the state activities? And we say: yes, the state must also use these new options. This is a new chance is to be stronger. Again, consider, we are searching for missing children's and we can use these new technologies and we do not use them. I think that is not appropriate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, That's why this is a splitting point where we can probably also identify towards the voters, towards the people. What differentiates the parties in the European Parliament? I want to underline that this is a special thing. Overall, we are happy to have an agreement and EPP will support the final outcome.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And finally, at the end of the week, on Thursday, there will be a vote in the ENVI committee about the nature restoration law. The EPP is very concerned by this piece of legislation. We support the Green Deal. There was no doubt about this. We supported the ETS and all the linked legislation to this important climate change file.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, But this piece of paper of legislation is simply a bad proposal and that's why the EPP will ask the colleagues in the committee to support our amendment to reject this proposal. We are asking the Commission to come up with a new proposal which takes the concerns into account.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And if you allow me to underline especially one fundamental consideration, and that is the the reducing of food production. If we do this legislation, Commission and all experts tell us that this will lead to a loss of food production in today's European Union, and having in mind that inflation is today mainly driven by high food prices, not any more by energy price, but by high food price.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, And having in mind that North Africa is waiting for food, we are consuming currently the products from Ukraine bringing from Ukraine to Europe, and then we use them and not delivering them to Egypt or to North Africa. Having this in mind, it is not the appropriate moment of time to reduce food production in the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP President, We have to give our farmers the backing that they have to produce food in a sustainable way, but produce that is needed. And that's why we think that's not the right moment to do it in this way. It's simply a bad piece of legislation and we are arguing on content and we are trying to convince as many colleagues we can find. It was already good that we saw that in the AGRI and in the PECH committee. There was a majority for rejecting the proposal. And we are looking forward now for the decision of the ENVI Committee.

Q&A Question on the internal debates in the EPP Party on the matter of the Nature Restoration Law.

Q&A Series of questions: the first one focusing on how the potential high attendance from EPP members at Silvio Berlusconi's funeral might effect EPP's voting outcomes; the second one discuss a potential alliance between EPP and Renew.

Q&A Questions on the perceived short and long term effects of the Nature Restoration Law.

Q&A Set of questions focusing on four main topics: Silvio Berlusconi's memorial from EPP; use of Russia's frozen assets as an aid to Ukraine; Ukraine's roadmap to join Nato; corruption in Ukraine.

Q&A Question on the Nature Restoration Law, focusing on the political dynamics guiding the decision process.

Q&A Follow-up question on the Nature Restoration Law

Q&A Question on the Nature Restoration Law and the possible approaches from the EPP to either try to save or discard it completely.