The President of the ID Group, Marco ZANNI , gives his statement after the speech on the State of the European Union 2022 of Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

ZANNI, Marco (ID, IT)

state of the European Union 2022 (T)

State of the Union debate - SOTEU 2022: Statement by Marco ZANNI (ID,IT), Chair of the ID Group

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, Thank you. President Madam Zelenska, welcome. It's important that you are here today. And what's also important is that today we have heard that in this institution, in this chamber, there is full transversal support for Ukraine against Russia, and that will continue.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, Before I go into the topics that Madam Von Der Leyen raised, I would like to make a suggestion to our green and socialist friends. Given that they have no new ideas, they continue to warn against the threat of fascism in Europe. You just have to speak to citizens, to businesses. I can promise you that none of them are concerned about a fascist threat. What they are concerned about is that they are having to deal with the damage caused by years of devastating policies that have been put forward by these groups in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, Now on what a President von der Leyen has said. It was a nice speech that we listened to, but unfortunately, President, it is merely a speech. It's just words. You said that the Commission is going to be putting forward some measures to try to face up to this tragic situation. One like this continent has never experienced. But these measures, if I may, are far from being enough to bring genuine support to the blameless people who are suffering because of this tragic situation.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, Businesses are closing. Production is stopping. Shops are shutting. And citizens can no longer make ends meet because the cost of living is increasing exponentially across Europe. And now, as you said, it's true that the main blame for this does not lie in Europe, but the unjustified aggression that we've seen. But since the 24th of February, Europe has been responsible for protecting its own citizens against the consequences that we could all imagine and that we were all aware from the beginning could arise.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, Europe can be blamed for not having act quickly enough. You just recently said that democracy has a price. If we want democracy, then there are certain procedures that we have to follow. Dialogue. Discussion. Then action. However, this cannot be used as a pretext for not acting and for not taking the responsibility that lies with European institutions. Gas price caps. Is the only measure that may somewhat help our citizens and businesses against the crisis that they are experiencing.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, But yet this remains something that is merely rhetoric. It remains merely words. It's just a disgust, but it's disgust in terms that does not give hope to those people who are suffering all too clearly because of the crisis. They are crying out for help. People are asking for rapid action. And in light of that, I would like to make another comment reflecting more on the internal mechanisms of the European Union and picking up on something that you've been saying since 2019.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, In my country, we say that only stupid people can't change their minds. I think the European Commission has to look at how many proposals all from the pillars of the 2019 programmes and look at what needs to be changed, what needs to be reviewed. If you look at the world since 2019, since these plans and programmes are put together, the world has changed entirely. And we know that that world is not going to come back. We're not going to go back in time.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), Chair of the ID Group, So on the Green Deal and other trade policies, Europe and the Commission are going to have to be pragmatic and look at the fact that the situation is different. You need to have a long sighted view and understand that conditions have changed and that some plans cannot be implemented anymore. These plans have not helped to protect the climate. They have not helped with an economic, socioeconomic or industrial transition. And that is what we need so desperately right now. Thank you.