On the occasion of the European Council meeting in Brussels, Antonio TAJANI, EP President, expresses himself in front of the press. It is also his first participation as EP President in the European Council which takes place in the new European Council building.

Brussels

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

press conference

European Council meeting 9-10 March 2017 (T)

European Council: extracts from the press conference of Antonio TAJANI, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The European Parliament is very much committed to achieving a political agreement before the summit with China. I referred to the Council as my rapporteurs and I also focused on the trade policy, in particular the agreement between the European Union and Canada and the need to continue to work for a trade policy looking in particular to Japan, Mexico , Chile and Mercosur.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Relating to Brexit. As I see it Brexit is Brexit it&rsquo;s not hard Brexit or soft Brexit. Brexit is Brexit and we will be defending European interests. Being a member of the EU is not the same as being outside the European Union but at the same time London is one of our interlocutors so post Brexit it will be important to work with London it won&rsquo;t be an EU member state but it will always be a European state.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Europe has to be re launched, it&rsquo;s not working well enough. And talking in political terms in particular we need to be united we have major, huge challenges to address, commercial challenges you know our competitors China, Russia, the US, India, work that needs to be done in Africa, in Latin America, the agreement with Canada rather and the situation in the Balkans is becoming very worrying. So we need to have political agreements the principals of this subsidiarity is very important. Europe should intervene forcefully were the Member States themselves can&rsquo;t safeguard the interests of our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, I don&rsquo;t think the time is right to change the Treaties. I think the existing treaties allow us to cater for different realities, they allow for countries to make certain choices and other countries can then come on board. So it&rsquo;s not a convention to exclude, but it is an agreement to include.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, At this particular moment in time we are still in the middle of the storm, it&rsquo;s not over yet. We have terrorism, immigration, economic crisis, Brexit . We need to be all together on board the boat so to speak. Of course we should all make our views known, say what we think but we shouldn&rsquo;t act against each other. It is the time to cooperate it&rsquo;s the time to work together.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The citizens are asking us to react, to act, to come up with answers rather than scrambling about who is most important amongst the European institutions. I think the European citizens should see the European institutions as whole in a position to offer answers to their concerns.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, I don&rsquo;t think we can change the treaties, but if a country wants to find an agreement within the framework of the treaty to move forward to be at the fore of a particular action, they can do so but that doesn&rsquo;t mean that they are excluded that&rsquo;s rather, you know, preparing the ground for others to follow.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We will have a debate on the Brexit after (we recive) the letter on implementation of the Article 50. We will have a document, Mr Verhofstadt is working on the draft and we want to be protagonists during this debate, during this agreement. I think before we need to decide the Brexit and then to work for a good agreement between us and the United Kingdom. I want to be very clear United Kingdom in the future will be an important interlocutor, one of the most important interlocutors of the European Union. But to be a member of the European Union is not the same with being outside the European Union.