As a follow-up to the European Council meeting on 14 and 15 December 2023, EU leaders discuss the mid-term revision of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021-2027, including support to Ukraine. Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, holds a press conference and answers questions from the press following her participation at the European Council meeting. The transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check agaisnt delivery

Brussels

statement

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

meeting of the European Council

president's agenda

special meeting of the European Council 1 February 2024 (T)

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, following her participation at the European Council meeting: questions and answers

Q&amp;A, Question regarding on the agreement with Viktor Orb&aacute;n. Second question on possible President's second mandate in the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So on the first question, let me remind you of the position of the Parliament. It was the Parliament that initially initiated the Article 7 procedure four years ago. It was the Parliament that now is questioning this 10 billion that was paid out before the last Council. For us, this is not closed, this issue. There is a process ongoing in the JURI  Committee, we are an institution that is very sensitive to the rule of law. It's important for our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Conditionality is important for us as well. It was a priority of the Parliament to have conditionality when this came to the disbursement of funds for all Member States. For us, this situation of treating all Member States as being equal. That is the priority. It's going to be the priority not just in my mandate, but in the next five years. I think we're going to very much engage with the Commission, because the next Commission as well is going to have to have Commissioners who be committed to these processes. It's very important for us because, for years now, we've been asking for the rule of law to be a key principle, and it should be a key principle not just for the budget, but when it comes to our values. It's something that the citizens are asking of us. And it's especially important given with the upcoming elections.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And your second question. I don't like to talk about myself, and I'm going to have to focus on this democratic process. We're very proud of the democratic process we have in our Member States. I'm visiting all the Member States and I am talking not just with local authorities, with national authorities, but with young people as well. The big challenge we have is to encourage young people to vote.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And if you look at the situation with farmers, that's a major responsibility we have as well. We need to talk with all the sectors, with all the people, people who want us to solve their problems. And that's what I'm going to focus on in the five coming months. I visited five countries already. I still have a lot more to visit. I have to go to my home country as well, and that's the task I'm going to concentrate on all the way up until June.

Q&A, Question regarding on possible compromises reached during the summit for the agreement for Ukraine. Second question on facing populism ahead the upcoming European elections.

Q&A, Question regarding on the MFF deal and future consent. Second question on the investigation of the FSB agent .

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, First of all, on the first question of of Laura, I think we should focus on the fact that today is a good day for Europe. We have to do that. We have been for many weeks keeping our Ukrainian friends on tenterhooks as to whether we would reach an agreement. And the fact that it was reached so early on is also thanks to the work, hard work done by a lot of our leaders in order to bring it to a resolution which includes all 27.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, It would have been much less ideal if we would have had an agreement at 26, and that was important for us. It is also important for the Parliament that this agreement of an additional 50 billion Ukraine facility was taken from within the Ukraine budget because that inflow influences the ongoing trialogue on the Ukraine facility, which is important and affects the speed with which we have codecision on this agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, In terms of what we would, of course, have hoped that it was more ideal if there were no conditions tied to such an agreement. We are in in a situation where we would continue to urge that the unity that we found over the past years on Ukraine, on the 12 packages, on sanctions with regards to Russia, on also the decisions by majority that we have taken on the Migration pact, huge legislative advance since the last time I was in this room at the last European Council.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So, I would rather focus on that today. And hope that we can continue to count for this because that's what our citizens want. Our citizens want solutions. They do not want to see a Europe that is divided. They do not want to see, although I can share the frustrations expressed in the doorsteps today. Absolutely. But I think perhaps if that aided for us to find a solution, let's focus on the good news and the compromise reached.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On the guidelines for elections, this will tie in to Laura's second part of the question. Yes, I was asked by a number of Prime ministers on disinformation and misinformation, the impact of social media platforms and how this could be framed within the application 1 of the Digital Services Act, which entered into force last autumn. The negotiations that we're currently having with the social media partners that will be helping us as an institution to run an EU wide campaign in order for our messaging to filter through the onslaught of propaganda that is filling social media feeds, including, I can tell you, those of my own children, when I see what their feeds filled with, and my children have reached voting age now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We also discussed the situation and I linked it because the allegations that have surfaced this week with the a particular member of the European Parliament from Latvia with regards to potential alleged foreign interference by a third country is linked. The risk this brings to our institution, not only from a reputational perspective but from a security perspective and also the risks it could hold for the election that we are gearing up for. It is one that we are taking extremely seriously. I have referred the case to the Advisory Committee on the Code of Conduct, which means that investigations within the European Parliament have been opened.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, You might recall that we have revised the rules and beefed up this advisory committee on the Code of Conduct following allegations and revelations last year, which I'm very proud that as a Parliament we've gone so far on. And that means that now violations of code of conduct will also lead in if cases are proven for the announcement of sanctions in Parliament's plenary.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Furthermore, in light of safety and security concerns, I took the decision that the event hosted by the Member of the European Parliament in the question ,scheduled for yesterday 31st of January, would not take place in the premises of the European Parliament. That was deemed by myself and all the services to be the necessary action to take. It has also put us on the alert. I am in contact with the Prime Minister of Latvia and countries and their leaders that are worried that this could be replicated in other situations, whether in the current legislature or the future one, and that is one that we are taking extremely seriously.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Perhaps one last point, and this is also with regards to what we saw happening last week in the United Statesm in the primaries for the US elections, this is something that we should be prepared for too, in the European Union. And whereas it is not yet time or it might not happen yet in June for the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Act, where we specifically spoke about and are legislating on the potential interference of voters behaviour and manipulation of such behaviour as a real threat to our democratic processes that could manifest themselves perhaps not already in June, but in future elections, very much something that was at the core of the debates that I had with the Prime Ministers today. On the date, we will have a vote on the consent on February two. In other words, not next week in plenary, but the next one.

Q&A, Question regarding on farmers reaction and populism ahead the elections.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So, the reason why we will have a debate next week and this is not only linked to the protests that are taking place today, but to come to an understanding of the fact that if we look back at 2023 alone, there were such protests and the call for consultation in 15 Member States. We have a Committee inside of Parliament on Agricultural Affairs. This was also part of the debate that I had with the Prime ministers this morning, which has specifically been asking for years for such a discussion.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'And in this regard, we welcome the strategic dialogue that has commenced, has been launched with the farmers although, to be to be frank, it's a little bit late. I also turn it around. Let's not focus on blaming those who protest, but rather say that we listen to you. We very much believe as the Parliament that no one's voice should be ignored. At the same time, we will support the green transition because none of our policies and also what you mentioned and the flagship legislation that was passed in the European Parliament as co-legislators will not succeed without the commitment of our fellow citizens or if the measures requested are not realistic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'So, if we look at the impact of our agricultural sector, they provide solutions to combat climate change in terms of carbon culture and even the bio economy. This is essential to decarbonise our industry. So we must listen and we must dialogue with them. And also there is administrative simplification work to be carried out. So, this is what we do every day as a Parliament and we will face as candidates, including myself, debates on the local level of what we have done so far - where we could have done better and we need to be honest with ourselves where we could have done better. Of course, be very proud of our successes, but also understand where we could improve in explaining the advantages of the ongoing double transition.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On the voting trend, on what could lead to, you know, every subject that we deal with, whether it is migration, whether it is climate, even the digital transition, artificial intelligence. It Is today, let's say, accompanied by a prequel to will this leads to a rise in the populist or nationalistic right. And my answer to this is, first of all, if we listen to all our citizens, we should not ignore anybody.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, If we counter that narrative, we can really bring together a coalition that builds and not destroys. And this is something that I think we should work on over the next few months. In my opinion, perhaps we did not do that enough in the past, which has led to voters finding comfort on the fringes and we need to be able, we actually have a responsibility to bring those voters to find once again comfort in the centre of the political spectrum.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, As regards a specific issue, and I would like to address it here and to continue on this trajectory of my, let's say, metaphor of building, not destroying. I would say that irrespective of what I have just said, what we have seen today on the Plaza de Luxembourg or with the destruction of a historic monument, statues of workers, is very difficult for us to counter and to be able to bring to the discussion, even with the most understandable of grievances. So, my appeal would be to to use one's voice to vote in June and not destroy.

Q&A, Question regarding regarding on Question on Roberta Metsola's position on conclusions at the end of her mandate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Well, the conclusion is one of, let's say, continuing to insist on upholding of our institutional role, as we did during the pandemic and the ensuing energy crisis, that we insisted that we can as a Parliament and we did. When asked to act with urgency, more than we've ever done before, with speed, we stepped up to the plate and I would say with big improvement on how things used to be done before. And in fact, our argument has been don't use the length of procedures as an excuse to ignore the Parliament or bypass the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And I think that we have seen an improvement of that. If you think that we agreed on the gas storage and and ammunitions deal in eight weeks and today we look at the fact that we're still waiting for the implementation of that of that agreement. So, we could be asking the same question back in terms of where the institutional cooperation and loyalty between the institutions and also predictability of our decisions has has happened.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So, that would be my reflection of looking back with a reiteration of the fact that we will, as I said, look at the details of the deal reached today, that there will be a serious discussion. Trialogues are ongoing also before consent is given, and that is our institutional role, which we take very seriously. In fact, one of our appeals months ago was about the fact that we would not have liked today's deal to be taken outside the budget.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And in fact, it was not taken outside the budget because that would have been excluding the Parliament. In terms of of the first part of your question, I would say, as I said earlier, we will always protect the rule of law. The case has been brought. Questions will be asked, have been asked. Is it an ideal scenario? No. But have we found unity and unanimity? Yes. So I think we should welcome that and we should really send a strongest of message, which is the opposite of what Putin would have wanted.

Q&A, Question on financial support to Ukraine deal and on Irish and French disagreements on Mercosur.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, With regards to the additional paragraph, I mean, we read it literally and politically, so to speak. And as we know our experience tells us about European Council conclusions is that they are an extremely delicate balance of making sure that you can have the 27 leaders around the table coming to what is effectively a deal. As I said would it have been more ideal if we reached a decision in December of course. Would does Ukraine need this money yesterday? Of course.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Have we today agreed to disburse the money to Ukraine from our budgets? Yes. And let's also remind the original position of Viktor Orban in December was that he wanted unanimity to disburse money. So we could also say that the paragraph that was included today was actually a move towards that. The other member states needing that reassurance that we will not be facing this every European Council, which could be the case for every other leader to do the same.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But I also want to because we focus a lot on veto and the possibility of Member States stalling not to take away from the success that we've seen in the last mandate and the last few months where majority was pushed through on essential parts, core areas of European policy which never existed before, such as on migration, whereas until a few weeks ago there was no political will to do so.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I'm very much happy to say that with the road map that the European Parliament and the Council signed in 2022, we really will be ready pending a vote in the in Parliament in March or in April on the migration pact, which is delivering for our citizens. And I say this because in such a campaign where the idea would be to try to focus on where divisions exist, we also should welcome where there are none or where there have been majorities reached. And I think that that is something that we can also celebrate today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On trade, I think that the next five years and I put this in the context very much of in the case of such global elections as we move towards potential situations where Europe will have to realise increasingly that there are some things we are going to need to do by ourselves. And there the relationships as we have with partner countries from an economic perspective, investment perspective, and not only relating to Latin America, because there I would see a specific role on our debates that should be expanded on critical raw materials.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'But India, for example, on Monday, there a Italy-Africa summit in Rome, which I attended, and that was also the appeal do not talk at us, but talk with us. Talk to us. So I think we should, and I heard what  the Irish and Prime Minister said, it's something that we will continue to discuss with him, that we need to also bring this into how we are going to retain our competitiveness, how are we going to discuss with our sectors that feel that they will be directly hit by any deals with third countries or partnerships across?

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But at the end of the day, trade remains one of our most important tools that we need to continue to work on and to go even further. If you think about the length of time that it has taken on CETA, an agreement with Australia on New Zealand, I think we should also look at our processes with gratitude, actually, to executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and his team, and also with a constructive attitude from the Parliament that we can find agreement rather than not, because the next five years would be crucial in this regard.