Visit of&nbsp;Nabih BERRI, Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, to the EP in Brussels. Arrival, welcome by Martin SCHULZ, EP President, roundtable and extracts from the press point

Brussels

round table

meeting

visit

EU - Lebanon (T)

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

BERRI, Nabih (LB)

Martin SCHULZ, EP President meets with Nabih BERRI, Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon: arrival, welcome, roundtable and extracts from the press point

Signature of the Golden Book and tour de table, (7 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, We spoke about this enormous challenge for the country also concerning the destabilised environment of the country, the neighbour country Syria and the refugee problems, not the Syrian refugees arriving now also already the refugees welcomed in Lebanon, the Palestinians since decades, therefore we agreed that the EU must stick to the promises, especially financially the country to manage these problems.

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, I must admit listing to the figures of refugees in the country in relations to the habitants of the country, I felt as European ashamed about our own discussion here in Europe when we discuss about one million refugees, to this figure of 500 million Europeans in 28 countries and our debates about this, to compare the situation in Lebanon, the European should look a bit more careful to your country .

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Nabih BERRI, Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, We asked indeed for a political solution or political settlement, especially to the Syrian crisis before any kind of assistance. And we have a political solution to this crisis then we can talk about the assistance we need.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Nabih BERRI, Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, (Speaking about financial assistance in forms of concessional bonds to boost investment) We need such bonds in order to help the Lebanese government, the Lebanese government which had had to carry a very financial burden, which has been estimated to 17 Billion Dollar over the 5 years.