Roberta METSOLA, EP President, visits a school in Zaventem for the 'townhall event' with young first time voters in presence of Annelies VERLINDEN, Belgian Minister for the Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal. This news item shows extracts from the arrival, discussion with Q&A and family photo during her official visit.

Brussels

Zaventem

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Belgium (T)

president's agenda

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to Zaventem (Belgium): extracts from the meeting with young people

External shots of the Go! Kompaz School in Zaventem, Belgium (2 shots)

Cutaways of young people entering the room (4 shots)

Cutaways of the reactions from students to the Go to Vote video campaign (3 shots)

Arrival of Roberta METSOLA, EP President, and Annelies VERLINDEN, Minister for Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal, to the meeting with young people (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'I'm the President of the European Parliament. My name is Roberta. I have been President since January 2022. And I have done what I'm doing here in all countries of the European Union. I hope that you leave this room not only convinced that you will vote, but that you will tell your friends and family to do the same.'

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'What we do in Brussels, just a few kilometres from here, affects your life every day. What the national parliament decides on, most of it starts from the European Parliament, and it starts because Belgium is one of 27 member states and together we have different languages. You have two languages here, but you have different traditions, you have different cultures. But we come together to protect our values and protect our rights.'

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'We need to have young people involved from the very beginning of the legislative process. You need to be asked what your opinion is. There is actually a proposal to have young people who are consulted in each and every proposal, and that you are able to say, this is good, this is not good, this does this will affect us, this will not affect us well. But we need you to talk, speak up. And then we need to make sure that what you see is sometimes boring, but it is much more realistic than the black and white narrative that those who want to destroy Europe will try to push.'

Cutaways of the questions and answers between Roberta METSOLA, EP President, and young people (1 shot)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'You know, only 36% of young people voted in the referendum. Over 84% of all the people voted. Imagine if the numbers were inverted. The results would be different. I think today, of course, we have to respect the results and the situation is that Brexit is done. But if you ask today, those people who voted to be out and the reasons why they voted to go out, they will give you perhaps a different answer.'

Roberta METSOLA, EP President, takes selfies with young people in the public (1 shot)

Cutaways of Roberta METSOLA, EP President, talking with the young people at the end of the meeting (2 shots)

Roberta METSOLA, EP President, takes a group picture with young people in the public (1 shot)