The FrenchPresident Emmanuel MACRON addresses the plenary, followed by interventions by the European Commissioner SEFCOVIC and the leaders of the Parliament’s political groups. The motto of the French Presidency is “Recovery, Strength and a Sense of Belonging”, to underline that, in order to fight the health crisis, the rise of aggressive foreign powers and climate disruption, the best response is a European response. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

MACRON, Emmanuel (FR)

French Presidency of the EU (T)

Presentation of the programme of activities of the French Presidency: opening statement by Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Madam President, vice presidents, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, honourable members of the European Parliament. Madam President, let me first of all, congratulate you on your election. As you have said, we are all still thinking about your late predecessor, David Sassoli.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, He, like all of us, believed in another Europe, a Europe of values that is bring us together, a Europe built on a unique model based on freedom, solidarity, tradition and progress. This civilisation, which has matured over centuries and for 70 years, what we've been trying to build, putting an end to the constant wars in our continent and in this house, expressing in Strasbourg the idea of the will of people.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, This Europe, which during the pandemic held firm in terms of developing a vaccine and economic recovery. I'm delighted and I'm honoured. Today to be able to speak to you at the beginning of the French presidency. And I'd like to just share some ideas with you.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, I can't go through all of the topics I'm sure will come up against them again during the question and answer period. But I want to talk about some of the deep convictions which lie behind our common values and common actions. This Europe I've been talking about, this European integration is based on three main promises.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, One of promises is democracy. Which is born here in Europe and was reborn, recast on our continent, given new life in the last 70 years, a promise of. Progress shared by all and a promise for peace. And Europe has kept its word, as far as these promises are concerned, the Europe in which we're living in was marked by some tragic elements in history.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, But now we look at the Europe in which we live in. These three promises. Are under threat and we are not just in the next few months, but the task of our whole generation is to respond root and branch to. These giving new life to these promises. I started with the promise of democracy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, This is something which marks. Us out as Europeans. The French presidency. Will be one which promotes the values which are ours. And can be often looked at as something which we have. In perpetuity, but are in fact being weakened because we are a generation which is discovering again how the rule of law and democracy can be made fragile.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Liberal democracy, using the word in its political sense, over the last few years, this thing that Europe invented, people seem to think it's getting tired and can't meet the new challenges. But I'm here to tell you how these last few months have shown the management of the pandemic by democracies.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Debates in Parliament with a free press, with research and academic system which are open and free, has led to decisions which have been taken, which protected our lives, protected the economy much better than authoritarian regimes did. What we did was frankly together show that is cliche is wrong, that our democracies are weaker.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's why we are working together to protect liberal democracy to electoral processes which are the subject of foreign interference to protect. The sovereignty of the people. Here we have work which will continue throughout the spring with the Conference on the future of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The French presidency will, along with Germany, with the clear agreement reached. As far as this was concerned. The Parliament's legislative right is now going to be important. The. Rule of law. We're fighting for this simple idea, part of the universal human rights to protect us from the people who get far too carried away.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, As far as these things are concerned, fundamental rights, it will decide in a sovereign fashion by member states to accept this when they join the European Union. What do they want to call into question? That people are equal, that each one has a right to have a fair trial in an independent judiciary system. And the basic idea that to be more effective, we need to roll back.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The rule of law. Legitimate changes can be brought in and brought in by governments, but that doesn't call the rule of law into question. All of us before we joined the European institutions, the principles which were set in motion as a fruit of our common commitment and common ideas.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The end of the rule of law is the beginning of authoritarianism. It goes back to authoritarian regimes. And they marked our history only too. There is an ideological combat behind all of this, of course, and there is authority and powers on our borders are carrying this fight out and it's affecting many of our countries.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, You can see what's happening, undermining the very basis of our history, where tolerance and humanitarianism is a very basis of our civilisation. An idea is being pushed to undermine the sovereignty of our people so we are going to work against that. We're going to talk and we are going to defend the power of the rule of law in every instance.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, I say through dialogue, because it's not a question. The rule of law is some kind of invention made in Brussels, and Brussels is teh only one that can run it. No, that's not true. It's the result of our common history. There were revolutions for over the last century when people could free themselves from totalitarianism. So the rule of law is precious.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And it's a question of convincing people, again, who have drifted away from the respect of it and we need to win over them. Again. I talked about their unique European democracy. Is that also is going to be part and parcel of this struggle. And I want European values which bring us together, which we are proud of and our our strength.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We want these to flourish. We have the charter fundamental rights. Twenty years ago, the Death penalty was outlawed throughout Europe then. So we should use this charter to be more explicit on protecting the environment and recognising the right to abortion.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Let's open this debate freely, talking to our fellow citizens and give fresh impetus to our rule of law, making Europe even stronger. If the only way our common political party can go. I mentioned this uniqueness. And it also, of course, is part of our solidarity, which is also unique. It was invented along with the welfare state, a system of protection covering all citizens from cradle to grave.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, This is a heritage of our democracy in europe. And the pandemic has shown that solidarity isn't a weakness. It's a force greater than any other because it allowed us to save lives, protect jobs, it allowed us to get together a vaccine for us in Europe is the spirit of solidarity that led us as Europeans to be the most open in the world as far as exporting vaccine as a gift.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And I hope that our Presidency will continue that work. That it'll do all it can to make sure that everybody has a quality job, better paid, with minimum wages, which are decent and available to all, reducing wage gap between men and women, creating new rights for digital platform workers, to introduce quotas for women in our company boards fighting against all kinds of discrimination.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The progress I've just mentioned isn't simply empty promise or just words. These are legal texts which in the next few weeks will be given out to all of us, and which I hope we can make law during these six months. We've got the possibility of doing so. Let's do it together.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, A thing that marks us out of this promise of democracy is this idea of a separate kind of culture. What is it to be European? Is to feel emotion when we see the treasures of Europe, the fruits of history to the. Beauties of Paris are the beauties of Crakow, the romantic spirit, the works of Chopin, the poetry of Fernando Pessoa.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, It's having a way of being in the world from museums to our cafes that is unique. This is all part of what makes us unique. We've are differences, of course, but from ancient Greece to the Roman Empire of Christianity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, all of this has shaped human destiny.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And I do hope that we can continue together to promote this European civilisation. Universal cultures, respecting one another, respecting people's differences and identities. That's why we propose that our best historians and intellectuals are brought together to build together the fruits of the common history which we've lived through.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, So that's the first point, I think, to meet the promise of democracy, making Europe over, and we'll have to work together on the next six months. We want to make Europe a cultural democratic, educational power, proud of itself, able to meet these challenges.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The second promise is the promise of progress. Europe has never thought about simply maintaining the status quo and sitting back. We were built by our desire to build economic growth, a model for the future. The possibility offered to working and middle classes to enjoy the benefits of this progress.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And that promise has been weakened over the last few years. Growing inequality deindustrialisation, new challenges. In particular, the climate and digital challenges have spread doubts throughout the continent. And our challenge, therefore, is to build a new model, meeting these new challenges which.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Will allow us to come through on the promise of progress and climate is the first challenge. Europe is the area where in Paris in 2015, Universal Climate Awareness really began. It's the continent where, with its target of carbon neutrality by 2050, set itself the most ambitious climate goals on the planet.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Now we have to move from words to deeds, transforming our industries in investing in new technologies, hydrogen and batteries. That's what the package is all about. The Commission has come out with some powerful proposals and we now have together in the next few weeks to implement many of these proposals, calling on all the stakeholders through here and throughout the world to come help us with a green transition dealing.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, With the carbon adjustment mechanism at borders, which we've been working on for years, and having mirror aspects in the trade agreements so that they do the same we are doing. That's vitally important. Europe needs to adopt the first law in the world on imports from the for the route of deforestation.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, So we need to take measures on these issues as the first planks in our strategy will be doing is at national level, will also be trying to make certain that the battle for biodiversity and against. Climate change works as well. We're having an summit on the oceans very soon where many member states and the commission have an important strategy to present because we are a major maritime power.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And there, too, when it comes to biodiversity, we've got an agenda which we want to move forward. The second 21st century challenge is the digital challenge, the digital revolution. We in Europe believe in the diffusion of knowledge. We are not going to reject that, but our challenge is a double challenge.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, First of all, to build a genuine single digital market so that we can create European flagships and champion is investing in new technology and new sectors. As the Commission has proposed on many occasions, it's consolidating a Europe that can finance these champions and can simplify its laws so that we can build a genuine single market, a domestic market which is huge in scale.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, At the same time, Europe needs to work with the digital stakeholders to protect this enlightened spirit, to protect our rights, our freedoms,. The respect of people's private lives, battle against hate speech and division.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's why I, along with you, honourable members of the European Parliament, we are going to be putting forward important texts which need to be completed texts on digital services, which you will be ruling on tomorrow and the next few months.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We could see the emergence of a European digital model, which simultaneously will provide for free and fair competition between stakeholders and stop platforms killing innovation and making sure they protect citizens.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The second thing we need to do is that will have to allow us to provide economic protection for digital stakeholders. Because sometimes these champions don't behave as champions should.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, But also there needs to be a Democratic debate against hate speech, manipulation, when people don't ever seem to take responsibility for their actions. We need to bring in new regulations to deal with that.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, The third challenge is, of course, security. The promise of progress in the future only means that we can meet cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, illegal migration. As we live in turbulent times, we need to provide a response to these.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And Europe, therefore, needs to equip itself not because of a lack of trust as far as other powers are concerned, but to make sure that it remains independent in a violent world so that we don't that the whim of others to be free.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, In other words, therefore, we need to make certain we have control over our own borders our own area. We made a great deal of progress where we've beefed up Frontex and the French presidency will try to reform the Schengen area. Which is at the base of its original promise of an area of free movement.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Protecting our external borders, including having an intergovernmental rapid intervention force. Backed by an agreement between member states, as we did between 2018 and 2021, building partnerships with countries of origin and countries of transit to stop the traffickers, and making a more effective policy which respects our principles to battle against irregular immigration.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, When it comes to defence, we can't just be content with responding to international crises. We need to be able to anticipate things and organise the safety of Europe to meet the challenges we can see in many of them unprecedented over the last few years.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And during our six months, I hope. seen We've a lot of progress in the previous presidency, the German presidency, defining our doctrine of our own security, fitting with the times and also having a proper European defence industry and seeking strategic independence without which the Europe of defence is meaningless and won't even exist.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, You have understood that through this agenda we want together to build a Europe which will be a power in the future, a Europe that can respond to climate, technological and digital challenges, also geopolitical challenges. A Europe which is independent. And it has the power to decide its own future for itself and not to depend on the choices of the other major powers.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Finally, I mentioned the promise of peace. Our Europe today is confronted with escalating tension on our borders, a world which is winding into deregulation and the possible reappearance of, the most tragic thing of all, war.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Our model, which goes beyond our borders, and is why our founding fathers always looked outwards beyond Europe, is to think about some of our neighbourhood policies again and think about our role in the world to try to help build a real power for balance.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's what Europe can do. Europe can therefore propose a new alliance to the African continent. Linking the two sides of the Mediterranean. We can't just look at the subject of migration without looking at the deep rooted causes and see that we have a common destiny with the African continent.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's part of this turbulent world and a part of the future of that continent. But also part of our own future as well. With Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, we've wanted to hold a summit and we plan to in February to recast our partnership with the African Continent. We want our African friends to allow us to help them.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We've already distributed 700 million doses of vaccines and we want to have a new stage, come up with a new kind of alliance with the African continent. First of all, through an economic and financial new deal for Africa, which is based on what we built in May in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Europe put forward and brought out the special drawing rights of the IMF and coming up with specific investment proposals as well. Secondly, an agenda as far as education, health and climate is concerned to help the African continent develop and. Provide new hope for young people in Africa.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And thirdly, security agenda. European support to be given to African states who are seeing an increase in terrorism as we did together in Zaire. Finally, fighting against illegal immigration and trafficking networks as we do, we want to make certain that economic, cultural and academic cooperation continues to flourish.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Europe can't turn its back on the Western Balkans either. The Western Balkans are geographically and historically at the heart of the European continent. They have wounds which show us how fragile peace can be and how strong our union can be.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's why today want to think about relations with the Western Balkan countries and give them a clear perspective of accession to the European Union, not against anybody to try to destabilise anybody else. It's a positive accession which will be carried out in a reasonable time frame.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We are modernising the procedure for negotiation over the last few months. And it's not the present Europe with its rules which can become a Europe of when 31, 32, 33 member states. It would mean kidding ourselves if we thought that.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, So in the framework of the Conference and the results expected in May, we need to think about our own rules again, and make them clearer and make them easier so that we can decide more quickly and more easily. And also politically being honest about Europe, a Europe where the Western Balkan countries have a place.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We need to look again at the way Europe works and the shape of Europe. That's why the Conference on the Future of Europe should be followed up on by a conference on the Western Balkans dealing with these crucial topics.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Europe and the United Kingdom also need to regain trust in one another. I don't want to speak at excessive length, Madam President, but I will just say that the links of friendship between ourselves and the people of the United Kingdom are there and will remain.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Free of economic and social progress. What we've done together is too much to be forgotten, but to continue to move together and work together after Brexit, that means that the UK government needs to commit to itself in good faith, respecting the agreements already concluded with the Union, which we will stick to.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And we want to make certain that the agreements entered into are respected when it comes to the rights of our fishermen or the Northern Ireland protocol, or the vital discussions which have to be had in the future. Let's be clear. Let's be tough than say that an agreement entered into force has to be respected. That's the way to remain friends.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Europe wants to be an area of collective security on our continent. The security of our continent requires strategic rethinking for Europe, strategic rearming of Europe as an area of balance and peace. When it comes to dialogue with Russia in particular, this dialogue is something I've been standing up for for many years.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, It's not just a vague idea because we are so close together. Sometimes for us and for Russia is need to talk about security of our continent, there which is indivisible. We need this dialogue. We need in Europe collectively to set out our own requirements and make certain that they are respected. And we need to be in a position to make that happen.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We need to be decisive when it comes to destabilisation, manipulation, and interference. What we need to build is a European order based on principles and rules which we can rally behind and which we put together. Not against anybody, not without anybody, but with Russia 30 years ago.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Let me remind you of that. Rejecting, to force coercion, threats, free choices of states to accede to alliances or bodies that they wish to do, inviolability of borders, territorial integrity of states, rejection of spheres of influence. What I'm talking about are the principles which we Europe and Russia signed up to 30 years ago.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We in Europe need to stand up for these inherent rights which are part of the sovereignty of states. It's up to us to reaffirm these values and effectively punish, violate those who violate them. This is at the heart of our European project security, and it's a response to the destabilisation which some people are trying to undertake on our continent.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's why we'll continue with Germany to look for a response to a solution to the conflict in the Ukraine, which is crucially important at the moment. And your collective support, ladies and gentlemen, is vital to achieve that.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, That's why we will make sure that Europe makes its voice heard, its single voice when it comes to strategic armaments, conventional weapons, the transparency of military activities and respect for the sovereignty of all European states. No matter what their history may be.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Over the next few months, we should come up with a European proposal by building a new order of security and stability. We should build this as Europeans working with other Europeans, working with our allies in NATO and then propose it for negotiation with Russia.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Honourable members of the European Parliament. I was born in 1977 and I saw Europe all around me as I was growing up. I grew up in northern France and Europe meant peace. It was just obvious, I didn't have to think about it.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Like a lot of you here, I saw a lot less Euroskepticism. The 2005 referendum, the idea that Europe was just a technocracy, the delocalisation, sovereign debt crisis. Our generation today needs to recast our Europe so that it meets its promise of being a democracy, providing progress and providing peace.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, We need to give ourselves the means to make Europe a cultural, democratic and educational power, a power for the future, a power for balance. In order to do that, we have a number of crucial texts to improve over the next weeks and months.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, And I count on the close cooperation with the European Parliament, bearing in mind these texts and these shared ambitions. All together faced with the tyranny of feeble ideas, we need to come up with what unity really means, the desire to take the long view and be bold when we need to.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Robert Schuman talks about creative efforts, not banning things, not making things too easy. These creative efforts built Europe. Neither the policies from before the crisis or what we used to do then, or the reflexes of the past, going back to nationalism, devolving our identities. None of those things will fit the coming world.

SOUNDBITE (French), Emmanuel MACRON, President of the French Republic, Our capacity to innovate, to invent, to make a dream possible, to make it real and make it useful to our fellow citizens. That's at the heart of our success. We have the strength. We have the means. That's why I believe in us. Thanks very much.