Roberta METSOLA, EP President, gives a keynote speech at the Columbia University (New York, USA) followed by a Q&A session with audience. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

EU - USA (T)

EU - United Nations (T)

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

keynote speech

United States

New York

president's agenda

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to New York (United States): Keynote speech at Columbia University

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Thank you so much, President Shafik, for that kind introduction. Very accurate and rigorous. Thanks for that. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me say how honoured, really, to be here, to be invited to one of the greatest universities in the world, to speak to you about leadership, about how the world needs Europe and the United States to keep stepping up, about how leadership is about people, about you more than it is about institutions and about how the geopolitical realities that we now face mean that we are being called upon to plot a path to a future that is more uncertain than it was a few years ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President I am the youngest ever president of the European Parliament. I am part of the generation who were sitting on my parent's lap as the Berlin Wall came down, who watched Tiananmen Square on grainy television screens, who just remember the collapse of the USSR and the unbridled joy of millions of Europeans finally free after half a century to determine their own destinies, who reaped all the benefits of the victory of liberal democracy in a new world and in Europe and the US.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Mine is the last generation who remembers a world where liberal democracy was not a given. And we believed that our way won and that our victory would last forever. We believed that our way would define the new world order. And when the world's blocks were dismantled, we believed that democracy, freedom, rule of law and cooperation would heralds a new age of global trade. Of individual rights and liberties.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President We believed, basically, that we could outrun and outgrow any threat to our way of life. Perhaps we grew a little too complacent, a little bit too comfortable. Last year, we understood in the most brutal of manners just how painfully true that was when Russian tanks rolled into sovereign, independent Ukraine. Looting, raping, murdering. The world's changed forever.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President And we understood on that fateful day that we must lead in this new world. The United States and Europe have many faults, many things that need improving. But despite everything, we stand as an enduring symbol of our way of life as a bastion of liberty and freedom. And if we do not fulfil our inherited duty to lead, then someone else with a very different value set to ours will. That's the responsibility that weighs heavily.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President We must continue to take the decisions that are necessary. Difficult decisions. Decisions like opening our doors and our markets to countries like Ukraine and Moldova or countries in the Western Balkans. Decisions like supplying weapons to Ukraine. A little over 20 years ago, there was a huge discussion in Europe on whether ten countries should join the European Union. I was still a student studying the ins and outs of politics, but with an iron clad belief in the transformational powers of Europe. It was never about creating everyone in the same likeness, and rather it was a core belief that in unity, even and especially all our diversity, there is strength.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President It was about our security, about opportunity and the comfort of belonging to us. It meant everything. And that is the spirit that drives our outlook Today, even with all our imperfections, there are still so many people around the world who live under the yoke of oppression, for whom the European Union has not lost its shine, for whom the United States will always be a natural ally.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Now the geopolitical sands are shifting. We have Putin's attacks on independent and sovereign Ukraine. We have Lukashenko persecuting, imprisoning, torturing people for their democratic beliefs. We have China that has risen with a value system that is different to ours. India, on the rise. Afghanistan collapsing back into disarray. Iran stirring up the Middle East and propping up Russia East and Central Africa at boiling point, and South America facing new and old economic challenges. Now the EU and the US are two of the strongest economic blocs on the planet, and our transatlantic relationship is a vital artery of the global economy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President But I get asked this a lot What does this mean when you talk about the transatlantic relationship at the end? What it means is that our true strength lies in something far deeper than that, that we share a dream and we share values because the world cannot thrive on imbalances. We need to build a global democratic alliance of trusted partners and friends.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President The same responsibility that we felt and delivered when we were called upon to stand with Ukraine. We matched our rhetoric. It was difficult, but it was the only choice and it was immediate and a decision with action, with real and tangible support. Together, we enacted hard hitting sanctions that have decreased Russia's oil and gas revenues by almost 50%, and it is still decreasing.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President We have shown that we can react and adapt under an enormous amount of pressure that our way of life and our way of doing things does work and that our values matter and that what we are doing is worth it. But these relationships and these principles have stood the test of time only if we continue to work together to lead together. If we beat the death tests of today, too many of our people are still struggling to make ends meet. Too many women still face the thickest of glass ceilings.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Too many of our young people still face a completely uncertain future. Climate change continues to have devastating impacts on lives, livelihoods and our environment. The digital revolution is developing faster than we are able to regulate it responsibly. We must continue to keep our people's concerns at the centre of all our actions. Now our next steps will be defined on how able we are to remain competitive. How can we create jobs and futures with dignity? How can we push back against inflation, wiping value of assets without making it impossible for young people to be able to buy a home? How can we ensure that the digital transition makes it easier for our companies to innovate?

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President These are the questions we are asking ourselves in Europe and for day one where sure you might fail, but one that makes it easier for you to get back up again. Now, in the European Union, we have started to put the building blocks in place. Take, for example, our CHIPS Act, our Digital Services Act, and our digital markets Act. We are now working on the world's first comprehensive pro-innovation Artificial Intelligence Act. And in all these ground groundbreaking pieces of legislation, we managed to find a balance between innovation and business to flourish, keeping people safe online and setting standards that the rest of the world will inevitably follow.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President It has not been easy. The European Union, unlike the United States and I'm asked this question a lot, what's the difference? How do you work? How does it function? European Union is composed of 27 sovereign countries, each with different regulatory frameworks, constitutions, languages and interests that do not always necessarily align. But it is precisely within this melting point, as we like to call it, of ideas that we can find the best solutions that work for all.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Now, of course, investment requires funding, public funding. How do we grow our economies and pay back our debts? How do we ensure that we have the ability and liquidity to fund the solutions that are demanded of us? The answer is real sustainable economic growth. Now, I have always seen the green transition as an integral part of that sustainable growth strategy. It's not just an obligation but an investment in our economies too.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President But in order for it to work, it needs to place the human at its centre, it needs to be human centric. It must provide real incentives and safety nets for industry. And it must be ambitious enough to address the very real climate emergency that we are in. Must meet the targets of the Paris Agreement. But it must also work for people. So when it comes to addressing climate change, and I hope we have an opportunity to go into detail with all of you in a question and answer format.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President I mean, we need to move away from what I would call a binary way of thinking. We can be the most climate ambitious continents and at the same time be the most competitive, innovative and business friendly tool. But the only way to do that is to continue to speak to people more than speak, it is difficult for a politician to say that, is to listen and to really look at managing, to avoid people retreating to the political fringes which offer the easiest of answers to the most difficult of questions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President And it is up to us to be the drivers of a clean tech revolution. And then I am convinced that we can do this in a way that leaves nobody behind. And in fact, in the European Union, we have already made significant headway. We have implemented a vast reform of our emissions trading scheme, which is a market based solution, incentivising companies to limit their emissions by putting a price on carbon. We have also established a carbon border tax to create a level playing field for our companies and agreed to help and establish a social climate fund that will aid both companies and households limit their emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Now, those efforts are already bearing fruit. Since last year we have had good increases of solar power and wind power instalments in Europe, 47% solar, 30% wind to be exact. So despite problems after a very devastating pandemic with supply chains and challenging economic situations, Europe is well on its way to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President Last couple of points. One moment on defence. The concept of security, iff we've learned something over the past year and a half, almost two years now, is that we need a new perception. It is no longer just about conventional means of warfare. Putin has weaponized information, energy, food, even people in an attempt to crush Ukrainian resistance and to weaken the West's supports.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President And the time is now for the European Union and NATO to reinforce the pillars of their cooperation. It is about supporting peace, real peace with liberty. It is about protecting our people. It is about defending our values. One appeal to you. I came here today to invite you to lead. It's quite an easy audience for this, I hope. It's not always the case because to feel that sense of urgency. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote: not all of us have power, but we all have influence, whether we seek it or not. There is quiet leadership, influence of leadership, that seeks no power but changes lives. And in tough times we need it more than ever.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President So the world needs what you students have to offer. Your knowledge, your skill, your drive, your grit, your leadership. You will need to prepare to encounter, like I did, a couple little bit more than a couple of cynics along the way. But every generation has been underestimated. Until it has proven itself in front of the whole world, whether it is in politics, in the medical field, in science, in tech, in academia, I wholeheartedly believe in your endless potential to help make our world a little bit better, a little bit safer. A little bit more equal to bring our world a little bit closer to how it ought to be. So, dear friends, it is now our time for leadership and we cannot be found wanting. Thank you