David SASSOLI, EP President, and Janez JANŠA, Slovenian Prime Minister, give a press conference on the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, by video conference from Brussels and Ljubljana. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

press conference

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

EU - Slovenia (T)

Ljubljana

JANŠA, Janez (SI)

Slovenian Presidency of the EU (T)

Press conference by David SASSOLI, EP President, and Janez JANŠA, Slovenian Prime Minister on the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, - Thank you for this press conference with the prime minister Jansa and his ministers. We had a meeting together with the European Parliament's conference of presidents.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, - It was a lengthy discussion on a whole slew of issues and we have listened with great pleasure the indications of the incoming Slovenian presidency articulated on important strategic themes, such as strengthening the resilience of the EU, the great themes of health, cyber security, the rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, - So it's been a very wide ranging discussion, but focussed on what will be the incoming presidency's priorities.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, - So obviously, we thank Prime Minister Jansa and his ministers for this initial dialogue in view of a semester that has a lot of important issues on its plate and a presidency that will have to give new prospects to the EU after covid-19. The floor is yours, Prime Minister.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - Thank you very much President Sassoli. I would also like to thank all of the chairs of the parliamentary committees, and I'd like to thank you for the debate on the council priorities for the coming half year.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - The European Parliament, according to the Lisbon Treaty, is an extremely important European institution. It is extremely democratic. And all of the issues that we have to sort out to in the coming half year can only be sorted out in close cooperation with the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And I think that this will be as good a cooperation as it was in 2008 when Slovenia presided over the European Union for the first time. We now have the Lisbon Treaty and the role of the European Parliament is stressed even more in that treaty.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And also our commitment to this cooperation is just as important for the second half of 2021. As we've already said will be, speaking of the resiliency and the relaunch of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - We are delighted to see the light at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic, which is now going to get behind us with more than a year now. But the time ahead of us will be the time of the recovery.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And we will also have to build a greater resilience for fighting future crises of a similar nature in particular, uh, since our memories are still fresh.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And so now is the time to ensure that we build our strategic autonomy in the European Union on all of the critical points which have shown themselves to be not up to scratch over the last year. In the coming weeks, the European Commission will be validating the national recovery plans.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - The agreement for the following generation was adopted, and that was a large success and the macroeconomic indicators of the European Union are better than what we thought.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - So we feel that the coming six months and the next year will be better and the recovery will be achieved as far as crisis management is concerned. And preparing for a greater EU resilience.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - We are now working together with the German and Portuguese presidencies. We are working on cyber resilience. We have suffered a few cyber attacks, and our aim is that the EU is able to protect itself against this type of attack, to be symmetrical or asymmetrical during the Slovenian presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - We will also be working on the conference of the Future of Europe. This is an important conference because, it fits into the post pandemic phase and the relaunching of our economy is the creation of greater resiliency, it's also it fits into the post Brexit period.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - So after all of this turbulence we've experienced over the last few years, and that's why this discussion must be open and include everyone in Slovenia. More than two thirds of the population has expressed a great interest in this debate, and Slovenia will ensure that we open this debate to all.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And here, I'm delighted to announce that this will be the key subject of the strategic forum in Blade at the beginning of September, we will be expecting participants from all over the EU.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - And I'm delighted to be able to invite all of the parliament representatives to attend as well. As far as the rule of law and the European way of life is concerned, the rule of law is not something that is just random.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - It's not a selective law, we need to ensure that the same treatment applies to all member states, we cannot use criteria in a selective manner within that framework. I think that progress can still be made.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - This will certainly be one of our aims. Then the right to free freedom of expression is the very basis for a democratic law. So member states of the EU and the basis for all of our legal procedures, as well as this right to expression, cannot be limited by interests which have primarily a mark to the totalitarian regimes, as is evidenced by what we've seen recently in Belarus.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - As far as progress made to be done slovenia is proposing an institute, an institute to study constitutional law. And I think to do this, we can base our work on the Venice Commission. But I think it would be useful to have a European Institute for Constitutional Law.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - We've also mentioned the situation in Belarus during our meeting, any one who is a victim of this repressive regime in Belarus are worthy of our support and solidarity as well, and they deserve our help and measures adopted at the last European Council.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - These measures will still evolve with a view to guaranteeing a security human rights and the respect for the freedom of expression for all of those who are still in the Belarus or Russian prisons.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Janez JANSA, Slovenian Prime Minister, - Slovenia as well as Europe must guarantee high levels of human rights that we've experienced in our area and these rights must also be established in the broader European area and we will be working towards that. So thank you very much, and we're delighted with the cooperation we have with the European partner.