Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT) elected as the new President of the European Parliament, gives a press conference in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

election of the President of the European Parliament (T)

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT) new elected EP President

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Thank you very much. Good afternoon to you all. Sorry, we kept you waiting for a few minutes. I'll start with a few comments on the tragic and premature loss of our president, David Sassoli. It was a great European, and this has weighed very heavily on this house and our thoughts will continue to be with his family and his friends in this very difficult time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, At the same time, of course, I am honoured to have been elected by my colleagues as president of the European Parliament. As I just said in the plenary, I know that I have big shoes to fill and I will pay a tribute to David and all those before him by always, always, standing up for this house and for Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Let me also say that I very much look forward to working with all of you. This house is an ardent defender of the rights and security of journalists. And as I just promised the members of the European Parliament, let me also promise you that I will be available as possible also to you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I wanted to try my best to limit these opening remarks because you have heard my speech and my visions after a lot of monthslong discussions with colleagues from the different political groups. So I don't need to repeat them again. So I would really like to go straight to questions, and I'm open to anything you'd like to ask.