Debate&nbsp;on the State of the Union 2016, during the EP plenary session (12-15/09/2016) in Strasbourg. Statements by Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Gabriele ZIMMER (GUE/NGL, DE), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), Nigel FARAGE (EFDD, UK), and Marine LE PEN (ENF, FR).

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

FARAGE, Nigel (NI, UK)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

ZIMMER, Gabriele (GUE/NGL, DE)

LE PEN, Marine (ENF, FR)

HARMS, Rebecca (Greens/EFA, DE)

state of the Union 2016 (T)

State of the Union 2016: extracts from the statemetns by Political group leaders

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), The European way of life is about economic strength. Yes to the Juncker plan, yes to an incitation and motivation for investment, and yes for more support for research and investment. The European way of life is also about the social economy, to have fair and proper taxes for all businesses, and from my group we want to say that we support Junker with this. And that it is also important that we look at the internet businesses and to provide proper taxes responsibilities, thank you for that. The European way of life is also about growth. Only when we have proper exports, only when we export are we going to be able to give hope and jobs to the young generation this half of Europe, and my group is absolutely convinced that we should say yes to SETA.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), Junker gave some positive responses to our priorities, to a lot of them. Let me repeat once again: sustainable growth, jobs, mobilisation of European democracy, these are key words for our values, and it's in line with our values and socialist principles, sustainable growth and investment plan, we need to refocus on more risky investments and on sustainability, banking union, fiscal capacity, the fund for globalisation, flexibility, we have had these discussions on the stability pack, there should be no reservation about that, on the fiscal combat as well. Cohesion policy, that is a very cornerstone of European policy, we cannot undermine it, and we cannot lose it. There is no question about that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), This debate doesn't have to be about Left versus Right, or about Eurosceptic versus integrationist. This debate should be about delivering security, delivering jobs, and delivering opportunities for our constituents. The ECR group believes that we can have greater cooperation where it counts, without greater centralization. We believe the EU can do less, but can do it better. The next EU treaty needs to restrict and simplify what the EU does. An EU that gives the flexibility of a network, rather that the rigidity of a bloc. Because diversity is one of the European Union greater strength, yet diversity and mutual recognition are being challenged by the mantra of harmonization.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), It's true I believe that the discontent, the fear, the anger of the citizens is caused by this fracture: a fracture that is that on the one hand we have globalization of our world, and on the other hand democratic policies that are still only in fact being developed on a national, local level. And it is in my opinion this imbalance that was the base also for the financial crisis in 2008. Because the markets were global and our policies were not. And it is also there where you find a weakness of Europe, faced with Poutin, faced with autocrats like Erdogan and so on. So I take that if you want really to give a positive response to the fear of our citizens, and to regain control over their lives, we need European solutions, and European capacities the fastest as possible, and that does not mean abolishing national democracies, it means complementing them.

SOUNDBITE (German), Gabriele ZIMMER (GUE/NGL, DE), We have to establish that even the people who were here before, your predecessor Mister Barroso, contributed enormously to the fact that the question of who actually runs the European Union today, was being answered by the citizens in such way to say that the answer was, lobbyists, it's lobbyism that is running the European Union. And such an approach has a negative impact on your own Commission today. Not to call Mister Barroso a lobbyist himself at the moment, but I want to say that you have to do something for this, please understand that the citizens have got to be involved in the project, they have got to be participants, they can't simply see that the decisions are taken above them.

SOUNDBITE (German), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), Mister Junker, the investment plan that you mentioned is good, but it doesn't go far enough for youth and employment. Yes it's good to be interested in that, and then to give InterRail as a response as well, Mister Webber, I'm sorry, I love InterRail, but that can't be what it's about. Creating tax justice, and looking at the difficulties of the stability pact, linked with unemployment and youth unemployment, that's what we need to be doing.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nigel FARAGE (EFDD, UK), If you stick to the dogma of saying, the reciprocal territory access, within the single market we must maintain the free movement of people, then you will inevitably drag us to a no-deal. No-deal on trading, and trading under WTO rules. For the United Kingdom, that actually isn't too bad, because it's very much better, and cheaper, than the current deal we have got. But, for hundreds of thousands of German co-workers, and French wine producers, potentially it's very bad news. Because we are their biggest market, with whom they trade most profitably in the world.

SOUNDBITE (French), Marine LE PEN (ENF, FR), Brexit has really broken a taboo. The British people have shown us that you can leave the European Union, and you can come out better. The catastrophic visions were just a lie; the UK is doing quite well. The choc that you wanted to see has now turned into trust. Everybody thought there was going an apocalypse falling on the UK, but that didn't happen.