President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez summarises the results of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU’s six months. The Spanish Presidency set as its priorities reindustrialising the EU and ensuring its open strategic autonomy, advancing the green transition and environmental adaptation, promoting greater social and economic justice, and strengthening European unity. Opening statements by Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister and Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission. This transcription is a result of an authomatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EU - Spain (T)

SANCHEZ, Pedro (ES)

Spanish Presidency of the EU (T)

Review of the Spanish Presidency of the Council: opening statements by Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister and Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pedro S&Aacute;NCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, President Metsola, President von der Leyen, Vice President &Scaron;efčovič, High Representative Borrell. Honourable Members, I'd like to start with a brief reference to the date. Normally it's at the beginning of the presidency that the country of the presidency comes to Parliament and talks through the priorities. But bringing forward elections to the 23rd of July 2023 meant that this was not such a suitable approach. So I'm actually before you, in the last few days of the presidency, not to talk through what we're planning to do, but to talk about what we have done, what we've achieved, and what remains to be done.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, I hope it's been worth the wait, and I think it might have been because in the meantime, we've gained a significant ally for the next four years with a progressive government in Spain. Spain was faced with a choice with two different visions of the European construction. The right and far right to roll back on social and environmental progress we have achieved in Spain in recent years, applying the failed neoliberal formula which did so much to worsen the recent financial crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, The other option was a progressive coalition where, despite having certain differences, we wanted to make progress. We wanted to continue consolidating the European project. We wanted to go for social justice, for labour reform, for respect and democratic habitation. The right causes feminism, green transition, strengthening our common project, which is the European project.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Those progressive forces won the elections fortunately, and formed a new progressive coalition government on the 16th of November, with 179 seats in the Parliament. An absolute majority, the will of the people expressed when over 12 million people participated with groups which are not part of the government providing support. And we will always support the EU, European values and principles and the leadership which we have shown in the rotating presidency of Council, I think bears witness to that.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, And we have the second reason why I hope it has been worth the wait. It has been a successful presidency. I would say that we've had 43 files approved, for instance, more than average. We've achieved significant progress in terms of legislation and policies for the future of Europe. Obviously, time means I can't mention all of them, but I would like to mention a few. We set four priorities at the beginning of the presidency when we presented our objectives.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Firstly, giving a push to re industrialisation and achieving open strategic autonomy in the EU. Our citizens have faced a lot of difficulties over the last few years. There's been a shortage of sanitary products, masks countries that were worst hit by the effects of the pandemic early, on climate change, economic, social and environmental consequences of that. Putin's war in Ukraine had an impact on energy prices, and there's an economic impact on citizens pockets.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, We need to learn from that and improve the international order that has been discussed in this chamber, of course. The international order is changing and Europe needs to change too. Massive industrial outsourcing to other continents, blind faith and import has to go. We need more domestic production. We need to be competitive in sectors where we're at the vanguard and we need to be going for the industries of the future so that we have more companies and more quality jobs for our citizens. For that, we need more innovation, industrial policy, and we need to further develop the single market.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, 'This doesn't mean that we should be anti-globalisation, but we should be protectionist. Some say that on the far right, for instance, what I'm talking about is strengthening domestic industry, becoming more efficient. This is vital. This is what we need for the future of the European economy, but will always be more prosperous if we cooperate with other countries.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, A few figures that I think are quite eloquent. If we look it up, participation in the global economy, 40% of GDP in Europe depends on that. And one in five jobs in the EU depends on that. So rather than closing ourselves off in an isolationist way, we need more trade expansion, consolidating, diversifying and enlarging our links with the outside world, modernising multilateral architecture, development aid, commitment to the welfare of other countries, particularly those in the global South.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, This is the vision for the future, which the Spanish Presidency has endeavoured to build over the six months of presidency. This is a vision which the 27 Heads of State and Government endorsed at the recent informal council in the Spanish city of Granada. And we very much hope that this new strategic agenda for Europe will be taken forward in the next Presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Over the course of the presidency, I think the EU has taken many steps forward. The President of the European Parliament has referred to this too. We've had pioneer legislation on supply of critical raw materials, green and digital technology, a pioneering piece of legislation for developing and adopting A.I. in Europe while respecting our interests and the interests of our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, We've also taken decisions to defend the modernisation of agriculture. And here too, the European Parliament deserves congratulations for the agreements which we've achieved and also yesterday's agreement on fisheries that will ensure the future prosperity of thousands of Spanish and European families. We also have new economic security instruments protecting us against coercion from third countries and protecting free movement of goods, services and people at times of crisis within our single market.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, At the same time, while we were doing all that, we've also taken the external agenda forward. You see lack. I think that was a historic meeting with Latin America and the Caribbean and that trade agreement with Mercosur, with new trade agreements with Chile, New Zealand, with the Organisation of African, Latin American and Pacific States is highly significant. This will mean something to the citizens of Europe. This will mean that we'll have more trade with those countries and this will help us to diversify our supply chains.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, The second priority, along with re industrialisation and open strategic autonomy, was to make progress with the green transition and the adoption of measures that would allow us to deal with the effects of the climate emergency. As Europeans, we need to stop climate change and environmental degradation is not only about survival, it's also a huge opportunity.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, If we do it right, if we are resilient and persistent over the next few years, if we don't use crises to postpone our action on the climate emergency, then our action will make us more prosperous and more competitive will be creating new industries, will be increasing one point of GDP year on year. Every year, and over a million new jobs only within this decade. This will also help us to drastically reduce our energy dependency raw materials coming from outside the EU.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Just think of how vulnerable Europe is to Putin's Russia, bringing down the electricity bill that our citizens have to pay, making our companies more competitive, and something that people don't mention often enough, and I would like to raise it here, reducing disease will be saving over 300,000 lives per year, which are currently lost due to air pollution and adverse climate events.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, So what I'm saying with all of this is that the green agenda is not what the far right would have. It's not an obstacle to Europe's competitiveness. Actually, it is the great hope for Europe. So I hope that Europe has taken significant steps forward in the Spanish presidency. We've achieved agreements to reduce polluting gases from industry to make aviation more sustainable. We have approved pioneering regulations that will allow us to reuse waste better and have more sustainable, repairable, recyclable products.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, And here too, I would like to thank the European Parliament for its work. We've achieved something which was very important to this Presidency, which is the nature restoration bill. This will allow us to recover ecosystems which have been subject to degradation in Europe. We have presented a common front together with the President of the European Commission in COP 28 and we've heard that at least will be transitioning away from fossil fuels, which is an excellent result from Dubai.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, It is my conviction that in a not too distant future, the regions with the most growth will be the regions growing in harmony with nature. Thanks to the measures that we are currently adopting, I believe Europe can be at the forefront of that economy, which is balanced with nature. Re industrialisation adaptation, responding to the climate emergency also social justice and economic justice.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, In the second half of the 20th century as a consequence of the Franco dictatorship and the autarky that we suffered for four decades in Spain, 2 million Spaniards, including my grandfather and father, emigrated to Europe looking for jobs, looking for opportunities. Sadly, they didn't have those jobs and opportunities within Spain.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, They had to face some prejudice. They had to face some rejection. But they also got a welcome. They got a welcome from a tolerant people, people who opened up the doors of their houses. They got married to some of these people. They formed truly European families. And it was here in Europe that our parents and grandparents discovered something wonderful, which is that jobs are not just putting about putting food on the table, it's about dignity in life.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, And they also discovered that a welfare state system can ensure public health, education, decent pension for people who retired. And when they went back to Spain, once the dictatorship was over, those migrants brought back with them that progress and they brought back with them some aspiration. They voted. They took part in trades unions. They were active in business. They worked for the Spanish economy to be something more than prosperous, for it to be fair as well. And we governed in Spain with those values. We want that reality to continue.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, And the reason I say that is that Europe needs more competitiveness. Yes, we need to increase our productivity to continue growing. We also need to ensure that opportunities and wealth which is generated, gets through to everyone, to all transitions, and that the cost of the green and digital transitions are not creating a bill which is footed by the most vulnerable in society. And I think we've achieved significant progress in this presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, We have reached a majority of Member States and social representatives at the Tripartite Social Summit with the Council rotating Presidency, Commission and Parliament in October in Brussels. And I believe that we're on the verge of achieving something very important, which is a historic reform of the electricity market. This will allow not only a boost to renewables, but it will bring down electricity bills. It will make them more stable. It will make the system more transparent, which means more information to consumers, to fellow citizens. And it will protect citizens against abuse by energy multinationals.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, We've also approved various measures that will strengthen consumer rights, that will also improve the labour rights of millions of workers. We've also achieved significant progress in other areas, not just in the social pillar, but the disability card. New measures to combat structural violence in all European societies, violence against women as a form of structural violence, trafficking in human beings, increasing the rights of other vulnerable communities.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, 'Now we just have the mid-term review of the MFF to deal with, and of course that will be on the agenda this week and indeed tomorrow and the reform of fiscal rules. We very much hope that there will be an agreement before the end of the year on that, which will allow us to keep to balance the books for public accounts and also meet Member States obligations to security and defence, digital and green transitions, social benefits and everything else, which citizens rightfully expect. So I very much hope that that will be achieved by the end of the month.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Our fourth priority with strengthening European unity over the last few years, as you all know very well, Europe has been suffering tensions and attacks. There are those who wish to divide us, but they failed. They didn't succeed. Actually, we are more cohesive and stronger than ever.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Nobody celebrating Brexit. Nobody wants to leave the EU anymore except for a few people on the very far right. Nobody's talking about leaving the EU anymore. Nobody is saying we should have looser links between Member States. Citizens now support the European project more than ever, partly because of our response to the pandemic, and this is true across the territory of Europe. I think we've learnt a very important lesson, honourable Members.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, It's a world of giants and in order to prosper you need to come together. You need to integrate internally, you need to coordinate when you're faced with external challenges. And for that reason, as the President of the European Parliament said earlier, we need to celebrate the achievements the asylum and Migration pact, for instance, and I undertake to work on a pact which is good for Europe and for all of our societies over the next few weeks.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, This will allow us to better manage migration, irregular migration and to strengthen the external dimension of cooperation with transit countries and countries of origin. And logically to, of course, we will be calling for an orderly migration policy with coordination across Member States, Parliamentary agreement on treaty reform, significant achievements on enlargement, with the significant landmark in Granada that will hopefully be validated at the European Council tomorrow.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, The time has now come for the EU to open its doors and welcome in Ukraine and Moldova and the Western Balkan countries. We should also consolidate our European political community. Over 40 heads of state and government came to Granada. We've seen unanimous cohesive support for Ukraine in its striving for freedom and EU membership.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, I just want to tell you a quick story. I started the Spanish presidency with a trip here in July and I hope to end the presidency with the launching of the accession talks. But what we all hope for, and I include myself here as it will come back here very soon to celebrate the withdrawal of Russian troops and a long lasting, fair peace in that country which is fighting so hard for its own freedom. And for ours.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Clarity and unity. That's what characterises our response to Russia's unjustified aggression. And that has stopped crime. It has saved lives. When Europe is clear and united, it can do that. So looking at what happened yesterday at the General Assembly of the U.N. and New York, we need to speak with some clarity and unity about what is happening in Israel and Palestine.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, If we want the world to respect us as an actor on the geopolitical stage, as a credible and relevant body, if we want the people of Europe to be proud of us and see that European values are not just words, we need to speak out loud and clear with one voice.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, We need to condemn terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas. We need to call for unconditional, immediate release of all hostages taken by Hamas. We need to support combating terrorism in the Middle East and we need to recognise Israel's right to defend itself and to exist without any doubt whatsoever. But with the same conviction and the same values, we need to say enough, enough deaths of innocent civilians in Gaza, including thousands of children.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Bombing must stop immediately. We need a humanitarian ceasefire. Humanitarian aid is urgently needed in sufficient quantity for people who are suffering from hunger, thirst and cold. International humanitarian law needs to be respected and we need to play an active role in contributing to a definitive, integral solution to this conflict, to give a prospect for credible, serious peace to give form to the two state solution. The European Parliament has recognised that the state of Palestine needs to live in peace and security alongside the state of Israel.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, For this. As for Ukraine, Europe needs unity and over the next few months Spain will do whatever it can to forge that unity, unity in diversity and unity in adversity. I think those need to be our slogans in the EU in these very complex times.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, President Honourable Members, I would like to conclude with some thoughts about the future and ourselves. Here in this chamber, there are political forces who do not believe in the EU. They think Europe is a decadent, spoilt society trying to achieve a green transition and social equality or welfare that we cannot afford. Such people will repudiate the achievements of the last few decades. They are afraid of the future. They hark back to a glorious past which actually never existed and is therefore impossible to go back to.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, I don't share that pessimism. I do not share that reactionary mindset. Yes, of course there are things that can be improved, the things which aren't working. But this should never make us forget that despite it all, Europe makes progress. Europe is progressing. It has never stopped since the Second World War, and there is no empirical evidence to indicate that we will cease to do this in future. Europe has all the necessary ingredients to continue being what it is today one of the most prosperous, socially advanced regions on the planet.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, 'Honourable Members, we constitute half of global investment in well-being. We are world leaders in trade. We receive foreign direct investment. We are number two in terms of innovation, eco ecosystem. We have the talent. We have the business. We have the public institutions which are necessary to be at the forefront of the green transition and to develop the industry of the future. And that's not an opinion that is born out by the facts, there's evidence.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, Now, we should not be complacent. We cannot rest on our laurels. We need to be active. There are a lot of problems that need to be solved and there are a lot of injustices that need to be corrected. But I say this because we do need to constantly bear in mind a huge potential. It is possible to build a Europe with clean, cheap energy, with full employment, with decent wages, with decent public services, and with a better standard of living for social improvement of all citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish),  Pedro SÁNCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, The time has come to look to the future with more ambition and with more optimism, because the EU is facing a challenge now which is not about avoiding decline. It's not about the development of other regions around the world. We need to be at the forefront of a new era of global prosperity. Honourable Members, it is my firm conviction that we can achieve that. I'll leave it at that. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Thank you very much, Madam President. About Prime Minister Pedro. Honourable Members. When I look back at the Spanish presidency, the first images that come to my mind are the breathtaking venues where Spain hosted the summits. The Royal Collections in Madrid, phenomenon. The Alhambra in Granada, unique. But besides the beauty of Spain, this presidency will be remembered for incredibly challenging circumstances.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, I will never forget, it was the day after our meeting in Granada, where we discussed actually the Russian war in Ukraine. We woke up to the news of Hamas terrorist attack on the 7th of October. And these two conflicts have shaped our work in these months. But in spite of these crises, we have still managed to focus on a huge set of priorities, ranging from competitiveness to climate and energy, from economic governance to migration and artificial intelligence actually successfully just concluded.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And allow me to focus on three crucial issues that have marked these six months. First, the situation in the Middle East. Second, our work on energy. And third, on migration.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Two months ago, I was in Israel in a kibbutz, just after the Hamas terrorist attacks. And last month I was in Rafah, where we are working hand in hand with Egypt and the United Nations to bring more assistance to Gaza.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Israel has the right to do everything in its power to stop the horrors of 7th of October being repeated. At the same time, Israel has a duty to do everything in its power to protect civilians, even if they are being used as human shields by Hamas.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Hamas could stop fighting, free the hostages and stop hiding behind civilians. The pause in hostilities enabled us to increase aid to Gaza with the help of numerous NGOs. The EU has organised 24 humanitarian flights with more than a thousand tons of humanitarian aid, and six more flights will be operated by the end of the year. On top of emergency assistance, we have to get the two state solution back on track.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, There can be no peace without a political future for the Israelis and the Palestinians. And there are three areas of work on which we should concentrate. Firstly, the principles for the day after and following the debate in the European Parliament a month ago. But the consensus on these principles is now strengthened. Our diplomatic action must continue also with a view to holding an international peace conference.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Then there is the situation on the West Bank. Violence by extremist settlers is endangering the prospects of a lasting peace, and it could increase regional instability. That is why I am in favour of penalties for those responsible for the attacks in the West Bank. They must be brought to justice. Those attacks have nothing to do with the fight against Hamas and must stop.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And that brings me to my third point, which is to avoid a regional conflagration. We have seen on Israel's northern border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah. There have been ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel and attacks on ships in the Red Sea. All of this is dangerous and escalation can be avoided. We have to work with all the international actors to stop the spread of violence and to open up prospects for peace. We have to do what we can to end this war and renew hope.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Ladies and gentlemen, let me now bring me to another subject of my presidency. Energy. I haven't forgotten what it was like at the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine when 50% of our piped gas came from Russia, we were dependent and Russia systematically tried to blackmail us. Gazprom didn't fill the storage tanks. We had to deal with the energy crisis, but we managed.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, We were able to end our dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Less than 10% comes from there now. We are always strong when we join forces. We now have a joint purchasing platform and remember what the situation was a year ago here in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Now we have 42 billion cubic metres of gas procured jointly for Europe and prices are ten times lower. We have first stocks at levels around 93%. That means that the time of Russian blackmail using oil and gas is behind us.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And we have made huge investments into renewables. We produce more electricity in Europe from sun and wind than from gas. We are modernising our rules and we are on the cusp of an electricity market reform. Finally, people will be able to benefit from our renewable energy at affordable prices.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, The COP 28 in Dubai has just reached a historical deal, and a crucial part of it is truly made in Europe. We can be proud of that because we propose the global pledge to triple renewable energy and to double energy efficiency by 2030. 130 countries immediately joined us, and now the whole world has endorsed our targets in the final cop declaration. This is really something to be very proud of it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, 'I think this is a global turning point. For the first time, the world is committing to transition away from fossil fuels. For the first time, there is the loss and damage fund to support the most vulnerable countries. So this has the potential to be the beginning of a new era. The post fossil era. Let's celebrate this. Europe is at the forefront of it, investing in clean and home-grown energy for all. This is the right direction of travel.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Honourable Members. My third point is migration. In the last six months, pressure on our external borders has continued to rise. Not only on the Central and Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic and most recently at Finland's eastern border. A reckless hybrid attack orchestrated by Russia. And this is yet another proof that migration is a European challenge and needs a European answer and solution. And this is the spirit that has driven our action throughout this mandate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In the recent months, we have continued advancing on four main strands of work. First, we have strengthened our external borders. Bulgaria, for example, or Romania. Now we are supporting Finland with an increased presence of Frontex to patrol its borders.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Second, we are combating smugglers. We had almost 60 countries taking part in our international conference to form a global alliance to counter migrant smuggling because we need to pull our way together to fight smugglers. This is organised crime, actually internationally organised crime. So it needs an international organised answer and to get me right, yes, we have an obligation as part of the international community to support those with the right to protection and to save lives.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, 'We have fulfilled it in the past. We fulfil it today and we will fulfil it in the future. But we decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances, and not the smugglers and traffickers. And it is it for this reason that we have proposed to update our anti-smuggling legislation. It was 20 years old, so it is now up to you. Parliament and Council to bring this forward as a matter of urgency.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Third, on returns, we now have a roadmap focusing on seven priority countries. Frontex is supporting Member States from to  joint return operations and these countries are ready to cooperate with us. Our offer is clear. We can grant more opportunities to come to Europe legally safe legal pathways. And we expect cooperation to ensure the return of irregular migrants that this happens.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, 'And this leads me to my fourth point. A comprehensive partnership We need to strike a new balance with countries beyond our borders. In those countries, migration is part of a much broader picture. It includes not only border management and anti-smuggling, but also investment in the economy, people to people exchanges, trade, job creation, youth employment, all the root causes we know very well.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And therefore, this approach is now beginning to results. For example, in Tunisia, the irregular departure from Sfax have slowed down and we now work to reach similar agreements with Egypt soon, where migration is also part of a much, much broader picture. And we want to create a partnership on this broader picture, and with other countries of origin and transit. This is the external side.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And then in the internal side we have the new pact on migration and asylum. It is about to get over the finish line. That is good. And let me thank the Spanish Presidency and the Parliament for working patiently and working relentlessly asleep to build common ground.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, With everyone's goodwill and flexibility towards a common goal, we can get this pact done and over the finish line. So let us show to our citizens that Europe can manage migration effectively and humanely. Let us show once again the power of Europe when it stands tall and united. Thank you very much and long live Europe.