Antonio TAJANI, EP President, giving his opening speech at the EU House in Ljubljana, Slovenia

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

visit

EU - Slovenia (T)

Slovenia

Ljubljana

Visit by Antonio TAJANI, EP President to Slovenia - statement by Antonio TAJANI, EP President at the EU House

Family photo of Slovenian MEPs http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/search.html?country=SI

Inauguration of the EU House, Cutting of the ribbon, applause (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio TAJANI, EP President: (Walk over to the podium, Speech begins) Good morning everybody, 'buongiorno a tutti', because Italian is also a language used in Slovenia and we have also a Slovenian minority in Italy. There are a lot of people in Triest speaking in your mother tongue. Mr Prime Minister, Mr President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Commissioner and Members of the European Parliament and good friends of this very important country and Europe. We are living in a very difficult moment and your country is crucial for the stability in this region. Your country is very important for the future of Europe in many sector. Your country is going up, very well, your growth is 2.3, you are among the leaders of the growth in Europe, that is very important. You are one of the most important country, for this we are very happy. President Juncker and me of this new EU House for Europe, the European Commission and the European Parliament together. My most important important goal in the next 2 years is to reduce the distance between the European institutions and the citizens, this is very important. If we want to stop the poverty we need good answers for the citizens.

(SOUNDBITE continues) In the afternoon I will be together with the Slovenian students for a meeting, questions and answers with young people. Of course, I;m very happy for the new white paper presented on Wednesday by Juncker on the future of the EU, there are many ideas, many proposals and I think it is good and modern. We need to debate before the final decision. We need to decide the Parliament's proposals, our 3 good documents, there is this very important white paper and we will have important ceremony in Rome for celebrating the Treaty, but this ceremony is not only a ceremony looking to the past. We need to look at the future of the European Union. Dear friends, in my opinion Europe is not only an internal market, Europe is not only the Euro, Europe is also a dream, Europe is our identity. You are European because you are Slovenian, I'm European because I'm Italian, we have a common heritage. Visiting your beautiful capital, looking at the cathedral, looking at the buildings, I look also at my country, there is a link between your cathedral and many churches. In Rome there are many buildings similar to those in Vienna or in Venice. This is our common heritage and we are all together we Europeans and we need to work all together in this difficult moment.

(Soundbite continues) During the globalisation we need unity if we want to compete at global level, if we want to strengthen every European citizens. We need to be united all together for our country and our European Union, is the only solution if we want to compete with China, Russia, United States, India, is the only solution to be united. And the message is that we want to be united the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Slovenian government all together in the favour of citizens, against populism but with good solutions for everybody. Good luck, thank you Mr Prime Minister and once again thanks to Commission President Juncker for his very interesting white paper, it is very important for the future of Europe, Europe is our dream. We need to change, but to kill Europe is a big mistake. Thank you very much. (Applause)