Address by Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic: extracts from the formal sitting

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

statement

Strasbourg

formal sitting

EU - Slovakia (T)

KISKA, Andrej (SK)

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic, I am here to refuse a popular game of blame it on Brussels whenever it serves to cover some pressing domestic political issues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic, We have agreed that we will communicate with our public responsible that we will not use double language abroad and at home about EU decision. I consider this point especially important we can see how often it is that EU misused in political campaigns and how well it serve populists to present all victorious as a National and all defeats as European.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic, The recent migration crisis unfortunately left the wounds on our mutual trust and if you take time and effort to eventually heal these wounds, so let me just say today something, I used to repeat again and again during our heated domestic discussion t is our moral duty to help children, women and men who fled their homes, to save their lives and Slovakia should never hesitate to show solidarity to our friends and partners in the EU.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic, While we start talking about the European defence project, we should act together again imminent and dangerous threat we all face. The Russian propaganda and information war, it would be ridiculous to work on our defence hardware but lieve this vulnerabiltiy open to ethics, honestly it would be a shame to let the European project faile because of our inability to hold dissemination hoaxes and fake news.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej KISKA, President of the Slovak Republic, It&rsquo;s no secret that people in our countries get hired and used to destabilise our societies. In many cases we simply ignore it or feel it inappropriate to take action, but Russia becomes more bolt in their in their efforts to destabilise Europe and it is ready to use any situation to this end. Thank you for you attention.