Roberta METSOLA, EP president meets with Petr FIALA, Prime Minister of Czech Republic in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Later, Petr FIALA addresses the plenary to present the priorities of the Czech Presidency of the EU.

debate

plenary session

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Czechia (T)

Czech Presidency of the EU (T)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

president's agenda

FIALA, Petr (CZ)

Presentation of the programme of the Czech Presidency - Roberta METSOLA, EP President meets with Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister: arrival, welcome and extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Prime Minister, you, along with the prime ministers of Poland and Slovenia, were the first European leaders to visit Kiev when it was besieged in a message of solidarity. We know that European unity with Ukraine and its people will be central to the Czech presidency's agenda. And this is why, with an illegal war on our continent, your presidency comes at a turning point in history.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, The values for which Ukrainians are dying these days are values that were defended by one of the founders of the modern Czech state- the president, Vaclav Havel. It was his inspiring essay from 1996 brought us to the motto of our presidency-Europe as a task. And indeed, Europe has many tasks before it.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, The main task for the next months will be to find a united and strong agreement on such measures that will dampen as much as possible the most negative consequences of the current crisis on our citizens. Because inflation, unavailability of energy or the food crisis are threats that need to be faced. And these threats are best faced together.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, Every member state needs to have the opportunity to choose such an energy mix that is the most suitable for their particular conditions and using which they will be able to meet both the climate climate targets as well as the target of becoming independent on energy supply from Russia.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, You will be voting on the objection against the so-called taxonomy as introduced by the European Commission. Therefore, I would like to ask you to not reject this very fragile compromise. Nuclear energy and gas as a temporary energy source from safe countries are the only tool that many countries have at hand in order to achieve our common climate goals in the next years.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, I believe that we will be able to deliver our promises. I hope that with our help, Ukraine will soon be on the way to full recovery. I also hope that we will be successful in the fight against inflation in ensuring energy security, employment and increasing the competitiveness of our economies. I trust that we will be even stronger than we are now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, I am also very grateful for your commitment,dear Petr, to bring forward the Repower EU package with Repower EU. We are mobilising substantive new resources for renewable energy. It is a 300 billion euro plan to win independence from Russian fossil fuels, actually from any fossil fuels. And to do so we are first and foremost diversifying our gas supplies. away from Russia towards trustworthy, reliable suppliers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Today twelve member states are already directly affected by partial or total cut off of Russian gas. So it is obvious Putin continues to use energy as a weapon. And this is why the commission is working on a European emergency plan. We will present this plan and the necessary instruments by mid-July.