The President of the EPP Group, Manfred WEBER, gives his statement after the speech on the State of the European Union 2022 of Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

state of the European Union 2022 (T)

State of the Union debate - SOTEU 2022: statement by Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, Last week the hemicycle in Brussels was full with young people. We organised as EPP Group a Youth speak at the beginning of the autumn session and during the discussion, a young colleague of ours spoke about a moving encounter during summer. She was in Bulgaria, at a supermarket checkout and there was a young lady.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, She didn't speak very well Bulgarian. She talked to her and was a Ukrainian refugee. Young. Talented. She was excited to start her university studies and then war, fleeing, losing loved ones. She was from Mariupol and ending up in uncertainty. That is the brutal reality of Putin's war.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, And on the other hand, in my constituency, I received a letter from a small bakery after decades of baking Bavarian bread, he wrote to me. We cannot survive with the high energy costs, the baker told me. Putin is a war criminal, no doubt about this. But how can I survive? These two stories mark the challenge in front of us, and our deep answer is: We need a winter of solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, Solidarity, first of all, with Ukraine. More weapons, more money, more solidarity. Putin must lose. Ukraine must win. Great news from Ukraine that they are pushing back their Russian troops from their soil. And Madame Zelenska, we admire what your soldiers are doing there on the front line. Thank you for this and your friends.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, Solidarity amongst Europeans. Nobody left behind. We care for the poor in our societies and help our economies, especially the SMEs. Crisis times means now leadership and the EPP supports the proposal of the Commission presented today, on support for Ukraine, but also to give an answer on the soaring energy prices. But there is more to do. The markets here, ladies and gentlemen, are obviously speculating against European solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, When winter will really be hard and let's be concrete. It is not normal in a market, said Schulz, to call Macron to open a gas pipeline. And we will be more independent if Spain would be better connected to the European gas market and, dear friends, if it is true that the winter will be hard, then we must use all our energy resources. Germany cannot stop producing nuclear electricity and on the other hand, ask the Dutch to ask for gas solidarity. That's not the case.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, And let's be honest, it was a lost summer. The EPP has been asking for an extraordinary council meeting to give certainty, to structure things, to show everyone that we are united and you cannot split up Europe. And the signal would have had already lowered the prices. People are paying because politics wasn't for the moment amongst member states not strong enough. And, dear friends, on inflation, not only driven by energy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, First, it's an easy task that's clear, but I think we also can contribute. One example we have a global food crisis and that is also increasing the prices for our citizens. And the Commission is now presenting new regulations which will limit food production in Europe and produce more bureaucratic burden for our farmers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, For new legislation, the Commission promised the principle of one in and one out. If you continue like this, then at the end of the mandate we will arrive to five in and only one out. Dear friends, we have war in Europe and parts of the Brussels community are continuing to make new laws and new burdens as nothing has happened. That's why, we as EPP Group, are asking for a moratorium on new legislation. Let our business, especially the SMEs, do their work without burdening them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, And for creating growth and having a recession now in mind, the EPP stands for creating a union of democratic economies on a global level. Europe is a trading continent, and if we want to limit our dependency on the autocracies, on China and others, and that is a lesson to learnt out of the Russian gas war, then we must speed up on trade deals with other democracies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, As EPP we always did so, but I just want to remind ourself about the debate in this House. We have The Left, Greens and part of the Socialists, they are opposing to doing a trade deal with Canada. Canada, dear friends, you frightened Europeans with misleading arguments and even big lies. And until now, Schulz and Macron are not ready to ratify CETA on national level. But they are great in doing pictures.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, That is not serious, dear friends. That is not serious. And about democracies. Yes, Madam President, you spoke about defending rule of law and with you, as Commission president. And I have to say I was in Poland with friends like Donald Tusk. We, as EPP, we are fighting for rule of law. You stop the money, as EPP president of the Commission, to Poland and Hungary. That's why we are very, very proud about this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, Rule of law must be judged and based on clear criterias, fair procedure. It must be blind, like justice, without looking at party books .and speaking about democracies. I have to come back to the energy proposals. And Madam President, we spoke about this. You have our full support on on the on the content, but on the procedure, I have to say, we have to respect the European Parliament as a people's chamber.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, Can you imagine a windfall tax and a price cap being decided on national level without a vote in the national parliament? We would call this a democratic problem, but now we have proposals on the table who are doing this in Europe, and that should not be the new normal on European level. So decisions without the European Parliament should not be the new normal in Europe. And that's why please consider again the legal base for the proposals on the table. The EPP stands for a democratic Europe and that means a Europe where all legislation is voted in this chamber.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, And then finally. Finally, during the COVID crisis, dear friends, we were ready for doing bigger steps. The RRF by Ursula von der Leyen proposed is  bigger than the Marshall Plan was. So we changed the architecture of Europe. That was great. But today, war is back in Europe. There was no Council meeting on coordinating our defence activities, only votes. There is no initiative to stop unanimous vote on foreign affairs. Only a speech from Chancellor Schulz in Prague.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, No convention to strengthen the European democracy requested by this chamber and the Conference for the Future of Europe. Only, I have to say, campaigning and campaigning in Paris. The Commission has to launch now until December a European Defence Action Plan as a concrete initiative in this field, to invest together, to build up a European missile defence system and the cyber brigade to make Europe stronger on this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP Group, And we need, and thanks for your clear statement, a convention now. EPP stands for a more ambitious Europe. The times of Sunday speeches are over. Europe will be not saved by university pulpit speeches, but by political leadership. And the Ukraine refugee in Bulgaria and my baker, they believe in this and they understand this. That's why, leadership and leadership now.