Press conference by Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew Europe, FR), New elected President.

Strasbourg

press conference

energy crisis

rule of law

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

Renew Europe

EP Press conference Towards 2024, Renew Europe objectives and political orientations

Introduction remarks to the press conference

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), I'd like to start by saying how I see the Renew Group. I've said to my colleagues that I want the presidency to take into account their different sensibilities in the group. We've often said that Renew is a heterogeneous group, but that's not true. If you look at the way votes have gone recently, you will see how cohesive the group is. It is new. Worse than any other political group, we've had a very clear, cohesive. Thrust in our votes, and we have common objectives and common values. And the Green Deal, Rule of law and our confidence in entrances and European sovereignty and the defense of democracy are values that link us all. I have said to the Renew Group that I have a clear and halfway mandate objective on our practical priorities.

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), I've suggested a coalition with Manfred Weber and Iraxte Garcia Perez, and I've said that we should be talking about policy when it comes to negotiations for the halfway negotiations in the next few weeks, and then we have an internal objective for the new group in 2024. The objective being for us to strengthen our political family and become the first the biggest political family in the European Parliament. And I think we can achieve this and we must also make sure that we are represented in all 27 countries. For instance, Portugal and Greece, where we don't have any representatives, and I think that we need to make sure that we are represented in all countries in order to be representative all 27 countries.

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), And I would also like to say that I will be playing a key role at the Summit this Thursday. And I've suggested that when it comes to the Summit that we must find solutions to the increase in energy prices. Especially when it comes to energy sovereignty and also the lack of raw materials. For the pre-Council, we need to have clear priorities for heads of state and government, we all technically declare support for the fourth generation trade deals. And I will also ask heads of state and government on behalf of my group to have a strong words about the relations with the United Kingdom. It is in the interests of Europe to achieve this. And we must make sure that we uphold agreements which are not being upheld to today.

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), And I would also underline the commitment of our group to COVAX to make sure of the whole world becomes vaccinated. And I want to see us as a positive political force vis-a-vis the Council and the Commission when it comes to commitments, and we'd like to see real advances on the COVAX program.

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), A final point on Poland, which is no doubt of interest to you. In the Conference of Presidents this afternoon, I would ask President Sassoli to activate the mechanism that is the point of this conditionality mechanism. It has been in place since the 1st of January this year, and nobody will be surprised that my group is very active on the topic. And we saw this in plenary yesterday during the conversation with the Polish Prime minister. And I will be taking up this message in the next few days. Those are the introductory points that I wanted to make at this point, and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Question regarding how to MEP intend to strenghten the internal cohesion within the Renew Group.