Ahead of the plenary session from 13th to 16th March 2023, Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President of the Renew group in the EP, holds a press conference to give the priority of his group. The transcription is the result of an automatic process, please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

Renew Europe

Press conference by Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ (Renew, FR), President of the Renew Europe group

SOUNDBITE (French), St&eacute;phane S&Eacute;JOURN&Eacute;, Renew President, Thank you very much. Yes, indeed. The Lithuanian president did take quite a lot of time. There was a bit of a delay and the group presidents didn't need to be in the chamber. And it is a real issue when prime ministers take the floor. And I'll talk to the president of Parliament and presidents of the other groups, because it is important for people actually to be in the chamber.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, So I think there are just three subjects, key subjects I'd like to mention. The economic future of the continent, industry and joint procurement for Ukraine. This has been very much supported by Renew and then migration and asylum, following the repeated tragedies of the Italian coast.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, Let me start with the economic subjects just very quickly. Obviously, if you do have any questions, I'm happy to answer them and I will have the opportunity to recall my group's position twice on Wednesday in the debate on the European Council and in the debate for more Europe, more jobs which are supported by Renew. That's really central to our priorities.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, We've been working for some time on the responses to meet the challenges of the American IRA, and we see some flagrant examples of what's happened over the last few days. We need to work in three aspects. The European Commission is coming up with proposals for reducing prices, supply of raw materials.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And then there's a positive point to the Commission proposal from what I've heard. I think the Commission's proposal is moving in the right direction. Then there's financing public and private financing. I think we could do better there because we're really racing against time. These reforms of the Stability and Growth Pact, the Sovereignty Fund.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And I think this could be part of the European response to the IRA and stable relations with all our partners is a further issue. I talked to the President of the Commission yesterday. The access to our markets need to be reciprocal and regular without exemptions on the American markets and unfair competition.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And in that case, European provisions need to be taken as soon as possible to reintroduce equity and a level playing field. These are the jobs of tomorrow which are at stake, and we need to pay great attention to this. And as a matter of principle agreed with Manfred Weber and Iratxe García Pérezm the idea we agreed on is that we should move forward quickly in the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And we obviously we need to speed up in the committee work. The various committees, of course, have competencies allocated to them. So we've got an overall agreement with the majority groups to move very quickly so that work can start in the committees on the text as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And with regard to the Joint Procurement, Renew supported this debate. This is an issue we support joint procurement of munitions. And Nathalie Loiseau has mentioned this at the start of the plenary yesterday, in fact, at 5 p.m. And this is a matter of common joint response of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, And then talking about the tragedy in the Mediterranean, 60 people lost their lives. And once again, we need a European approach, which is coordinated on search and rescue missions at sea and more and more overall terms. Progress needs to be made on the asylum and immigration text.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, We need to be serious. And the other political groups need to show responsibility in the upcoming negotiations. Just as industry issues are important, migration issues are essential. And in Renew, we want this to be dealt with before the European elections so that we don't want to fuel extremes and give them political fuel. They're not trying to solve the problem, they're just using it for electoral advantage.

SOUNDBITE (French), Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Renew President, So that was a very brief run through. So you have time if you have any questions to ask them. Any questions?

Q&amp;A, Question regarding the new alliance between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Q&A, Question regarding the ending of the combustion engine and the position of the German liberals on this matter.

Q&amp;A, Question regarding the lack of member state cooperation when it comes to spyware inquiry.