Commission President, Ursula VON DER LEYEN, State of the European Union address is followed by a discussion with MEPs. MEPs assess in their responses the Commission’s work and its plans for the year ahead, alongside presenting their own views and proposals. The annual State of the Union debate allows MEPs to scrutinise the European Commission’s results and priorities and contribute to setting the EU’s policy direction.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

FITTO, Raffaele (ECR, IT)

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

ZANNI, Marco (ID, IT)

AUBRY, Manon (The Left, FR)

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

state of the European Union 2022 (T)

State of the European Union 2022: Highlights of the statements by the Political group leaders and answer by Ursula VON DER LEYEN, EC President

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), EPP Group leader, The 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), EPP Group leader, I have to come back to the energy proposals. And Madam President, we spoke about this. You have our full support on the on the content, but on the procedure, I have to say we have to respect the European Parliament as the People's Chamber. Can you mention of politics and a price cap being decided on national level without a vote in the national parliament? We would call this a Democratic problem.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), S&amp;D Group leader, Now we have to cap gas prices and help families and businesses to make sure they can pay their bills. To do that, we have to do that partially with the extraordinary windfall profits of the energy companies. Everyone has to do their bit. It's not fair that those who some that some people have difficulty reaching the end of the month and yet others are profiting from the suffering of these families.

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), Renew Europe Groupe leader, We're in favour of the European energy cap to reduce bills. And I think there are even two forms of European solidarity. European solidarity with Europe's citizens and SMEs using the windfall profits from the energy companies and setting a cap on gas imports. The second form of solidarity is solidarity between the member states and our neighbours. We need to make joint purchases of energy. We need to invest surpluses into investing in renewables and renovation of buildings. That is an objective for our group. We want to make our continent the first one to abandon fossil fuels.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), Greens/EFA Group leader, Stemming from the war in Ukraine to the rule of law to the climate crisis. We are facing a big test. However, I am convinced that the EU has the strength to face these challenges. If we work together, work to work together towards the new energy independence, a climate neutral continent, and maybe most importantly for European Union, that is, serves and maintains the trust of our European citizens. Founded on values, founded on solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marco ZANNI (ID, IT), ID Group leader, So on the Green Deal and other trade policies, Europe and the commission are going to have to be pragmatic and look at the fact that the situation is different. You need to have a long sighted view and understand that conditions have changed and that some plans cannot be implemented anymore.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Raffaele FITTO (ECR, IT), ECR Group leader, We need to intervene to support households and companies that essential in taking on the crisis we have before us. We need clear answers. Gas price cap is one of those clear answers and uncoupling the gas price from the energy price in general.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), The Left Group leader, But this shouldn't just be about fossil fuels. It should be about all of the companies that have benefited from the crisis, be it the shipping sector, the banking sector, the luxury goods sector. It shouldn't just be energy companies that are taxed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, EC President, Speed, speed. Time is of the essence. You've done phenomenal things with a digital covid certificate. Please do that again with Repower. Because you are rightly so calling for investment for renewables, also cross-border projects. Here are more than 300 billion euros that are that could be invested.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, EC President, The fact is Putin has created the food crisis. Europe and the United Nations are working to put an end to that. That's the truth.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, EC President, There's one simple truth that applies to both energy and fertilisers. The more we save, the less we pay. And the less fossil fuel based fertilisers we use, the less dependent we are on fossil fuel imports.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, EC President, We need a resilient and sustainable agriculture that preserves biodiversity and above all, the healthy, fertile soil, and that can cushion all the aforementioned disasters.