Roberta METSOLA, answers to an interview in the Citizen's Garden of the European Parliament in Brussels. She looks back at her first six months in office as President of the European Parliament. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

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Interview with Roberta METSOLA, EP President, looking back at her first six months in office

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Well, first of all, thank you. It is truly a beautiful place and a beautiful morning to be here in on in the citizens garden. And it's been, I'd say, a very challenging six months. I would start with the sense of responsibility that I felt after having been passed on such a great legacy by my dearly missed predecessor, David Sassoli, a few days after he passed.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President It was that sense that I said I need to take his legacy and bring it forward and continue the great work he had done already during a very difficult period during the pandemic, and then looking forward to a high legislative, heavy agenda with big laws that we need to debate and adopt and push for the citizens. But what I didn't know at the time was that there would be war in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President So what happened on the 24th of February with Russia brutally invading Ukraine, leading up to the resilience and the strength that we have seen of Ukrainian citizens and the help that they needed from the rest of Europe in order to fight our fight in Europe to a decision that was taken, a momentous, historic, unprecedented decision that was taken to admit Ukraine and Moldova as candidate countries to the European Union. I would say that those were the highlights, but also the moments when Europe and the European Parliament was asked to deliver. And I think we d

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Well, first of all, we made it clear already on the 1st of March, and that means a few days after the Russian invasion into Ukraine, that we wanted Ukraine to be a candidate country to accede to the European Union, in other words, to be to come on the path with its European perspective.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Why did we do that? Because for me and for this parliament, when countries and its people look at the EU as their home, then Europe should open the doors for them. Europe should not close the door. The pre-accession period, as we call it, from when you become declared the candidate country to membership, is a path that requires a lot of work on both sides.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President In other words, there are laws to be brought in line, but there are also programmes to succeed. Further integration. We look at where we are with trade, with the digital and with education, research, infrastructure. All of this while Ukraine is still fighting a war, it is a special situation, but one where the European Union has stepped up and definitely the European Parliament will continue to step up to play its part.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President You know, the European Union is not just an economically interdependent bloc. It's not just member states, countries that trade with each other, that do business, so to speak, with each other. It is a group of countries that believe in the same fundamentals. When we talk about justice, when we talk about freedom, when we talk about peace and democracy, these are not just buzzwords. We hold each other and ourselves to account.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President We also make sure that those fundamental values are defended across the world. And what we are seeing today is that Ukraine is fighting precisely for those fundamental values. I come from a country that joined the European Union in 2004. In 2024, it will be 20 years. It has been a transformational process. I know how important it is to young people in those countries to know that there is protection, there is security, there is an understanding that Europe is a project for peace.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President There's also an understanding that Europe is one that brings your quality of life higher, that your standards grow, that your your opportunities to study, to work, to live, also grow. I think that is exactly what the Ukrainians are fighting for and that is what we should help them to fight for.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Well, when I met President Zelensky on the 1st of April in Kiev, he told me 97% of Ukraine is would like to join the European Union. My answer was, we will be with you every step of the way. That is exactly what we need to do. It is up to us to make sure that that continues, that war fatigue doesn't set in, that we don't give the impression that one country, one autocrat can threaten the territorial sovereignty, the integrity of other countries on our continent.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President That is not acceptable. What is happening on. Our continent today are war crimes, and we need to push back against it and fight against it. And that's what we will do.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President It is the support for the European Union, also the support for the European Parliament. And I would think that there has been a tectonic shift in in Europe as to how citizens look to Europe and its institutions and its leaders to act. We saw it already during the pandemic when the first instinct was to close borders. After that, we open up. Why? Because we needed each other for medical equipment, for movement of of medical professionals, and most importantly, for vaccines to be made available for all EU citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President And then with the highest ever economic recovery package that is needed just in today for all those citizens of people living in Europe who need that help because of what they have suffered during the pandemic. What was the message from all that Europe matters today? During All Europe matters as well. And what we have seen across all parliaments in Europe that citizens have asked their representatives to go further.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President I think they have shown Europeans that if there was no Europe, then the situation would be worse, that Europe matters and Europe can be more. And this is why we are having the conversation. How can we go further? Let us look at the next few months is going to be very difficult. We are facing an impending food crisis. We are facing energy cuts. We are facing the understanding that we are not interdependent enough when it comes to energy sources. Some countries are further ahead on renewables and others.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Some countries have had to fire up coal plants that they have not had to do that for decades. So the decisions that we will take over the next six months will also require big responsibility, sometimes with difficulty at the European level, which need explanation, which need cushioning, because at the end of the day, we need to explain to our citizens why decisions are being taken. But once we do that, and once we understand that there is no other way to do this than together in Europe, then I think we can manage. It will be difficult, but we will have no other choice.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President This was already something that started to happen last autumn when the prices of gas and electricity started to go up. We were facing, in fact, quite a lot of misinformation campaigns already, then blaming the Green Deal climate legislation at the end of the day. This was a market situation that drove the prices up. This is a concern that all governments and the European Parliament has in some cases, because there have been gas cuts, because there are no alternatives.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Unfortunately, coal plants have had to be fired up again. What has to be our ultimate goal? Zero dependence on Russia for gas, for oil, and for college. At the moment, we are still far away from that. That is why the sanctions packages were so important to the bands were so important. We need to go further. But at the same time we also need to see where are we on investing in renewables? Where are we on making sure there are not so many energy islands in the EU where countries have more supply, but they can they can transfer it to anywhere else.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President At the end of the day, what we also need to say is where do we buy? And we are talking about common purchasing. We're trying we are talking about pooling of resources. Where do we buy or depend on our own energy from on our foes or on our friends? I think we need to certainly talk about an energy union that seriously addresses all the citizens in the EU.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President I think one of the best moments over the past six months was the 9th of May Day of Europe in Strasbourg, where we go, whereas our seat as a European Parliament and we we travel there for our plenary every month on the 9th of May. Thousands of young people were in that room and said the European Union needs to evolve, it needs to adapt, it needs to change our gaps. That needs to be filled. We want more.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President I was there together with the president of the European Commission and the president of France holding the rotating presidency and promised to return those demands with proper proposals on the table. This is the Parliament's position and this is the one. I will push forward.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Well, I'm definitely looking forward, first of all, to the State of the Union, but also to the decision by the European Council to trigger the convention that the European Parliament has asked for a decision that has to be taken by simple majority. It is a demand, a request that we will continue to push for. I think that we have seen that in health. There is definitely more space for European Union to act together.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President We have also seen now in energy that there is more space for the European Union to act together. There are discussions going on as to what kind of how decisions they are taken, which what kind of of of a voting procedure, for example. But I would also think that we need to have a conversation. So what do the citizens want from us? It's not high rhetoric, not big words, not numbers in documents.

paragraph-23 They want us to deliver on real, tangible deliverables. And I think that there if we have seen what they want from us today, whether we act on migration, on energy, on health, on digital, I think there we can look at our infrastructure, our treaties. What can we change there? And let's have the conversation about that.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Well, first of all, we need to continue to make sure and help Ukraine to win the war. That is our overarching goal. Peace in Europe, we cannot look away from that because that is precisely what Russia wants. From a legislative perspective, we have a huge work ahead of us. We have all the trialogues. In other words, the discussions that will take place in negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council on all the climate packages.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President We need to see where we are moving on migration package. We are going to focus now during the Czech presidency on resilience. We need to prove prepared on how resilient we are for possible future pandemics. We need to make sure that we are better equipped from a digital point of view. We need to fight more against this information, misinformation. We are entering ultimately, what is the period that is preceding the campaign? Right.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President All members of the European Parliament, 705 of them are going to go back to their countries and say, we have delivered on this. We need to do more and more on this, believe in Europe and vote in the European Parliament. That will be leading up over the next couple of years. And that is something that I have not only the privilege but the big responsibility to do together with my colleagues in order to deliver on. And that is going to dominate our work.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President I like to read food books and political biographies, so I just finished the second book by Ben Rhodes, who was the spokesperson for Barack Obama. But I also have a passion for Stanley Tucci. And I'm reading his book called Taste The Art of Good Food. I can't get the title now, and I absolutely love to do that and I love to cook. So I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Oh, whatever comes up on any of my playlists unless my kids are listening to my account on the same time. And then I have to listen to their terrible taste in music. If I say that.

SOUNDBITE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Thank you.

Interview with Roberta METSOLA, EP President, looking back at her first six months in office

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Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament