The President of the European Parliament, David SASSOLI, hold a press conference following his address to the European Council in Brussels. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

press conference

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

European Council meeting 16 December 2021 (T)

Press conference by David SASSOLI, EP President, following his intervention to the European Council

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Thank you and good morning to everybody. I brought my speech to the European Council, as always, I brought the voice of the European Parliament. This is an important moment in time and the coming years. Now, up until the end of the term of office in the European Parliament needs to be listened to.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, This mid-term point we have got through the first half of our term of office, it's been a very important time and particularly in terms of response to the pandemic. And now it's time, I think, to continue that work. We can't be defeated now. We need to continue to work on defence, on digital issues, on innovation.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, And I think that this is the commitment that we are asking of the other institutions today with President von der Leyen and the president of the rotating presidency of the Council, we signed the interinstitutional agreement for 2022. And I think that should now be respected in full. We need to have a European Union that is capable of developing common policies, and we've seen just how important that is and has been to our citizens so far.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, If there's one thing that I can say about the past two and a half years, I think many people, many parts of our public opinion have realised that without Europe, everybody would be even more fragile and vulnerable. And that is something which I think this realisation is something which can allow us to renew ties that it appeared to be broken between the European institutions and the European citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, European citizens now need to rebuild the trust. I think this is the message. Let's not stop now. Let us not start to feel exhausted. We need a Europe that can innovate, that can protect and that also acts as a guiding light.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The European Union is not something that we find very often in other parts of the world, something that we are very happy about is that all economic provisions and developments have been accompanied by measures that can allow for the European Union to better defend the rule of law and fundamental values and rights.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, So this is the message that I gave to the summit. As you know, currently the Conference on the Future of the European Union is underway, and it will very soon be time to draw the first preliminary conclusions from it that will take place under the French presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, That will be a time to understand how we can adapt our institutions, how we can renew our democracy, how we can make it much more efficient and effective. And on this, we are betting on something that we started at the beginning of our term of office. Which has to be something that all institutions work on. Thank you.