Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the EC gives her first State of the European Union address during the plenary session (14-17 September) of the European Parliament in Brussels. She is set to outline the impact of the Commission’s work in mitigating the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, and to present her vision for economic recovery, the fight against climate change, and the situation in Europe’s neighbourhood. Political group leaders will react to her speech, assess the Commission’s work and set out their views on the 2021 priorities.

Brussels

Brexit (T)

EU - United Kingdom (T)

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

CIOLOŞ, Dacian (Renew, RO)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

negotiations on future EU-UK relations (T)

state of the Union 2020 (T)

State of the Union 2020: extracts of the debate on EU-UK negociations

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, With every day that passes, the chance is one timely agreement to start to fade. Negotiations are always difficult and we are used to that. And the commission has the best and most experienced negotiator, Michel Barnier, to navigate us through that. But talks have not progressed as though we would have wished, and that leaves us very little time. As ever as ever, this house will be the first to know, and it will be the one that has the last say. And I can assure you we will continue to update you thoroughly, just as we did with the withdrawal agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The European Union and the UK jointly agreed it was the best and only way for ensuring peace on the island of Ireland. And we will never backtrack on that. And this agreement has been ratified by this house and by the House of Commons. It cannot be unilaterally changed, disregarded or dis-applied. This is a matter of law and trust and good faith, And its not just me saying it - I remind you the words of Margaret Thatcher : "Britain does not break treaties. It would be bad for Britain, bad for relations with the rest of the world and bad for any future treaty on trade"  This was true then and this is true today.  Applause

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Brexit: here the need of credibility's is really, really big. It makes no sense to negotiate a future agreement in the face of British prime minister who is throwing out of the window the agreement that he signed himself. Great Britain, you are losing your credibility and the global level. What I can say is that the European Parliament can never vote for any greater trade agreement with Great Britain. If we cannot trust each other. So the upcoming months will be extremely challenging. They will shape Europe. Let's show our citizens that Europe shows solidarity and first of all, credibility.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Dacian CIOLO&#350; (RE, RO), Let us build a Europe that does not waver when faced with a British prime minister who is losing his bearings or a target Turkish leader who is visibly in a state of nationalist fever and a Putin determined to sow discord. A Europe that does not forget its rural areas with an agriculture where digital and greening are not there to create bureaucracy, but to generate income for farmers and well-being for consumers. Madam President, Europe must be a beacon of stability for our citizens in front of anxiety and fear and it must provide solutions to their uncertainties and fears.