During the plenary session (11-14 June 2018) of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, political group leaders ask questions to Mark RUTTE, Dutch Prime Minister, on the Future of Europe. Mark RUTTE is the seventh EU leader to debate the future of Europe with MEPs and Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Statements by Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Udo BULLMANN (S&D, DE), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), and Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE).

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

future of the European Union (T)

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

BULLMANN, Udo (S&D, DE)

RUTTE, Mark

EU - Netherlands (T)

Future of Europe debate with Mark RUTTE, Dutch Prime Minister: extracts from the statements by Frans TIMMERMANS, EC First Vice-President and from the MEPs debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, And I really, on behalf of the EU Commission, want to thank the Prime Minister for the sense of urgency he has expressed today before this Parliament. This sense of urgency should be guiding what we do right now, because the unthinkable has become possible. Who would have said five years ago the European Union can break up and disintegrate? Nobody. And now we have seen as a consequence of the fourth industrial revolution, as a consequence of this crisis we&rsquo;ve had that the European Union is not unbreakable, which means that is valuable.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, What is creating this brittle element in our Union? I believe, to sum it up, it is arguably moral hazard. The Union functions because Member States trust each other that they will do what we agreed collectively. This trust has been eroded over the last ten years. And if we do not confront the issue of moral hazard, if we do not take that away, we do not take that out of our Union, how can we ask our Member States and our people to share their destinies?

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Chair of the EPP group, Foreign affairs policy is, frankly speaking, horse-trading in the European Union. A continent of 27 Member States with 500 million people can be blocked only by one country in this European Union. And we are obviously weak in this regard. You can buy countries at the moment to get influence in this European Union and you can block everything, that&rsquo;s why you have to answer one concrete question, the Commission will come up with a proposal to change the use of the Lisbon Treaty, to change the unanimous decision making process into external affairs to switch into a majority decision. If we don&rsquo;t do so we will be weak, if we do so we will be strong.

SOUNDBITE (English), Udo BULLMANN (S&amp;D, DE), Chair of the S&amp;D group, I would also join forces with you and hope that we can have a joint initiative in making clear to Mr. Tusk that the Dublin reform and that the situation of the refugees in the Mediterranean has to be the top priority on the next Summit. To make it very concrete this moment we are discussing the reception directive, we are close to a compromise. The only potential deal breaker, I hear, is the Council insisting o=n a by principal detention of children.

SOUNDBITE (English), Verhofstadt (ALDE, BE), Chair of the ALDE group, It&rsquo;s time that we stop this cooperation with people like Orban, Katsinski, Salvini where in fact are working with all these nationalists and these populists. And I am pleased that you have talked about a Europe of values at the end of your speech and of your introduction as Macron did, as Bettel did, as Charles Michel did. In fact, we as liberals can never accept the illiberal plot of these people and we and you have to be in the front run to fight against them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Chair of ALDE group, It&rsquo;s time that we stop this cooperation with people like Orban, Katsinski, Salvini where in fact are working with all these nationalists and these populists. And I am pleased that you have talked about a Europe of values at the end of your speech and of your introduction as Macron did, as Bettel did, as Charles Michel did. In fact, we as liberals can never accept the illiberal plot of these people and we and you have to be in the front run to fight against them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), Co-Chair of the Greens/EFA group,  And you&rsquo;ve been very critical again, here today, of other not getting their budget in order. But I would say actually one of the reasons other countries are not managing to put their budget in order is actually you, it&rsquo;s your government and previous Dutch governments by being a tax haven, by a long history of blocking and frustrating and delaying European action against tax avoidance