Antonio TAJANI, EP President, gives a press conference following his participation in the Informal Summit of Heads of State or Government of the European Union in Sibiu, Romania. Extracts from the press conference.

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

press conference

Sibiu

informal summit of Heads of State or Government 9 May 2019 (T)

Informal Summit of Heads of State or Government of the European Union in Sibiu, Romania: extracts from the press conference by Antonio TAJANI, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Certainly the European Commission is the executive who must in fact apply the decisions that are taken. I don't think that all powers should be concentrated in the hands of the Commission. Unfortunately it happened. But as I have said many times, it is the Parliament that controls the work of the Commission and not vice versa. Democratic power is in the hands of Parliament because we are representatives of the people, if the people don&rsquo;t want to vote for us then we go home.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Transition without problems&hellip; wel, we will reduce the number of members of the European Parliament the day after the Brexit.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, First of all I think we need to discuss between rigor and austerity. Austerity for me is something negative. The rigor is nothing but respect for the rules. Regarding the budget discipline, the Treaty is a Treaty that speaks of stability and growth pact. So the goal is not only stability but also growth. You make a mistake if you just talk about stability. Certainly, the budgets of the various states cannot be budgets that make the national public debt grow by putting the accounts of the entire European Union at risk. However, if there are investments that aim at growth and that make the entire European economy grow, it can be flexible, as provided for by the Treaty. They are called mitigating factors in the Stability Pact, and therefore I believe they must be applied. In case a Member State think to go over the 3% ceiling to make growth policy, this is obviously subject to authorization.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The message is that we have to work for a more political Europe, to make the necessary reforms to allow citizens to feel more and more protected by the institutions, institutions that represent them and starting with Parliament. European. The Romanian presidency stands ahead. I cannot give a negative opinion on the work that Romania has done. This day &ndash; which has been strongly desired by the President of the Republic, which represents a point of reference for all of us - it was a right move. We have see the Romanian presidency making proof of excellent organization. I thank to President Iohannis for his work. I very much appreciate his book too, which is very clear, a reference point not only for Romania, but also for the entire European Union.