David SASSOLI, EP President, and Antti RINNE, Finnish Prime Minister, speak to the press right before EP Conference of Presidents meets the Finnish government in Helsinki to discuss the priorities of Finland’s Presidency of the EU.

press point

EU - Finland (T)

Helsinki

Finnish Presidency of the EU (T)

EP Conference of Presidents meets with the Finnish Presidency: extracts from the press conference by David SASSOLI, EP President and by Antti RINNE, Finnish Prime Minister

Exterior shots at the house of State, Helsinki, Finland

Arrival of David SASSOLI, EP President and Antti RINNE, Finnish Prime Minister to the presser (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Antti RINNE, Finnish Prime Minister, We have continue these discussions today about climate change, sustainable goals and the multi-annual financial framework (MFF). As Presidency we have a very ambitious agenda. We want the EU to become the most competitive and and social inclusive law governed economy.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, i was very please to hear that an initiative will be taken and we could work together and decide how we are going to stablish the stakeholders that will be a part of this. That will consist in the use of satellites and the Finnish presidency put this forward and we think it is important to have a satellite system to be able to prevent i.e. forest fires. This will be a monitoring system that will put into place. We know that there are wildfires in the south but also in the north of the planet, hence the need for tangible measures to be taken.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, It is painful for us if the UK leaves the EU but they leave without a deal then someone has to take responsibility for that and also for the fact that in Ireland, quite naturally, a border has to be set up. There is unity on the deal that we have found. However, we are open to hearing further proposals that might be tabled and I think that there is a huge unity around this.

SOUNDBITE (Finnish), Antti RINNE, Finnish Prime Minister, Finland presidency faces a tension to the rule law and the climate change issue is connected to the MFF. Net contributors agreed that as a consequence of Brexit we cannot increase the membership payments if we cannot include a conditionality.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, The Parliament is also waiting for some coherent initiates to be taken as they were announced by Ms von der Leyen. The EP indicated a number of very ambitious objectives, a 50 percent cut in CO2 emissions is of course a huge challenge and we would very much like to see how the Commission intends to move forward with that and what they plan to do. However, we put our faith in these objectives and we hope that they will be kept, as is our role as Parliament.