The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, meets with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and they hold a press point, in Dublin, Ireland.

meeting

press conference

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Ireland (T)

VARADKAR, Leo (IE)

Dublin

Ireland

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, to Ireland (Dublin): meeting with Leo VARADKAR, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) and extracts from the joint press statement

Arrival of Roberta METSOLA, EP President; welcome by Leo VARADKAR, Irish Prime Minister (2 shots)

Roundtable, signature of the golden book and handover of the stamp celebrating the 50 years of Irish Membership (6 shots)

Roberta METSOLA, EP President and Leo VARADKAR, Irish Prime Minister going to the press point

SOUNDBITE (English), Leo VARADKAR, Irish Prime Minister, It's a very great pleasure to welcome the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to Dublin today as we mark 50 years of membership of the European Union. In our meeting today, we discussed some of the most pressing issues facing our union, not least the war in Ukraine and its impact on us, and how best to secure Europe's future economic prosperity as we accelerate the green and digital transition.

SOUNDBITE (English), Leo VARADKAR, We discussed our shared wish to see a positive outcome on the ongoing negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the implementation of the protocol. Resolving the current difficulties would open the door to a stronger and deeper partnership with the United Kingdom going forward.

SOUNDBITE (English), Leo VARADKAR, President, Ireland's remarkable progress over five decades would have been unimaginable without our membership of the European Union. It gave us access to European markets, access to port and sources of European funding, an opportunity to shape and be shaped by the most remarkable experiment in sharing sovereignty in the world . So, Roberta, once again, welcome to Dublin and I greatly look forward to the speech that you'll make to the Oireachtas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, Thank you so much, Taoiseach. Thank you, Leo, for your hospitality. The good meeting we just had and for the invitation to the beautiful city of Dublin this is my first visit to Ireland in my capacity as President of the European Parliament. And the timing could not be more fitting. 50 years after Ireland joined what was then still the European Economic Community.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, I thanked the Taoiseach for the solidarity shown by Ireland and hosting some 70,000 Ukrainians and providing so much needed financial and humanitarian assistance. Finally, ahead of next week's meeting of EU leaders, we spoke about migration. We spoke about the economy on the need to help our businesses and industries to compete on the need to resist the temptation of over protectionism and the need to focus on Europe

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, We all have the tools and the skill to strengthen European competitiveness, but we can only do it if we do it together. Thank you.