Prior to the plenary session, Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ, (S&D,ES), President of S&D in the Parliament, gives the piorities of the group.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

Press conference by Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ, (S&D, ES), S&D Group Leader - S&D Briefing

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&Iacute;A P&Eacute;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), President of the S&amp;D Group, Good morning each and everyone present here. Thank you very much indeed for being with us this morning in order to take a look at what's going on right now and what we're getting ready for in plenary. Allow me to begin with something that's not really on the agenda, but it is nonetheless very important that we're talking about the European dimension. And this is our assessment of the results of the elections in Italy.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, It is the first time that we meet here in Strasbourg after the Italian elections and so I wanted to convey the concern felt by the group of Socialists and Democrats in our political family. Our concern is not just over the results of the elections. Obviously, a political party of the extreme right has won. But it's not only that. It's also the political alliances that will now be taking place within the European Union amongst conservatives and the extreme right, because it seems to be that the Italian elections are a clear example of how these alliances can pan out.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, The alliance, for instance, with the Fratelli d'Italia, and suffice it to hear what Berlusconi was saying just a few days before the election. We could easily imagine what the consequences will be of opening the door to these extreme right political forces. And obviously, they have rather extraordinary relations with the Putin administration and anything related to Russia. And it can bring about real problems where unity is concerned here within the European Union that we would like to stress how important that is.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, We obviously should think about what the result of all of this could be, because let me recall here that Forza Italia really didn't mean much, eight percent. It was the sixth political force in Italy. However, they did open the door to an alliance with the extreme right and therefore, a fascist group is now leading the Italian government. This is not just a coincidence. The very first people who congratulated Maloni happened to be Morawiecki, or Orban Abascal himself.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, So I think that the time has come really to start thinking about this very seriously and to question the European right and ask the European right: where do you want to go from here? Do you want to continue with this same kind of alliance that we started in this legislature with the pro-European forces, obviously respecting our political differences, or will you open the door to alliances with the extreme right, which is anti Europe and which can endanger our European project? Because this means also that the right may be moving more and more towards the extreme right. Look at what happened in Greece.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, The Greek government itself is enacting legislation which is endangering press freedom. And we're talking here about the government of the People's Party in Europe. But the extreme right temptation is proving to be contagious. So this is what I wanted to tell you. Obviously, the S&SD continue exactly standing exactly where we stood before. We wanted to work with all pro-European forces and we stretch our hands out to all those who want to reinforce European Union, Europe of solidarity and human rights.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, And so getting down to brass tacks as regards now the plenary session. A number of elements that are very important that we'll be discussing. We will be discussing Hungary, for instance, because as you all know very well, the European Union has submitted a proposal in order to set into motion the conditionality instrument on the rule of law. And obviously, look at what the Orban government should be doing by way of reforms.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, Our group is concerned. We have to be very clear. It's not just enough to make a declaration of intent. The fact that the Hungarian government are saying now that there will be set into motion 17 reforms is a first good thing. But for us, this is not credible until those reforms are really totally implemented. That means, therefore, that we must stand strict until that happens. So these reforms are welcome, but only when they're real. It's not just an announcement that can be made by the Orban government. That's not enough. So that is an extremely important subject for us.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, Also on the agenda, we have a key debate that was at the behest of the S&D, in fact, on the war in Ukraine and the treacherous escalation that we are all witnessing right now with the annexation of four occupied regions by Russia, which is totally, totally unacceptable. But it's also a reflection of the total failure of Putin's strategy. And therefore, on that particular point, we want a very in-depth debate, that's going to be a resolution, showing clearly what the European Parliament's position is going to be on this issue as it regards visas and also I'd like to refer to this, because we have to be extremely careful when visas are concerned.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, I don't think that this is the right time to build new laws. Those who are seeking political asylum should be allowed to do so without any discrimination. The European Union has rules where asylum is concerned that must be complied with. Obviously, things must be looked at on a case by case basis as to be able to check on the veracity of these requests for asylum. But in any case, asylum requests may not be discriminated against according to the origin of the person seeking asylum. For me, this is a very important issue, which I wanted to stress.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, Equally important is the protection of infrastructures. Last week we had a meeting of the S&D group with the secretary general of NATO and we talked about the need to strengthen our security and we must also bolster security on our unity as regards the supply of energy. And here I link this up on the question of resolutions on the energy crisis and to tell you that last night we finished a joint resolution has been confirmed so far by three political groups, four, in fact, S&D, EPP, Renew and ECR.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, The idea is obviously to put forward a common position on the common energy policy with a top uncrossed gas prices, capping gas prices to make sure that we have a joint approach to gas supply. And we also allude to the possibility of taking into account this windfall profits. And we ought to be faced with this windfall profits and also the need to have energy interconnections provided for within the European Union. This is very important, a resolution which will show where the European Parliament stands before the next meeting of the Council, where all of these issues will be dealt with.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, Here again, we want to keep insisting on the fact that the situation of war, Ukraine is fraught with economic and social consequences. The energy crisis is extremely important. We must show ourselves capable of gaining a common response, but we should also give a common reply to this social and economic consequences I was mentioning a minute ago. Here we must bear in mind what happened during the Covid crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, You may remember what happened in the beginning of the crisis, at the beginning, we had different national responses to the crisis in an uncoordinated fashion. Countries were going about it on the basis of their own decisions. However, at one point we realised that the only way of overcoming the crisis is having a common European reaction.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, And this is what we managed to do. We got the European vaccination strategy and recovery strategy, which was a success, and showed how important a united European approach was. We're facing the same situation right now. We must understand that some governments that are trying to set into motion a number of plans to face up to the situation of uncertainty of social crisis and inflation that is hitting so hard the most vulnerable families.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, And here I'd like to refer to the proposal put forward by the German government last week, mobilising a tremendous amount of funds in order to help the German citizens. But we must be understanding of it and we realise that governments are trying to make sure that they take into consideration the requests of their own citizens. However, we must understand this must be done in the best possible way. And the best possible way is having a common answer, a common reaction, because Germany will not be competitive if Europe is not competitive and Europe will only be competitive if we all understand the principle of solidarity and therefore we must move forward together along these lines.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, And this is what we are saying in our group. There are other important issues to be debated as well. For instance, the Schengen space for Romania and Bulgaria, you know, that is a subject that we've been looking at for several months. Within our group we have tried to incorporate this, that the time has come for the voice of the European Parliament to be heard. Obviously, these two countries have for years been waiting to become part of the Schengen. Spain said there's no argument to keep them out that would justify keep them out.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), President of the S&D Group, And last but not least, the situation of women in Iran I think is tremendously important. We've been talking over and over and over again about solidarity with the most vulnerable, with women. But what can we do now, faced with the situation in Iran? Should we remain idle knowing that there are people outside, women outside the European Union who are suffering, whose fundamental rights are being trampled upon, and therefore we believe it's highly important that we should discuss the situation of women run in this session in October.

Q&A, On the posibility of a common European reaction to the current social and economic crisis. Second question regarding the blocking of funds to Hungary.

Q&A, Regarding the concerns over the last Italian elections. Second question on the posible gas cap price and the current developments of this idea in the EC.