During the EP plenary session (28/02-01/03/2018) in Brussels, MEPs debate the outcome of the informal meeting of EU heads of state or government on 23 February, focussing on the Spitzenkandidaten (lead candidate) process, on Parliament’s composition after the 2019 elections and on the EU’s long-term budget after 2020. Statements by Antonio TAJANI, EP President, 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), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK) and Guy VERHOFSTADT.

Brussels

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

KAMALL, Syed (ECR, UK)

composition of the European Parliament (T)

2019 European elections (T)

informal summit of Heads of State and Government 23 February 2018 (T)

Multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (T)

European Council meeting 22-23 March 2018 (T)

European Council informal meeting of 23 February 2018: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, On the Spitzenkandidaten, the European Parliament thinks that the introduction of this procedure in 2014 represented an important step forward on building the political Europe and we should not reverse course on that.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, If we want to reduce the distance that exists today among the citizens and the institutions, we must give them the convinced feeling of being part of the decisions making process of the future government of the European Union

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We reaffirmed that the post-2020 budget must be a political one based not just on purely redistributive logic but on a clear strategy, clear objectives. We must first made the political choices only after set up the stable budgetary resources necessary to achieve them and not the contrary.

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, The current MFF was decided on yet the very end of 2013, which meant that the programmes that put it into effect could only be established during 2014, which meant the first year was actually lost as far as actulally getting money out into the real world. And we have an urgent need to get money invested in our society, to make sure convergence starts happening again in Europe. One of the fundamental threats to the future of the European Union is divergence within and between member states. We need to put tax payers money to good use, to restart the engine of convergence in our union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Nobody will be elected from this Parliament and from the next Parliament who was not before the elections presented as a candidate from a democratic party. That is the principle. It is fixed and which is approved now. Politicians should try to solve problems, not to create problems, so I would say don&rsquo;t play with these achievements of the past, don&rsquo;t play with the peace process, don&rsquo;t play with the future of the young generation in Northern Ireland. The EPP will be on the side of the Irish people, will not accept a hard border and will not risk the peace pocess. That is what we want to achieve. Europe is ready, we hope that Ireland is also ready.

SOUNDBITE (English), Syed KAMALL (ECR, UK), For once you step outside the EU bubble, it is clear that a call for more Europe - whatever the problem - is the voice of an elite, not the voice of citizens in many of our countries. Now national governments and voters want to feel that they get value out of the EU. And for what they pay in, not all of them want to see 1950s agenda of political integration, on the whole the voters want to see a budget that is well-managed and matches their priorities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, I think you make an enormous strategic mistake. You put in danger these Spitzenkandidaten and not to embed it in a democratic process in a transnational list. The reality is that Spitzenkandidaten continue to be a toy of political parties and a game between the Council, on the one hand, and the Parliament. But there is no legitimacy on the democratic front. And so transnational list is exactly doing that. It puts Spitzenkandidaten into a democratic process, so it is people who are deciding who is elected and then the European Council could never object anymore to the outcome of such an election.