During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (08-10 July 2020), joint debate on the European Council meetings of 19 June and of 17-18 July 2020. Opening statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council and Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery

Brussels

statement

plenary session

ŠEFČOVIČ, Maroš (SK, EC)

joint debate

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

Multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (T)

economic situation in Europe (T)

European Council meeting 19 June 2020 (T)

special meeting of the European Council 17-21 July 2020 (T)

Joint debate - European Council meetings of 19 June and of 17-18 July 2020: Opening statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council and Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, -

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Let's not forget that the pandemic is still with us as we speak. It continues to destroy lives. Businesses and jobs. One statistic alone paints the dramatic picture compared to previous Travis growth forecasts.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Dear members of the European Parliament. First of all, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. Covid-19, has shown that you cant always control what what's happened to us but we can't control how we respond.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The EU is estimated to lose 1.5 trillion euros in economic output in 2020 2021. Alone. This is indeed a grim prospect. As you know, on 23rd April, the European Council asked the commission to urgently come up with an ambitious recovery plan that was commensurate with the challenge we are facing. In June, leaders had a first distruction on the commission proposals.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, I would say more about this in a minute, but our initial discussion highlighted that some elements of the commission proposal were simply not acceptable for a number of member states.

Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, That's why after our meeting, I launched the process of bilateral talks with all the leaders. I then called a physical summit, the first since the crisis on the 17th and 18th of July. There are three issues in particular I would like to discuss with you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, One is my traditional debrief to you on the leader's video conference in June. The third is to clarify the outcome of my bilateral meetings with leaders and share with you my intentions for the upcoming European Council.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And lastly, I wish to make a strong appeal for ambitious cooperation between the member states and we sue the European Parliament. We need to work together if we want to make this work.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Our last video conference of the European Council on June 19 was the first time EU leaders discussed together the commission's proposals for the MFF and the recovery fund.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, This summit was a necessary step to prepare for the decisions we need to take. It served as a bridge connected the consultation phase to our current negotiation phase. We noted the areas where consensus is emerging first.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Member states agreed on the need to address together the MFF and the recovery fund. They agreed set in point that an unprecedented crisis required an unprecedented response and third point.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council,They also agreed that we would focus on the regions and set us most affected, but we also observed areas where our views still needed to converge.

For instance, the idea of funds for grants is still difficult, even very difficult. To accept for some member states. Similarly, some leaders showed reluctance to accept the allocation criteria suggested by the commission because they consider that there is no link in the train proposal with the Covid19 crisis and 2020's of the Covid-19 crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Last week I concluded my first run of bilateral discussions. There have been intense and sometimes difficult, even very difficult, but always in a constructive spirit.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, That allowed me to identify the six building blocks of possible future agreement on which I think we need to find the right political balance. First, the size of the MFF.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, First of All, the size of a forthcoming European budget, different opinions on the acceptable lever. And the second point link to the first one is the issue of the rebates. This is essential for some people.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, For others, they no longer wanted to apply. And this is certainly one of the subjects that we have to count on in the context of general package agreement.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The third point is the level of the recovery fund. You are familiar with the proposal from the commission. Not all the member states share the view that the amount proposed is acceptable.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The fourth point, the issue of grants or loans, the principle of grants is problematic to several member states. The issue of balance then between grants and loans is another very delicate issue for which decisions need to be taken.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The fifth point is that of criteria for distribution of the recovery fund. Several member states during the month of June expressed their reticence because they consider that the commission proposal is based on pre covered data data regarding unemployment the reverse GDP per capita.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, They consider these criteria are not sufficiently dynamic to reflect what the real situation will be in terms of an economic and social pact for the regions. The countries in the most impacted sectors were there for exploring.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The idea of building in more dynamism in terms of the criteria for the distribution of the allocation. The second point is essential, namely the link between the recovery fund and reforms that should be implemented in the various member states and the governance.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The role of the different institutions here. Clearly, this is a debate that also clearly reflects the European Parliament and the role of the parliament. And still on the question of conditions and the link with the recovery fund and the MFF.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The question of the rule of law is something that needs to be discussed. So to the link with the climate issue. You might remember that a few months ago, before the start of the crisis, we proposed that a significant chunk of the MFF should be directly earmarked to our climate goals.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Can remind you that in December we set that strong ambition for the European continent to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, So other issues at stake. We share a stage which I know are crucial to you. The European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, First the own resources, and I am aware that these are key for your agreement. We worked a lot on plastic waste. We worked a lot on E.T.S. There are some reluctance on that.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, But we have also looked at other possible resources that have deathand some support, like the digital taxation, like the financial taxation flexibility in the MFF for cohesion and Agriculture is also an important topic for some member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And are two other issues that we need to tackle in order to try to reach an agreement. The first one is attrition of the front loading in the recovery funds and attrition of the commitments and the payments and the timing we need for both and attritional the repayments. When do we start the repayments?

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, [16:31:22] You know that the commission proposed to start the repayments not in during the ongoing MFF but that in the upcoming mid-February and the next one. Maybe it would be useful to propose to start earlier the repayments.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The next steps, like you probably know, I've announced that I intend to publish a books by the end of this week. Together with the German presidency he will discuss this further in the car repair.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The meeting with all the ambassadors and this process will allow us to prepare for our July European Council summit. I can assure you I am doing all I can to secure to secure an agreement.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, we need to find a workable solution quickly.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, My impression after this around of consultations over the last few days is that we are haven't yet finished our negotiations and we still have a lot of work to do.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, think that we can conclude that part of the member states want to cooperate more than others, but I think that it is vital. With this unprecedented debt crisis, that cooperation between European democratic institutions should also rise to the challenge in an unprecedented way.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And I am convinced that they will meet this call of the European Parliament to take up their responsibilities. And I think you can count on me and the partnership of our rotating presidency. And finally, I also want to share a conviction of a common sense with you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, If each one of us accepts taking a step towards each other, and if each institution continues set in their ways and will not budge, then we will not be able to rise to the challenge to meet the challenge of this European project.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, That brings us together. We all need to help each other. So we can move Europe together. And we need to be have a realistic conviction that we need to take into consideration the other's point of view in order to take decisions together.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And this is a call I wanted to make to each and every one of you. And I'll conclude, never has so much been at stake in the history of Europe. And now we have to discuss, for example, the recovery fund, which is gigantic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And the commission has three goals, which we will have to pursue it together. First, we need we need to work towards convergence. We need to ensure that we can work tirelessly for European convergence.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Which will is the force of the European project has a recent history, has shown resilience has been stronger. We need we need to draw lessons from the past so that we can better react and be stronger.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And lastly, my third point is that we need to always keep in mind the transformation of the European project. We're entering the digital era and we also need to look at the climate.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And as soon as we've taken a decision, I count on positive and constructive dialogue with other institutions, especially the European Parliament. Thank you for your attention.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, Thank you. Thank you very much. President Michel, I now give the floor to Vice President Sefcovic for the Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Dear Mr President, honourable members, as we discussed this moment, the goal is quite clear that our union is undergoing great crisis, one that has engulfed the elderly, the euro about the whole world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And Covid 19 pandemic has had an horrific human and economic cost. And I would say that it also has changed us.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And therefore, I am sure that you would agree with me that there is no going back to the way it has used to be, and therefore, honourable members serving must now look to the future. If we act decisively, we can find opportunity in this disaster.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, But for that, we need the right tools for the job. As you know, I often say that this chamber is the heartbeat of European democracy, a place where the policy is debated and shaped.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, But no matter how much we talk about the political priorities, we must have the money to implement that ahead of the European Council next week. I would like to focus on two points with you, both of which hold greater significance for our future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, First, the state of play with regards to the next generation EU recovery plan and the revamped multiannual financial framework proposals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, I would like to thank the president of the European Council for his very active approach, for very dynamic bilateral as he has with the heads of states and government of the European Union and for the close cooperation with the European Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And all this is needed because this is very ambitious package, that response directly and forcefully to the needs of our union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, The future MFF reinforced by the next generation EU crises instrument will bring a total of five financial firepower of the EU budget to almost 2 trillion euros in today's money, and that's very impressive, but at the same time very needed figure.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And this is necessary response to what is the crisis without a precedence in the history of the European Union. It is the plan designed not only to see us through the first year of recovery, but also to ensure our financial programs can deliver strong support for our priorities until 2027 and beyond.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, I would like first to stress that the European Parliament plays and will continue to play a vitally important role in this process.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Later today, President Von der Leyen, together with President Michel, Chancellor Merkel and with the President Sassoli will meet under the Article 3.2.4 where we will start through.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And I believe, thanks to our leaders, the first convergence of the views and creating the conducive atmosphere towards the compromise.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, We would be needed at the leaders summit, the 70s and 80s of July as President Michel just referred to. The meeting will follow on from the encouraging discussions the leaders had during the recent videoconference.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And overall, we in the commission feel that there is a positive Dunholm dynamic and support of the proposals which I just described. In particular, there is an agreement that this unprecedented crisis required exceptional response.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, There is an agreement that these response should be financed through commissioners borrowing, and that there is also agreement on the fact that all the resources needs to be increased. In addition, we feel there is an agreement that our efforts should be targeted towards Europe's most effective region.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Fostering Cohesion and convergence that this crisis and the response which we are debating right now, will create a unique opportunity to reform our economies and make them greener, more digital and more resilient.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, The proposed package reflects much of what was expressed by the parliament in your resolution of 15th of May. In particular, I would like to thank this House for your continued support for the new own resources like you. We are convinced that this is right approach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, New own resources will support our shared objectives. They will help us repay what they borrow for the next generation EU without compromising the funding of our future programmes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, and while we take a big step forward in the coming weeks by agreeing on the proposals already on the table, we can take a giant leap when we set out new proposals next year. We will soon put forward a roadmap for this extra asource roadmap.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, How to achieve these new own resources. And in the meantime, I count on you to help relay this message also at home to your governments, to your constituencies and to the national parliaments.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, How much we need they support because time is of the essence. A leadership is needed more than any time before, and we have only a few weeks left because we all know that it's absolutely crucial for our response to the crisis to reach agreement before the summer break.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, If we want to make sure that before the end of the year, we will also complete the process of national ratifications needed for their own resources decision to not. We are unable to start borrowing without this decision.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, But if the national parliaments endorse the debate of the results and these new instruments, I believe that it would also ensure the democratic legitimacy of these innovative proposals on unprecedented wide scale.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, To continue, I also would like to underline the fact that this would also help us to create the new tools not only for sustainable economic recovery, but also for clear demonstrations that our democratic rules will always prevail even in the time of crisis.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, So an extremely constructive approach by all the institution is required then. Therefore, I think that we need to listen to each other and factor in our different views at all stages of the process.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Certainly they have elements of this parliament in all aspects fundamental. Every euro will be spent through programmes, school designed and core decided by this parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, You will play strong scrutiny at all through the budget discharge and because of the legal constraints, we are relying on an extraordinary system to mobilise that extra recovery funding.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, These should in Norway prevent either this parliament or the council from playing their roles to the full special arrangements will be put in place to ensure that this is the case.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, We are ready to work with the EU and the Council on Institutional Declaration to put these on formal footing and to ensure that cooperation among our institution is as best as it can. Your colleagues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Honourable members, sir, as I already said, time is short, but I am confident that with the right mix of ambition, realism and leadership, we can deliver for the citizens of the European Union. The commission will need your help and we will need to be quick in all phases of negotiations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, These includes agreement on our bridging proposal to jump start the recovery plan. Under the current MFF as well. The sooner we can launch react EU and the solvency support instrument, the better. My second point today concerns Brexit.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, As you know, my colleague Michel Barnier is today in London. Were were there another round of negotiation is taking place. And I think it's very important because we are now less than six month away from the end of the transition period.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Together with the United Kingdom, we recently took stock of the ongoing negotiations where we jointly stressed that a willingness to undertake all possible efforts to come to an agreement seeking solutions that will allow us to sign and one of a kind partnership.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, Since then, as you know, not much progress has been made in the end. The simple truth is that negotiations will end a few months one way or another. So if we are to reach an agreement, we will have to resolve a number of serious divergences on fundamental issues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, These relate to the robust guarantees for a level playing field, a balanced agreement on fisheries and an effective governance framework.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, You, of course, know this points very well and you know that they are important for us because of the principles of the fair competition, the protection cities, answer.. principles which are at the very heart of our union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, They will do everything possible to reach an agreement. But here to time is very short and no one can say with certainty where the negotiation will lead us by the end of the year. And even if we do reach a deal, many things will still change in our relationship with the United Kingdom.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, [For citizens or businesses, for administration. We therefore need to plan for these changes and we will continue to assist the national authorities and other stakeholders in the preparations alongside the negotiations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And as the president underline, emphasize to the leaders, we must continue our work to ensure a proper implementation of further straubel agreement, a precondition for establishment of the maintaining the trust as a culture of the EU UK joint committee, I can add that we are also moving into higher gear on this front and will remain very attentive on all its dimensions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, European unity continues to be our main asset and the European Parliament is, of course, also in this regard playing an important role in all of its work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maros SEFCOVIC, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Interinstitutional relations and Foresight, And I am deeply grateful for your support as laid out in the report adopted by this parliament on 18th of June. Mr President, honourable members, cher President, Thank you very much for your attention and for all the support you would need in the coming days. thank you

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, So this is a way that Europe can be stronger as we look towards the future that we need to build confidently and with optimism. I know that this is a difficult challenge, but dear colleagues, your president, I am determined that we can move this forward in the European Council.