Following her address to the Members of Slovenian National Assembly in Ljubljana, EP President Roberta METSOLA replies to the questions from all 6 deputy groups. The answers covers a broad range of topics, including but not limited to: the EU's commitment to climate action, the farming industry in the EU and the SCF (Social Climate Fund, a dedicated funding so that the most affected vulnerable groups, such as households in energy or transport poverty, are directly supported, and not left behind during the green transition), enlargment and the devoloping situation in the Middle East. This transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

speech

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Slovenia (T)

Slovenia

Ljubljana

president's agenda

Address by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to the Slovenian National Assembly: Questions from all 6 deputy groups and a wrap-up reply by Roberta METSOLA, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Original), Mag. Borut SAJOVIC (Svoboda Deputy Group), -

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jelka GODEC (Slovenian Democratic Party Deputy Group), -

SOUNDBITE (Original), Matej TONIN (New Slovenia-Chriatian Democrats Deputy Gropup), -

SOUNDBITE (Original), Meira HOT (Social Democrats Deputy Group), -

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nata&scaron;a SUKIČ (The Left Deputy Group), -

SOUNBITE (Original), Felice ŽIŽA (Italian and Hungarian National Communities Deputy Group), -

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, 'So, first of all, I will take the questions one by one. On farming. And I will link question one to question three. First of all, when I first came to Slovenia as Vice-President of the European Parliament, I met a young farmer who mentioned to me how difficult it is, for him, to be able to think ten years from now, 15 years from now, how much more difficult it is because of bureaucracy, how much more difficult it is for him to predict whether he can continue in his sector to survive. That story can be replicated, I would say, in each and every member state. We had in 2023 protests in 15 member states. This year we will see a much larger number of them. It is part of an understanding that we need to not only engage in strategic dialogue with our agricultural sector, but we need to be honest that in 2020, when the pandemic hit, we turned to our farmers to guarantee food security.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Now in 2024, we are imposing on them impossible to implement regulation. And I think we need to be able to say that and tell it to them. Now, since a few months of strategic dialogue has been set up, there has been a lifting of the burden on the smaller farms, the specific examples you gave when compared to other countries. Because ultimately we talk a lot about one size fits all. But for smaller countries, the disproportionate impact of what comes from Brussels is sometimes one that means that you run out of business or run out of your livelihood, because in agriculture sector it is a a real issue. So that is what I think we need to work for in the next five years. What do we mean by a level playing field and making sure that when we discuss enlargement and when we discuss the ongoing debate, for example, with grain coming from countries like Ukraine, but also Russia, on the European market, we need to be prepared on how we can, ...

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So no one size fits all, level playing field for all, honest dialogue and a real commitment to the agriculture sector for the five years that are coming. And this brings me to the green transition. This has been a big priority for the European Union since 2019. In those elections, there was a clear demand for the European Union to address two main issues: one, the migration challenge and specifically the climate challenge. How have we responded? Migration: we will have a big vote on nine pieces of legislation in the Parliament in a couple of weeks. On the green transition, we have identified a raft of legislation going from the carbon border adjustment mechanism, which goes to to deal with the 7% that was mentioned, but also, energy performance of buildings. Nature restoration is currently stuck in the Council, and pesticides have been withdrawn after a negative vote in the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, The big question becomes as to: where do we go next? And that is why when we negotiated the Social Climate Fund, the European Parliament insisted that small businesses are protected because the risk would be that when we are, as is necessarily the case, embarking on the most ambitious climate legislation in order for us to be the most climate advanced continent by 2050, we cannot leave our people behind. That was the aim of the European Parliament's negotiation in the Social Climate Fund.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, There was a question about bans versus innovation, and here the key is balance. How do we find that right balance? How do we identify the need to go even further, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the need for us to double down on renewables, the need for us to decouple from traditional fossil fuels, how to be having a debate on the role of nuclear and energy mix of some countries. This was a question I have been asked in Slovenia quite often. We have not always managed to find that balance. We have done it in other areas, namely the Digital Markets Act. If you think about media freedom, strategic lawsuit against public participation, artificial intelligence. But in the green transition, unless we set the right framework for our industries, for our businesses to remain competitive, then we will not be able to compete.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And our competitiveness when faced with our full dependence, almost full dependence on Chinese imports, but also in our inability to speak more comprehensively with our Latin American partners, with our African partners, and also being more prepared on our transatlantic cooperation, as it will face potentially big changes in the next few months. That is going to be, I think, one of the largest challenges we have when we talk about increased regulation. We never need to do it for regulation's sake, but rather, how do we cushion the economic and social impact on our businesses, our industry, our families, our sectors?

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On totalitarianism. To be clear, the European Union stands for the complete opposite. We have worked very hard, for us to show that our European way of freedom, of democracy, of openness is the model that should be emulated by other countries rather than the opposite. That is why the European Parliament, first of all, insisted on having an annual rule of law mechanism which looks at each and every country where we see backsliding. And the Commission is given the possibility to place recommendations for member states to follow. And we have seen great advancements from member states in reaction to that mechanism. To be clear, if it were not for the European Parliament, that annual exercise would not take place. And we need to cherish it and and really place a responsibility on all of us.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Every year on the 23rd of August, we remember the victims of totalitarianism. This is an important date in our calendar. We know in Europe what totalitarianism and extremism leads to. And finally, our Europe is one that must be free from hate. And if we look at the current situation in all our member states as we enter an extremely tense electoral period, hostility and division is increasing rather than decreasing. That when we see incidents, rising incidents, that you mentioned on of as we fight antisemitism, as we fight Islamophobia, where everyone can live and worship as they choose. But the reality in the European Union is that we are having less freedom in that regard rather than the opposite, and that is extremely difficult at the moment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, It's a huge challenge in each member state, and it is one where I would have thought 20 years ago when there was the big enlargement, including of this country, to join the European Union, that we would have seen advancement and openness and tolerance rather than the opposite. I fear that that will only become an even bigger challenge as we enter into 2024, the world's largest election year, where perhaps we can manage to ban attacks offline. But we are still needing to do a lot of work with what we do online, and that's a responsibility that we all have as politicians and also as we work with social media regulators.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On enlargement. You are very right. In, let's say, expressing and reiterating the fact that our Western Balkan partners have become increasingly impatient over the last year. And I don't blame them. We have summits after summits where our partners from each and every western Balkan country is around the table and wondering why six months have passed. Elections have come and gone in their countries. Declarations have been made on the part of the European Union member states, and another six months go before we make any real, tangible progress. And I think we have managed in the last six months, both in the context of the European political community, but specifically with the big step that was taken last week in order to make sure that countries that are looking to join the European Union find a home there.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I have been in Ukraine. I have been in Moldova. And there you have populations that want to enter the European Union. And why would we shut the door closed? When countries are almost unanimously, I would say, looking to the European Union as their home. Enlargement is a win win for all of us, both from an economic perspective, from a security perspective, but ultimately from a peace perspective. And I think we need to say that more, not less.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On the situation in the Middle East. Thank you for the clear questions. It was not easy to find the majorities in the European Parliament months ago to get the language on a ceasefire, permanent as we have been, we have gone much further. That was when we appealed to the European Council not only to talk about pauses. We need to see, and hope for the implementation of yesterday's Security Council resolution, much awaited. As I said in my speech, very much thanks to your country's leadership. But also the circumstances: in other words, we are looking at, tens of thousands killed. How do we stand on the side of humanity and what we do to ensure that this does not happen again? The situation is catastrophic on all levels, both in terms of loss of lives. We have to be speaking about tens of thousands of children, women, journalists. And humanitarian aid is not going through.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I will travel to Cyprus, where there have been efforts, but they need time. And it is not getting to those innocent civilians who are starving today. So my hope is that the ceasefire that was agreed yesterday will enter into force, will be applied, that the hostages will be returned. And that seriously, even in the fog of war, and this is important, that we really talk about what we mean by a two state solution. You mentioned sanctions. Our resolution today talks about sanctions on settlers in the West Bank. I have spent a lot of time there myself, and the difficulties are historic. They are intergenerational. They are complex. And they can be, also, quite frank, what has happened over the past few months have not made them easier to be resolved. But we can never lose sight of what has always been the European Union's aim for a two state solution. If we do, then we really would have given up on the Palestinian people an...

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On the other sanctions you mentioned, this is a Council of the European Union remit. And what I would, urge you is to push the governments. This would require unanimity, as has happened, taken place on Ukraine. This would be something that takes place in the Council, in this case.  On minorities. You can be assured that the European Parliament is very committed. We have a lot of members of the European Parliament elected from different minorities, different language, cultural minorities and member states. And we work a lot with them. I can tell you that this is also a lot of discussion that we've had, you represent also the Hungarian minority, as we look at the Hungaria, minority that was represented actually, from Ukraine and Romania in the European Parliament. And as we look, because we have worked quite a lot with the Ukrainian parliament in order for us to make sure that there is approximation for minorities everywhere.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, With regards to your specific question, what I would suggest is that you identify similar situations that have been resolved in other member states. We can identify, cases and work bilaterally on that. We have a petitions committee that deals with these issues. Perhaps you would be able to to push that forward also with the Slovenian colleagues in order for us to see. When you talk about freedom of expression, access to information, of freedom of speech, that you are best covered in the best possible way. And if there are remaining concerns and issues, then please, rights to the European Parliament or come and present that petition because we represent you there Thank you.