Joint Press conference on the Recovery and Resilience Facility by David SASSOLI, EP President, Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission and Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, on behalf of the Presidency of the Council: Questions and answers by David SASSOLI, EP President, Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission and Antonio COSTA during the press conference on measures to support the European social and economic recovery. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

press conference

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

COSTA, António (PT)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Recovery plan for Europe (T)

recovery and resilience facility (T)

Press conference on the Recovery and Resilience Facility by David SASSOLI, EP President, Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the EC and Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, on behalf of the Presidency of the Council: Questions and Answers

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, We have a common goal, we have the common goal in the European Union to vaccinate 70 percent of the adult population until the end of the summer. And this sets, of course, a date that is very clear. The summer ends normally on the 21st of September. And this also shows that, of course, we are aiming to be before done with the ratification of the own resources.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, The moment the own resources decision is ratified, the commission will go to the market, raise money and disburse. And we are able to disburse 13 percent in fund loading immediately. So by mid-year, I think this should our common it should be our common name. By mid-year, we should be able to disburse the first funds to deliver them.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, Well, we've got these instruments, the vaccine on the one hand and the vitamin for the economic recovery. The calendar for vaccination is known to all of you. We're all sharing the same calendar and the same objective, we have to get 70 percent of the adult population vaccinated before the end of the summer. That's to say until the 21st of September.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, For the recovery fund, it's important for the member states to speed up their processes for ratifying the own resources decision. So the commission can get on the final markets. And start to finance the national recovery and resilience plans. France has just ratified. And we've just heard from the member states that everyone should have ratify the own resources decision by the end of the summer as well.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, On the basis of the resolution sorry, the regulation we've just adopted, we're in a position to adopt the national plans. Some countries have already presented their first draft. We all share the same objective. Before the end of April we should have the first national plans adopted. We've got 13 percent front loading.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President So that could start from the publication of the regulation next week. And the first member states should be able to complete negotiations with the Commission and get this financing before the end of the summer. And I would say actually at the very start of the summer .

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, I have to hope that there will be ratification of the own resources decision by the end of the first quarter. It's vital that this happens so that the Commission can go to the market and borrow the necessary money to finance the plan. And the only plan that we can imagine is this one, because we're in a times of social and economic emergency.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, At the same time, we have to speed up the vaccination process. We have to meet the concerns of those who are losing their jobs or who are scared of losing their jobs, those who see their companies threatened. And we have to rapidly start the economic recovery process to be able to deal with the most important economic challenge facing Europe since the Second World War. This is a time for emergency action and results. And I therefore have confidence that all the member states will ratify by the end of March, beginning of April.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, It Is in the member states' own interest to ratify the own resources decision as fast as possible, because we should not forget that we have done everything to pump money into the company in order to overcome the very, very difficult times now, of the several lockdowns. So triggering the general escape clause, flexiblising of all the European funds, the state aid, we implemented the .... Instrument, which is 100 billion euro used in 18 member states for short time work.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, All this is necessary. All this is important. Member states are incredibly active in supporting their economy. But of course, we all know it is a question of time that we will come to the limit of what is possible and therefore Next generation EU is necessary and needed, and it's in the interest of the member states themselves to speed up this process as fast as possible.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President So yes, I think that we have to have trust, but we also have to act rapidly. We can't wait. Commitments have been entered into by all the governments. Governments that have parliamentary majority have said that they are paying a great deal of intention to ensure that this mechanism comes into force quickly. And of course, we have trust in that.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President We do have to try to speed things up, of course, because citizens can't wait, companies can't wait. Our countries, our social models can't wait because the crisis is a deep one, hence the appeal to national parliaments. And we trust that they can accelerate what needs to be done and give the green light rapidly to an instrument that is indispensable for the lives of European citizens.

Question, Thank you very much for giving me the floor. My questions for President von der Leyen. Unfortunately, two weeks ago today, the commission issued a draught regulation used Article 16, which has caused a lot of problems. Can you please say who made this decision and why? And then what structures will be put in place to ensure that the people most infected will be consulted in future so that there can't be a repeat of such a mistake? Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, So as we repeatedly have said in the decision making process, we should not even have thought about, including the Article 16. But in the very end, and this is the most important, the result was a good one, which was another way. So at the end of the day, we had the right decision. And in general, whatever happens in this commission, whatever is the result of the work of this commission, I take the full responsibility.

Question, Prime minister, you said that you should have the plans adopted by the end of April. When do you plan to hand in the final version of the Portuguese plan in Brussels? The commission has also asked to be a balance between different forms of investment.

Question, What's the change in the Portuguese plan since the first draft? Are you planning to put more structural reforms in? And Commission president. What is the commission asking Portugal to do as part of the negotiation process?

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, Well, in a nutshell now we've been working very hard in close cooperation with the commission since October. We're now in a position to hold public hearings in Portugal on our final version, and that will be next Monday. So we'll be consulting the local authorities, civil society, etc., This has to be something that people are involved in at the national level. OK, we handed in our first draught and now we're moving towards the final version.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, So there will be two weeks of public debate. And I hope that in three weeks time we can hand in to the commission the final version of our plan. Well, the reforms pretty much known to all of you, they respond to the specific recommendations under the European Semester for 2019 and 2020. They're in line with the priorities that we've identified, the vulnerabilities, particularly in the social issues.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Antonio COSTA, Portuguese Prime Minister, We're working hard to try and improve our production capacity. We're trying to overcome inequalities, we're trying to ensure more efficient management of public finances, and we're investing in the double transition, the climate and digital transitions. So the country specific recommendations did not contradict the programme of the government. So I don't see that they'll be particular difficulties in the final negotiations with the commission.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, Thank you very much. So almost nothing to add because it's exactly where we are and we are in good progress. Just to give you a little bit of an idea, we have now 19 member states that are ongoing, exchanging the progress in the detail in their national recovery plans. We have seven where we are discussing at the level of principle. So this is a back and forth because it's a humungous work to do.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, Sometimes it's a two digit part of the GDP that is being invested by next generation EU. And perhaps to give you an idea of the different topics we are working on with the member states. It goes from if you look at the reform side, it goes from the sustainability of the public finances, to the labour market taxation reform is in their, social safety or public procurement rules. So it's a broad variety.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, And what is different this time is that with reforms comes investment. Normally you have a difficult economic times, the need for reforms, but the lack of investment and this is different this time, necessary reforms can be done and investment comes.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, And if I look at the investment, we are very pleased to see that member states are including the seven flagships that the commission has suggested that across the border, all European this is important for us and of course, a strong focus on the green and the digital, but also in the social field, a strong focus on education, on skills, mainly digital skills.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, So there is an understanding if we invest in the digital, which we need, we also need to raise the skills of the workforce in these new fields. And therefore, it's a unique opportunity not only to recover, but to build forward better and to come out stronger and more modernised than before the crisis.

Question, I have two questions for President von der Leyen. The first one is the commission will play a key role in managing the Covid facility as it is doing with the vaccine strategy. And you have admitted the mistakes made with the vaccine. So in line with what my colleague asked, I would like to ask you, what changes will you make in order to avoid the mistakes and improve the communication and transparency with member states; MEPs and media as they express in this regard? And we've been waiting for you, president, for quite some time.

Question, And secondly, given their recent difficulties, the difficulties of over the past days, did you think at some point that your position was at stake, your future depended on the rollout of the vaccine and the recovery that we discussing now. For president Sassoli I would like to ask you as well, how would you ensure that the Democratic scrutiny of the committee on the national plan doesn't delay the implementation and the disbursement of the funds? Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, So to your first set of questions, first of all, listen, the health sector is not at all a core competence of the European Union, but basically the European Commission has very, very weak competences. But instead of that, we were willing to take over the responsibility, and I think rightly so, because just imagine that a few member states would have access to vaccines and they wouldn't have been faster. If you look and listen to the vaccine producers, they are very clear and saying even if that would have been billions put on the table, they could not have been delivering more because you had to develop the vaccine. And now we see the problems in manufacturing at scale.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, What is the bottleneck, the bottleneck supply chains, the bottleneck raw materials and the capacities to manufacture at scale. This we are building up now, together with the pharmaceutical companies who also have their worldwide responsibilities to deliver. So an enormous work has been done over the last only 10 months to come forward with now three vaccines and to start to deliver the vaccines.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, What I've said is, looking back, that we underestimated the lack of capability to scale up in the manufacturing process, speedy speedily for the pharmaceutical companies. And looking forward that I think we can also still reduce the time in the regulatory process for approving the vaccines on the market. So this is the health sector.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, Core competencies of the commission are, of course, the single market. And that's where you might remember in spring there were enormous debates. How are we going to approach this crisis? And we had a very, very difficult debates between the member states without a solution. That was the point where the commission came forward with its core competence to propose a solution, which is a European solution, which is a huge step forward.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, It's a historic step indeed today for the first time that all member states said, let's stand together, let's guarantee so that the commission can raise money on the market and we invested in the common priorities. So here I think there will be difficulties on the way forward. There will be successes and delays on the way forward without any question.

SOUNDBITE (Original) Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President, This can be different if you have 27 member states and the European institutions, the Commission, the parliament and the council working on that. But I know no other region of the world where it was possible in so short time to deliver, as we have done today.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President We said at the start of the crisis, that we had to respond through democracy, boosting the competences of our institutions, providing them with new instruments, the RRF, but not just the RRF. That's one example. There are new competences for parliaments to the heart of the process of democratic scrutiny. Now, obviously, we will do our job. But the important point is that there's this convergence process amongst all of the institutions, all of them working to reinforce the European democratic system.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President And we're very proud of this because this is something that is unprecedented. Our response to the crisis, the economic crisis, the social crisis, the pandemic, is one that we want to do through making our system stronger and also through using the new competences. I very much agree with President von der Leyen, if Europe has shouldered the responsibility of vaccinating everybody, what would have happened to so many European countries that are in difficulty? What would have happened would have been that the strongest would have prevailed.

SOUNDBITE (Original) David SASSOLI, EP President And that's not the Europe we want, obviously. And that is why with this legislative act today that we have signed today, we continue to say that we are working for everybody, not for one country or another. This work is done for Europeans. Thank you.