Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL) and by Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), MFF co-Rapporteurs, hold a press conference on on the Reform of the EU's long-term budget MFF - outcome of the vote on Parliament's interim report. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

OLBRYCHT, Jan (EPP, PL)

Multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (T)

MARQUES, Margarida (S&D, PT)

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL) and by Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), MFF co-Rapporteurs on the Reform of the EU's long-term budget MFF: outcome of the vote on Parliament's interim report

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Thank you very much, dear Jaume. Good afternoon to you all. The European Parliament has just adopted its interim report on the EU's long term budget, the MFF, with a large majority. I would like to start by thanking the co-Rapporteurs Jan OLBRYCHT and Margarida MARQUES for their excellent work on this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, I want to be clear and unambiguous, there is an urgent need to revise our long term budget, and there are two main reasons for this, which I will outline in accordance with my institutional role as laid down in Article 324 of the TFEU.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, First of all, because funds are finite, the pandemic, Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, natural disasters, rising inflation and a cost of living crisis has taken its very concrete toll on our budget. Rising interest rates have pushed up our Next Generation EU borrowing costs, the combined effect of all of this, is that the EU's budget is stretched to its limits. We must acknowledge this and we have a duty to react.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Secondly, because the world has changed beyond recognition in the last year. And therefore, so have our priorities, all Member States agree on this. First of all, we need to repay our debts. The EU's financial credibility is on the line. Secondly, we must continue and put our support to Ukraine on a long term and sustainable path. This is as much about Ukraine's security as it is about Europe's security and our future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, We all agree on more resources to address migration. We should be able to support Member States struck by natural disasters quickly and effectively when they need Europe the most.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, And finally, we need to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to our competitiveness. This is how we generate real, sustainable economic growth in order to afford all of the above and this is the message I will be taking with me to the Granada Summit later on this week, where I will ask for the process to be jumpstarted.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, We need this to be a full discussion in the October European Council and a revised framework to be in place, by the 1st of January 2024, so that we are able to adopt the table budget on this basis.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, And I also want to address very quickly the issue of redeploying already existing funds. We need to be straightforward about what this means for the Parliament, allowing our borrowing costs to eat into EU programmes such as Erasmus and Horizon. It Is not something we would easily accept.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, We stand ready to engage. We are prepared. We are conscious of our responsibility to our citizens because ultimately this is about us taking responsibility, fulfilling promises and delivering for the people that we represent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, And these people have asked us to deliver on these policies. It is about our credibility. So, I will stop here and let the Rapporteurs go a bit more into the details of our position and then happy to answer any questions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, The letter of instruction we showed to the participants of the Granada meeting. It was very interesting. There will be a very serious debate about our president. But the last sentence says, after exchange of views of the President, we will follow those strategic issues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, So, I think that even if it's the strategic issues, the question is what is? But, I think that it is very good that this kind of debate will be in October, even if there is no decision planned. But, I think what is important is of the position of the Parliament will be presented by our President.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, To be to be very clear, what we made today is to present the political position of the Parliament. It means that formally we have only the consent procedure. So, we can say only yes or no after the unanimous decision of the Council. So, this is the formal situation. The political situation is that we are not waiting. We presented our view in 2022, when we said that what we think should be in your future position and the revision will be absolutely necessary.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, And the response at that time was no way. So, the after some months the Commission came with a real proposal of revision, even if they call it the review, this is a revision. And they came with five priorities and, of course, they came with the priorities not by chance. Why? Because the macro financial assistance for Ukraine finishes the end of December full stop. There is no money.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, From 1st of January, there is no money in MFF. The question is what we will do to to help Ukraine from the 1st of January. So, the Commission came with a very clear position that we need money for Ukrainian facility, we need the money for the innovation competitiveness, I mean so-called step and of course the migration, but also the question of flexibility and the money for the Solidarity Fund.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, We as Parliament formally, we should wait. We should wait for the position of the Council, a unanimous decision. We don't wait. We don't wait. We we are preparing our position today. Someone can say, okay, but the Commission proposes 65, 66, fresh money, 66 billion. And we add to this ten, it means 76 or €77 billion. How is it realistic?

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, Of course, the questions we know what is going on. We know what is the opposition. But, we would like to say in the Parliament to give the money to our President, to say that. What are the priorities of EU? What is absolutely urgent and necessary? And the numbers what we present to do are quite modest comparing to the needs.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, And of course, the we would like us to show that we take care about the priorities presented by the Commission. We would like to reinforce them. And we say very clearly, if we don't do it, we will have problems in 2024 with the budget. There will be no money to for some of the elements. So, this is very, very realistic. So we are waiting now for the position of the Council.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, Unfortunately, the Council doesn't have the plan to make the decision in October, but we need the budget for 2024 and the deadline for budget 24 is half of November. So, that's why the question is how we will work next year. And this is the election year, the election year for everybody, not only for the Parliament, but the consequences is for everybody.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, So, that's why our interim report, we voted today with the big majority. We voted today to say very open, very politically, very clearly we need this kind of revision. We don't make we cannot make any simple redeployments. No, no, we need a revision. And I think it should be very clear for the government that if we don't do it, we will have problems.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, And we as Parliament, we are responsible. So, we behave in a responsible way, saying that we have the arguments, we have the numbers. We even reduced our ambitions, you can imagine in different Committees, but of course to be treated very seriously. So, we now expect from the Council to make the decision as soon as possible, so we can say yes or no at the end.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, Thank you very much. The first thing I got to say is that it's important that the European designs of the Union can be implemented specifically via Next Generation EU. Thanks to which, millions of people have been saved in the EU.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, The President and my colleagues and co-Rapporteur have already said, that it is very important for us to set priorities for the future and that we do so now and that we need to be consistent, strike a balance between political ambition and the available funding.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, It makes no sense to be politically ambitious if we don't have the funding to go with it in order to achieve our goals. If I may detail a few points. Number one, the need to continue supporting Ukraine. We need to continue supporting Ukraine as we have done in the past, both within Ukraine and outside of that country. And we need to create mechanisms for the EU to take the lead within other within other international organisations when it comes to providing assistance.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, At the same time, we also need to support Europeans. The social and economic impacts of the war in Ukraine have to be lessened. Every day we see prices continuing to rise. There's a housing crisis that young people find it hard to get on the housing ladder and that energy prices increase. We need to ensure that Next Generation EU, that is to say, the money spent through that instrument, that money is spent via these flagship policies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, Now, with the new MFF, and that is it is concluded, it is clear when it was drafted that in the past period that inflation and debt was different to how it is now as such. We need to ensure that we have enough money available. Not just to bear the cost of the loans, but also to fund the all the various programs. I mean to ensure that the various budget lines programmed such that policies can actually be implemented in practice.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, Let me also stress the need for a permanent instrument in order to respond to crises. To date, we have always been required to find one of or stopgap solutions and not jeopardise the success of certain policies. Therefore, we need a permanent mechanism.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, In order to respond more quickly. And to do so, we need to draw the conclusions and lessons from previous crises and strengthen Next Generation EU, if we want to strengthen the future of the EU. At the same time, the identity, the political dimension of cohesion policy needs to be further strengthened as well with a view to the future.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, So, there are various priorities that ambitious priorities, but we need to be realistic. At the same time, as we've already said here in Parliament, we have plenty of ideas as to what could be done if we just speak amongst ourselves, among MEPs. And of course we could ask for more money for all manner of new policies.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, The question is how can we ensure that we are both ambitious and at the same time realistic in order to take that forward and still have a reasonable, successful negotiations with them? Now, we need this to take place fairly swiftly. We are facing new challenges. To do that, institutional reform is needed. A new architecture is needed for the European Union budget.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, And simply, it's not the same for 27 Member States is not the same as in the EU, potentially of 35 Member States in the future, and therefore the budget framework will need to be revised accordingly. The Spanish Presidency has already stated that they want to act on that score.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, So, I want to thank our Parliament President that she's come out strongly in favour of that. So, the revision of the MFF budget needs to be a priority point and one which is dealt with by the Council by the end of October. We cannot wait any longer.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, It's not enough simply to say that this is where we are, rather we need to adopt a stance, rather we need to act quickly if we want a new budget as of the 1st of January 2024. Thank you.

Q&A, Question regarding on European funds and EU Member States that receive more refugees. Second question on We all know that this is a big burden for those member states.Question on President von der Leyen announced package for Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, -

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, -

Q&A, Question regarding on funds destinated to stablish deals with third countries.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Margarida MARQUES (S&D, PT), Rapporteur, -

Q&A, Question regarding on from whom to borrow this money to fund these dossiers.

Q&A, Question regarding on the negotiations for the 2024 budget and Council's position.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan OLBRYCHT (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, - -