Live Replay of the debate on the review of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg (14-17 January 2019)  The following transcription is the result of an automatic process. Check Against delivery.

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

KURZ, Sebastian (AT)

EU - Austria (T)

Austrian Presidency of the EU (T)

Review of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU: statement by Sebastian KURZ, Austrian Federal Chancellor (10:40 - 10:54)

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/18111039/I166494Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (German), Sebastian KURZ, Austrian Chancellor, President of parliament, president of the commission, political group leaders. Ladies and gentlemen members of the European Parliament. I am delighted to be here once again as your guest in the European Parliament to report back on the outcome of the Austrian presidency. Now we've had a very busy six months, a packed schedule but most importantly very good cooperation with the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (German), Sebastian KURZ, Austrian Chancellor, And right at the start I would like to thank all of you for the very positive climate of cooperation that we have benefited from. Between Commission Council and Parliament over the last six months in support of our presidency in the course of our council presidency we have set great store by wide ranging cooperation with the European Parliament. I'd like to thank you. And a bonus thousand Karolina Edtstadler for having supported us here and representing us here during the plenary part sessions here in Strasbourg.

We've had 161 try log sessions and we've had fifty three agreements come out of those tri log sessions. So thanks to those efforts in the Parliament the Commission and the Council particularly since everybody shared in that desire to hammer out a compromise. You'd also like to thank our ambassador Nicky Moshiach in Brussels and Alexander x teams in Brussels as well as in Vienna for their contribution to the success of the presidency.

And seeing as we are part of a team I'd like to thank our trio partners Bulgaria and Estonia as well as the Romanian presidency and wish them every success for what is said to be a very busy six months ahead. Ladies and gentlemen I was here in July of last year. And on that occasion I said that we didn't ought to take the European Union for granted rather that day in day out we have to endeavour to make a better. Now often we have some very difficult debates and I have always maintained that there is far more that unites us than can ever dividers.

And I think that has proved to be the case when the European Union repeatedly come up against the fact that the structures are extremely complex and on occasion you feel that the way ahead is impossible but ultimately you realise that so much is at stake that you simply have to chip away at it. There is no alternative to rolling up your sleeves working together and trying to fashion a compromise. And that is precisely what we have sought to do over the last six months with you.

We've been able to achieve a number of compromises and I hope that by doing that we've been able to steer the European Union in the right direction in many cases. In other instances how ever in times of dimension.

There are other issues at stake allow me to start with Brexit. Now when we took over in July we were asked to do everything in our power to preserve the unity of the 27 and my heartfelt thanks go to the president of the commission as well as to Michel Barnier for their untiring efforts because they have been successful. We have preserved that unity amongst the EU 27 and the European Union, I believe in negotiations, with the United Kingdom has nothing to reproach itself for because we negotiated a very balanced exit agreement and we also have a political declaration on the future of our relationship. Now even if things don't go our way this evening in the vote in the British parliament and even if the next few weeks and months are rocky it is important that we continue to sing from the same hymn sheet, we, in the council, the commission and parliament and following on from its presidency I can assure you that Austria will do everything it can to support that line.

Now the moto of our presidency was a "Europe that protects" and we focused on three priorities. First of all security and the fight against illegal migration. Secondly prosperity and competitiveness. And thirdly our neighborhood. Because if we do wish to guarantee security in Europe then we have to fight for stability in our neighboring countries. Now first of all on security migration policy. Now despite deadlock when it came to distribution we have been able to secure agreements with third countries particularly Egypt but with other countries as well we've been able to make sure that it is not only European ships, European vessels carrying out coastguard operations rather we have the Egyptian and Libyan coast guards intervening more in order than to take people back to North Africa.

And what that has meant is that overall we have 95 percent fewer people coming into Europe than back in 2015. And it's important there's not only been a drop off in the number of arrivals but more importantly there's been a massive drop in the number of deaths in the Mediterranean. So the central Mediterranean route to the Italian Mediterranean route to all intents and purposes has been shut down. And in the last few weeks we have virtually no arrivals across that Mediterranean route.

There's also been possible to reach agreement amongst the Home Affairs Ministers to beef up front taxes mandate and that way Frontex can play a more substantial role when it comes to increases in staff and personnel. Again we stand behind all the commission's proposals. We will continue to do so in future. And I would invite all of you to speak to your heads of governments because there are a few that still need persuading in this regard.

Now when it comes to the distribution key Well what we need now is a fresh proposal and I think that that is a duty of solidarity and I would like to thank the commission for all its support for our proposals. Moving on now to the next chapter. Prosperity and competitiveness sustainable development an increase in our prosperity. We have focused on the sustainable improvement of the single market.

And I am delighted that the number of proposals for the Digital Single Market have been completed. When it comes to cyber security for example above and beyond that we have also dealt with the fair management of the Internet. And I think that we were even able to turn things around in the council book has a number of important decisions were lacking and we called on you and others to try and bring ground to those countries who are still a little bit skeptical in this regard.

Now something very close to Austria's heart is sustainability and that is why we are very keen on a plastics ban as well as reducing CO2 emissions particularly for heavy goods vehicles and that is why we are delighted that with the assistance of counsel and Parliament we were able to carry out a very successful trial log. Now we are also seeking bans on certain carcinogens as well as on a European employment agency and these are further steps forward that we have made that I wish to mention in this context. Now if we are to have a truly robust Europe one that is generally competitive then we need a modern budget. Now I concede that are negotiations on the multi-annual frame financial framework was something that I was very skeptical about at the outset but it has been possible to notch up some successes and of course we kept up the pace.

Under pressure from the commission and they well quite right to say that in actual fact more progress has been made than I originally expected and that meant that we were able to hand over a fully completed negotiation bogs at the end of December and I very much hope that negotiations will continue in that spirit. And the third priority we set ourselves was to attend to our neighbourhood policy. Now of course as an Austrian I am very grateful that the Western Balkans have moved center stage in Europe's preoccupations. It's important that we have strong states in the western Balkans it was very important to resolve the dispute over Macedonia's name as well as disputes between Serbia and Montenegro and Montenegro.

And I think that that is a very important, a signal of the European perspective for this region and I am very grateful to the European president is particularly Bulgaria which ushered in this era of paying more attention to the Western Balkans President tiny I should like to thank you for cooperation on the Africa Forum in particular. We organized a forum in Vienna in conjunction with the African Union in order to try and pay more attention to economic development in Africa to promote sustainable development.

We don't simply want to allow the Chinese to respond to our investment of the continent to basically leave it to the Chinese. And we've had a lot of very positive feedback and that is why migrating to goes to all of those who made that forum possible. Finally it is important for me personally to address an issue which is crucial to us as a Republic of Austria namely the fight against anti-Semitism and anti Zionism. In November in Vienna we convened the first European conference on this subject inviting along all Europe all European Jewish communities.

And I believe that we have now set the course for future activities in this regard. I'd like to thank the commission and council for all of their support. I think that it is important because we have a situation in which Jews feel unsafe in some countries of the European Union which simply acknowledge that as a European Union rather we should go about tackling it tackling it to determinedly I should like to once again thank the commission particularly President Juncker as well as the European Parliament particularly President Tajani as well as all other heads of state and government as well as member states for all their very positive and constructive cooperation during the six months of our presidency.

We Have been unfailing in our efforts to do our bit to make our contribution to strengthening the European Union and to come forward with compromises to thorny issues and I think that that has been the case to a certain extent we've been successful and as Republic of Austria we will continue to do what we can to reinforce the European Union.

And I know that elections are in the air. And so I would wish all of those standing for re-election to the European Parliament. Every success in May. And I hope that there is a very objective debate about the future of the European Union during that election campaign. That's something we badly need. But I always hope that that debate is conducted in a respectful manner as not as something that would benefit Europe as a whole particularly people across the member states of our European Union.

So once again thank you very much for a spirit of cooperation over the last six months and I wish European Union every success in the future thank you Chancellor for your speech but also very strong engagement against anti-Semitism is very important for this Parliament. Defend the freedom of religion and dialogue between religions. Thank you very much for your work in this direction. We will celebrate in this Parliament of course in the next days. Thank you very much. Now.