Management innovation days are part of the Strategic Execution Framework (SEF) for the administration of the European Parliament. David SASSOLI, EP President, makes a Keynote speech on the main strategic transformation processes for Parliament’s administration and filling the gaps in building a resilient European Union. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

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

7th Management Innovation Day 2021: Keynote speech by David SASSOLI, EP President

Title: 7th Management Innovation Day 2021: Keynote speech by David SASSOLI, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Thanks to the Secretary-General, thanks to all of you who are present here but I know that many are connected with this important event is an opportunity to reflect on ourselves on Parliament. The experience so difficult but also exciting that together we have lived in these sixteen months. We are heading for two years almost since the beginning of the pandemic. Finally, we can see some positive signals that makes us hope for returning to normal. Of course we still cannot say that the danger has passed above all because of the uncertainties that come from some variants that are beginning to spread in our European space. But compared to a year ago, it has changed a lot.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, First and foremost changed that compared to the video we have vaccines at first had no vaccines that give us confidence and the feeling of being close to this crisis as well. And in this regard, I wanted to point out that the vaccination campaign we put in place in the European Parliament was a real success during the period when we had the tests, we allowed through that tool to protect us and with the vaccination campaign to proceed to a safety for everyone. I believe that the fact that the legislative activity has never been suspended, we have said it too other times, shows that the response of Parliament and our institutions of all the staff of the parliamentarians of the political groups were up to the proof that we had to fight with which we had to fight. We have never suspended legislative activity and this with the Secretary General and with many of you. Let's go back to 16 months ago. It wasn't obvious.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We have allowed the European Union to proceed to be active. To take the measures that today many citizens recognize to us have been useful. Of course, this was not easy and you know it first. It took a lot of effort on the part of everyone and for that I really want to thank each of you. But we need to resume some activities and features. This is, of course, to allow Parliament not only a safe recovery, but because we need to get out of this crisis in order to return Parliament to the center of many activities that of course they were suspended. I am talking about the issues of the committees and interparliamentary delegations of election observation missions and support for democracy. In particular in recent months, the demands for the presence of the European Parliament on the international stage have increased every day.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Also last week I received requests from countries that want the European Parliament to be present. And of course we have and must feel the duty to give answers. That's why many activities have to come back and they must return with all the cautions and cautions that this difficult time put before us. We must reopen our doors with another theme because Parliament without citizens is a Parliament that does not fully express its report and function. And to be the home of citizens. These 15 months have been very shaky for everyone because we have experienced a dramatic experience, but farther away from the citizens, now is the time to bring citizens back and gather them in our establishment and give the opportunity to know us, to know about our activities to be informed. We have new means to be able to do it because these 16 months have given us so much more chances to increase our own, our relationship with our public opinions.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, This is why so many tools will have to be modulated to allow Parliament to be more efficient and more functional. We are back in Strasbourg, in a somewhat reduced format, but we must as soon as possible have sessions that include all parliamentary activities. The first steps towards normal or a new normal. And this is a very important topic and we don't have any recipes. We need to work together and reflect together and this is truly an invitation to you and your experiences. Why isn't it enough to say let's go back to normal, what normal? What will be normal after COVID? The health crisis has changed the way we live, and has represented an unprecedented challenge for all of us, but it has also been an opportunity to recognize the structural risks of the European Union. The work of this Parliament is certainly the best way to promote democracy and multilateralism, cooperation, these are values ​​that we cannot take for granted at any time.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, That is why the reflection on how Parliament is going to manifest itself after the Comit is very important. It is very important because we had proof that democracy is a fragile system, but this was not necessary to find out with Covid. But it needs to be renewed all the time and keep up with the times if we want it to be the tool for giving answers to citizens and tackling crises. And 16 months ago the European institutions wanted to respond with democracy. And this is a topic that I invite you to reflect on. Because it is not enough to say and code some mechanisms to be able to repeat them all the time. Precisely because the fragile system needs it. Continuously being in connection with the contemporaneity with what happens with reality. We and with our values want democracy to be the response to crises. That's why we need to have a working efficient democracy. Let me give answers that protect minorities but decide.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The risk was very high. Because it was only by remaining active that some temptations were averted. We have also seen it in the international context, with those who have promoted the idea that with authoritarianism everything would be easier. How many have tried also from outside the European area to corrupt our public opinions with respect to this message: with authoritarianism it is easier, with authoritarianism and more efficient, there is more efficiency. We do not abdicate our role as a democratic institution. But we must be clear that democracy must know how to renew itself in its ability to respond and in its methods in its ways of representing itself. The response of the European Union in recent months can be considered a response that is up to the challenge. Why? Because it was a response that was based on solidarity and cooperation. Which has set common goals. And it has pooled common resources. This gives us the measure of how much COVID is a true watershed.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Between the world before COVID and the one during and after COVID, if I had asked for the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact in January of last year, dear friends, they would have taken me for an unrealistic. COVID allowed the suspension of instruments that were already under discussion and this was done very quickly and without much controversy, indeed no controversy. Because everyone understood that those rules were not suitable for facing this crisis. It would have been anachronistic, it would have been of no use. And the result was the belief that only a Europe with more powers can cope with global challenges. The role of Parliament in all of this was decisive, above all in providing the necessary tools for a reading of contemporaneity that made it possible to overcome vetoes, red lines, old ideological positions. Let us think of the suspension of the Stability Pact I mentioned earlier, or the issuance of common debt. Or the suspension of state aid.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Proposals that certainly are not new for Parliament but that COVID has made it possible to put them in a drawer very quickly. And this of course had a reaction, the reaction of supporting what I was saying before. An idea of ​​solidarity and cooperation that the European Union had not experienced in recent decades. We have learned that democracy based on the central role of Parliament is indeed a system that can be rethought but it is still the architecture of our political model. The pandemic was the threat that we did not expect, but the dangers and traps that modernity tends to us are many and many. Economic inequalities, social inequalities, the issues that climate change poses with great force and evidence, the impact of new technologies, information and communication issues, biotechnology issues, on the very structure of the social fabric and cheap. And then again, ancient problems that multiply.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Migration phenomena, increasingly frequent and aggressive cyber attacks. We cannot think of facing the new challenges with the tools of the past. We must think of facing the new challenges with adequate responses. But starting from a premise which is the one we were asked about 16 months ago. No European country can tackle this alone. That everyone would be exposed that many would be marginalized. I believe that on all of this the European Parliament, thanks to the parliamentarians, all the political groups and also to you, has been a very strong point of reference in these 16 months. The European Parliament can be proud to be at the center of all the debates and all the solutions that the EU will give at this moment. This morning I received news from Estonia where yesterday and this night and in recent days many migrants are unloaded at the border by authorities from neighboring countries. And there is great concern. A big concern. Poor people used as tools and as means used to feed the tension.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We will be able to face many challenges when the problems are shared. And today there are many lack of communication that can be reduced because all the countries of the European Union could have the same impact on many phenomena, including migration. And the answer can only be common. In a world in which so many issues, we have seen in these 15 months, affect all 27 countries, the ability to shorten the distances between north, east, south, could be the test case for a Union that faces together not only the issues of socio-economic impact or climate change, but which also concretely faces challenges on which so many discussions, so many divisions in the past have produced misunderstandings. We need to become effective, more effective, and I believe that the COVID crisis and the many challenges we face can allow us to improve our efficiencies.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We also have a very exciting challenge before us which is to understand how our functioning, functioning of the Union, can improve, because if we do not want a democracy to stop, we also need to look at some tools, which affect policies and rules. And on this, you know that the European Parliament has been a protagonist, has always tried to work to kick off the Conference on the Future of Europe as soon as possible. Let me tell you this too, thanks to the impetus of Parliament. I hope that in that area there is space to rethink the functioning of institutional architecture, of its procedures, not only to keep up with the times but also to anticipate them and imagine what the world will be like and how we can have a impact on it. But first of all we must of course reflect on ourselves and on how we have dealt with the pandemic, how it has changed us. We had to respond quickly effectively and the question of course always comes back and will come back even for a long time. What will we have to leave behind.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, What should we put in a drawer. Of course we cannot give trivial answers. Because the obvious answer is : we don't have to just rewind the tape and go back like slow motion in a movie. Who could ever object to a statement like this. To ensure that this does not remain just a rhetorical statement but becomes a concrete purpose, we need a serious, in-depth, taboo-free analysis of what has been done with the solutions we have found. The methods we have used and how to place all this in the optics of the functionality of a Parliament that aspires to have a greater role and that aspires to have more powers, not less powers, that wants to be at the center of the democratic system and not be a marginal institution. I was very impressed to see on the latest Eurobarometer data, a very large swath of our public opinion asking for more powers from the European Union, not less powers.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, And here there is also a change of political scene because we started this legislature with a large part of public opinion that did not ask for this, but rather less powers from the European Union. There is a change and a new wind and we must understand this wind. When we think about how the Parliament of the future will have to work, this is not a sterile or childish discussion. There will have to be remote participation and you know it, here someone says yes, someone says no. Then there are those who like it and those who are convenient. If we start from this idea we have already lost. We must have a political project, which is to place the Parliament at the center of the institutional architecture; and increase our weight, assert our prerogatives, to make the European Parliament a pillar of the political action of the European Union. Our internal organization, our procedures, our working methods are fundamental if they will achieve this goal.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, But let's not reverse the perspective. The working method is a means to an end. But it is not the end in itself. And it is with this spirit, with this idea, that we must evaluate new means, new methods and new technologies for work without ideologies and without taboos. We must start from an observation that it is always good to remember, that the European Parliament is unique. In the European and even global institutional framework it is a multi-lateral assembly with 705 parliamentarians who must be enabled to express their legislative prerogatives in the name of citizens, in the best way. Parliament's services are a constituent part of this mission. This is why I do not like the parallels with the organizational methods and measures taken by other institutions very much. Because the role and function of the European Parliament has no equal even in comparison with the other institutions, the Commission and the Council.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Indeed, if we want to strengthen the role of the Parliament, we must strengthen its autonomy and independence. This is not a judgment against other institutions but the recognition of a different role. And the other institutions, however effective, do not necessarily adapt to our structure, our objectives and our mission. I believe this should always be kept in mind. Just as it is good to keep in mind, for example, when talking about tele-work which was one of the fundamental tools that allowed us to go through extraordinary circumstances such as the pandemic. And stay operational. However, the right balance had to be found in the new normality, to keep together the needs of the staff, the functionality of the institution. I am willing to do everything possible within the rules, of course, to favor this balance. Balance that affects the life of our staff of our workers.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, But at the same time everyone must feel strongly their responsibility towards the institution and its correct functioning. We have a mission more than other institutions. We must feel part of a project, we must first of all be a community and create strong relationships and bonds. And I thank you, because this difficult time has highlighted your ability to stimulate and be protagonists of this strong identity of Parliament. We, more than other institutions, must feel this mission. I believe that true human relationships can also contribute to these results. I cannot imagine a Parliament naturally without staff, without Members and made up only of virtual meetings and meetings. We need to stimulate contact, closeness. We know how difficult it is to do politics at a distance or find solutions at a distance. For all this and as far as I am concerned, you know that I also wanted to launch an initiative with the Members.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Many of them have arrived recently. They have not lived much in Parliament, then the crisis has arrived. They never came to Parliament, many do not know each other. I wanted to give them a very free chance to reflect on this time and to give their contribution to try also to imagine what methods, what rules could be changed to improve the efficiency of Parliament. This experience that the Parliament is having and with the constitution of these focus groups that will contribute towards the bodies of Parliament between September and October to provide elements for reflection, which then may also be useful for some changes in our regulation. This is an ongoing process. You know it, it will shortly give his recommendations on the five major areas we have called Focus on which we need to focus. We need to rethink the way our plenary is conducted, for example. If we want a Parliament at the center of the debate, we cannot wait a month to discuss news or politics.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We have the possibility, without upsetting a very important architecture that we must protect, to improve and be more capable, for example, of being at the center of the debate. I was very impressed by the debate on the issues of the presence of the Prime Minister and the President of the Commission in Turkey. Parliament talked about it when no one was talking about it anymore. It is right for the Parliament to talk about it. It is right that the presidents come to Parliament to report. But if this is out of time, of course it becomes a bit anachronistic to reflect not on the rule, but on the structure of our work. This was the spirit in which I wanted to promote this initiative. Then of course it will be up to the bureau of Parliament and the Conference of Presidents to take and draw the decisions that need to be adopted. On this I want to thank all the Directorates-General for the effort, collaboration, support and also the methodology that was necessary in such a process.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We have done a lot in these 2 years, worked tirelessly side by side, achieved good results. We have dealt with the great issues of our time. Think of the issues of Brexit and all that it entailed, the Green Deal, the migration crisis and digital transformation, data protection, and the defense of the rule of law. In Europe there has never been so much talk of values ​​as at this moment, why is this happening? Why was it talked about less before and today it is spoken about every day and every day in all countries about the rule of law and the fundamental rights of the defense of rights? Yet perhaps the priority is work. And yet in the debate this has never been talked about so much, because there is the awareness, dear friends, that at this moment a reconstruction cannot ignore fundamental values. We have been at the center of issues on the social model, of the fight against the effects of the pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, We know that we will have a defeat on this if we do not come up with a common policy on human health from COVID. That will be a defeat because these 16 months have told us that the priority is health. Because this is what our citizens are asking and expecting. And again, the issues of disinformation that worry us a lot today because they manifest themselves in many forms. We want to be safer. Yes safer. And of course also the institutions and also the Parliament on the problems of digital security will have to demonstrate even more and develop even more capacities. We cannot stop, and perhaps this is the lesson, I think, of these difficult months. Europe must not stop and our Member States must not stop. And we must help the Union and the States not to stop. This I believe, is the real lesson.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The European Parliament, without stopping, has allowed the Union to take many measures and to give many answers. We must do the same towards the Union and the member states. We must be tireless to defend democracy, our values. We can't afford breaks. We must create structural and organizational conditions to allow Parliament to be able to act effectively and quickly. Of course, you are the heart of Parliament. I can only rely on you and your professionalism, your ability, as you have shown so far. With this, I thank you once again, I look forward to naturally continuing to work together to ensure this institution is truly an example as it has been over these 16 months. Thank you.