Roberta METSOLA, EP President attends the Special European Council meeting held in Brussels on the 9th February 2023. After the meeting with the Heads of State and Governments, EP President holds a press conference in the EU Council. Q&A with the press. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

meeting of the European Council

president's agenda

special meeting of the European Council 9-10 February 2023 (T)

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President at the Special European Council meeting (09/02): questions and answers

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So I think on the first part, it's asked and answered. The Civil Liberties Committee, which is a committee I worked almost ten years in, has always discussed either in holistic reports and other words that went through every single part of what immigration policy for the EU should look like or individually on legislative instruments, both in the last mandate and then this mandate. I think we can very much work with the legislative proposals that are on the table.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And in that and those proposals there are references to management of external borders, are a reference to how you build trust within the Schengen area. There are references to what who should be viewed as a country of origin, a country of transit and secondary movements. These are the discussions that have taken place within the civil liberties Committee.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Admittedly in this mandate because of the pandemic and the fact that we were focusing on the Recovery and Resilience facility and the current energy crisis, inflation and the war where I would have hoped for further advancement in the legislative procedure on the legislative instruments that we actually signed a roadmap with the Council and in fact, five presidencies that will lead us up to the June 2024 elections.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I would like that process to be sped up and all these issues that were blocked already last mandate have the potential to be unblocked and clarified. Majorities are always difficult to find in in the European Parliament, as I said earlier. However, I think in these legislative instruments, I think we can manage to create that policy that is safe, that has solidarity at its core, but that also looks at what is happening at the external borders and how those external borders can be managed.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And this makes a difference, of course, with whether it is a maritime border, it is a land border, whether we are looking at what happened last year with hybrid threats through Belarus, with the Baltic States and Poland, I think we have learnt a lot and this is the approach we would take in return.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, On the code of conduct, I would say that there is a directive which is called the Facilitation Directive. And it's one of those instruments that needs to be looked at in order to see that, for example, when we are talking about the high seas, when we are talking about asylum applications and where they are placed, that's where the obligations of search and rescue apply depending on the location where the risk takes place.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We are hopeful that the reforms need to continue. And in fact, President Zelensky referenced that in his speech to the plenary today and at all points. Wherever those reforms that are necessary to be made were mentioned, President Zelensky and his colleagues were very actually not only receptive but active in saying 'of course'.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So that also will determine the speed with which steps are taken. If we look at that speed and I remember when I met President Zelensky on the 1st of April in Kiev, and the perspective then was even before the announcement that Ukraine would become a candidate country of the European Union together with Moldova, was that the responses to even the initial phases and questions that would be put by the commission would be answered much earlier than, well, one would say is a normal path to membership.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And that has been the pace that has been kept up, really. If we see also the quality and the depth of negotiations that took place already last week when the College of Commissioners visited Kiev. So you could see one on one minister by minister with the equivalent a commissioner and the level of preparedness and readiness that there is.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But  I think should be matched by our political will to be also ready to take the next step. So we welcome the increase in resources. We we welcome the fact that there is this, let's say, a very, very strong appetite for the fact that accession negotiations should open. Timeline, of course, differs. It depends on the language used.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But for me, I look at a country that is fighting our war, since the 24 to February 2022, and that country needs to be given a perspective that it was promised already by the European Parliament on the 1st of March and then in June by all the member states. That is the the what we will go with in 2023. And it's a very, very clear position of the Parliament and also the agreement between the group leaders that took place yesterday.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, What I said this morning was a reflection of what has been for quite a while now. The position of the European Parliament is adopted in resolution and in fact a group leader statement says that the delivery of weapons, such as the ones you mentioned, should be considered. And that was repeated by myself with the leaders this afternoon, both in the big meeting and then bilaterally.

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Why do I say this? Because President Zelensky was very clear and he made the point that we are going to continue to fight for our common values and what we all need to defend together. And that is in that perspective that I would say some leaders reacted positively and said, look, we were slow to deliver earlier. Would we be slow again?

SONDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, In this regard, I share that approach and I, I think we should be willing to continue to listen and see what the Ukrainians need, whether it is financial, whether it is logistical, whether it is military or logistical support. We also have to be prepared for an escalation by Russia in the next few weeks. So this period is decisive and we have to respond proportionately because the threat is existential, not only to Ukraine but neighbouring countries if Putin doesn't stop.