Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Ursula von der LEYEN, EC President and Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister hold a joint press conference on the Presentation of the priorities of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

Czech Presidency of the EU (T)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

FIALA, Petr

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister and Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission on the Presentation of the priorities of the Czech Presidency

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Let me warmly welcome the Council of the European Union President in office, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala to the European Parliament. Let me also very warmly thank President von der Leyen for joining us in Strasbourg today and also for being with us during the debate. With an illegal and a brutal war on our continent, the Czech presidency comes at a very important time and our next steps will be decisive for our union's future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, We must keep, this is evident and came through throughout the debate, we must keep supporting Ukraine. We must keep defending our values and the rules based world order. And this is why our unity amongst our Member States and amongst the EU institutions that we represent is so important. The European unity with Ukraine and its people will be central to the Czech Presidency's agenda and I am confident that it will be a success.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, As co-legislators, we also have an obligation to work together to deliver on laws that will accelerate the green and digital transformations. Now is not the time to backtrack on our ambitions and we have full confidence in the Czech presidency to do that. And finally, we need to follow up on the outcomes of the conference on the future of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, We can enhance the Union's capacity to act and our citizens expect us to deliver on this. And the European Parliament has demonstrated tangibly that it is ready to start the conversation. I will leave it at this in order for us to have time for as many questions as possible, I will pass the floor to Prime Minister Fiala and then Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, Dear Roberta, it's a pleasure to be here in the European Parliament. We are taking over the Presidency at a very difficult time. EU citizens expect from us that they will not face a lack of energy next winter, that they will not be afraid of more price increases and that they will always have enough food on the table.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, As you know, the Czech presidency has defined five priorities. We want to focus on managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine's post-war recovery, energy security, strengthening Europe's defence capabilities and cyberspace security, strategic resilience of the European economy, and finally, resilience of democratic institutions.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, We already started cooperation with European Parliament three weeks ago with the visit of the Conference of the Presidents of the of the EP in Prague. After the conference, I discussed priorities with the Commission and Council. I am glad I could present to the members of the European European Parliament today. I plan to work with European Parliament for the next six months. So we come out of this situation stronger. I am very much looking forward for our cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, Ladies and gentlemen, today I had the honour to visit Strasbourg and present the priorities of the Czech Presidency to the MEPs of all colours. I appreciate highly the role of the European Parliament in reacting together with us to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. There is a war going on. People are dying, fighting for their right to be one of us, one of our nations. The Russian aggression, the impact of it, energy prices, all of that will be the main topics of the European presidency of the European Council. And I'm very happy to have gone through a very vivid debate with MEPs, and we all were basically speaking with one voice, and I experienced a lot of support.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, The first steps on our way was the candidate status for the Ukraine, and the European Parliament was very vocal in expressing their support. We must now think in the longer term. Also on the Ukraine post-war, we must tackle the refugee crisis, the refugee waves. That's all our tasks. And this is why this is also the slogan of our presidency: Europe as a task.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, And as I could see today in the European Parliament, not only the five priorities, but also our motto, our slogan grabbed attention. And many colleagues in the European Parliament also commented on the slogan. I believe that in cooperation with the European Parliament, we will find the best way forward. I am looking forward to the cooperation. The tasks in the energy area will be very difficult.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, Also, energy sovereignty, cutting on our dependence on Russian supplies and many steps have been done by the European Commission, chaired by Madame von Der Leyen. We will have to strengthen the alternative sources of energy. We will have to discuss a lot. It will not be easy, but our goal is the same: tackle inflation, tackle high energy prices, also find ways how to reduce, how to mitigate the impact on our citizens in the member states.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, We will try to strengthen European Union's economy to weaken the dependence on uncertain suppliers. We must be good again in innovation, digitalisation, automation. All of that is part of the package that the Czech presidency will try to resolve. And if we are successful in agreeing with the European Parliament, then all the Member States will benefit and will grow.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, The Russian aggression is not only a physical threat, not only an economic threat, it is also a threat to our common values. They want to destabilise Europe and the rules based world order, and we can stop such aggression and aggressive regime only if we strengthen our democratic institutions, if we help our democratic institutions to grow and be stronger.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Petr FIALA, Czech Prime Minister, In our democratic commonwealth, so to speak, we have many different views. That's natural, can't be different than that. But nevertheless, even today, we heard it again, what's important is that the European Union, in the key questions, must keep its unity. That's what will be our ambition and I believe that the Czech presidency will make its contribution and that in cooperation with other institutions, the European Union will be stronger after this six months.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Madam President, we have been discussing in the last days the details of the Czech presidency. Congratulations again for a very successful start. We were in Lytomysl as a Collegue of Commissioner, last Friday. We went through all the different topics in detail. So allow me today to focus on basically the three main topics or the main mottos for your presidency that you chose.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Under "Europe as a task" you've said: rethink, rebuild, repower. And indeed, in repower, the main focus is to have the same direction of travel, to get rid of the dependency of Russian fossil fuels, and over time, get rid of our dependency on fossil fuels overall.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, So how are we going to work on that during the Czech presidency? We have presented the package REpowerEU. It's basically three pillars. The first one is diversification away from Russia towards trustworthy, reliable suppliers. We are on our way there. The second is energy efficiency, a very powerful tool. And the third is massive investment in renewable energy. And along with this REpowerEU package comes €300 billion to be invested in the European Green Deal and precisely in the renewable energy that we will need over time. So I count in your presidency on a rapid adoption of Repower EU.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, For Repower is of course, also the second topic fit for 55. Council has found its position, parliament has found its position. So we are very much looking forward, Petr, to have you in the trilogues now managing the completion of the files. And if I look at the very instant work we are doing, we are preparing for all eventualities what gas supply from Russia is concerned. The Commission will present in two weeks an emergency plan based on national emergency plans in case of a disruption of full of cut off of Russian gas. Also in this topic, we are very close cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Rebuild: course, Of the topic of Rebuild is dominated by reconstruction of Ukraine and really for Ukraine during this atrocious war. But we will also focus on domestic topics. And here I want to take two examples. We have created in the wake of the pandemic a recovery plan NextGenerationEU, for the recovery of our economy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Here, what is now important, we have disbursed already €100 billion, another €700 billion of investment under NextGenerationEU are ready to be deployed. So we will work intensively on that during the presidency.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The second topic where a focus is on is the design of fiscal rules on our Stability and Growth Pact. Here, the challenge will be to reconcile financial sustainability and the obvious investment needs that are out there. And the Commission will present a proposal right after the summer. But I do not want to miss to mention also the digital for Rebuild.Here, we want to conclude negotiations under your Presidency, for example, on the European electronic identity, on AI, the European Chips Act and possibly the Data Act.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And last but not least, we think, of course, many topics are possible under Rethink, but I want to mention the Conference on the Future of Europe. You know that I will be coming forward with my first proposals from the Conference on the Future of Europe during my State of the Union speech in mid-September. So I am very much looking forward to work with you in this Presidency.

Q&amp;A Question regarding taxonomy, vote for the veto and next steps of the Commission.

Q&A Question regarding whether russian frozen assets will be used for reconstruction of Ukraine.

Q&A Question regarding the situation of oil and gas in Europe for the following winter.

Q&A Question these regarding their opinions on the proposal by Italian prime minister to set a cap price on gas from Russia, and a mechanism to finance national measures. Second question regarding the political consequences of emergency plans.