Roberta METSOLA, EP President attends the Special European Council meeting held in Brussels on the 9th February 2023. Extracts from her arrivar, doorstep and press conference.

Brussels

meeting

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)

Special European Council meeting (09-10/02): extracts from the arrival, doorstep of Roberta METSOLA, EP President, roundtable and extracts from the press conference

Exterior European Council building, Brussels

Arrival of Roberta METSOLA, EP President and the EU Heads of State and family photo, 10 shots

Round table shots ahead of meeting, 4 shots

Roberta METSOLA, EP President arrives at the press conference, 2 shots

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, First of all, Ukraine needs our continued support and it needs weapons. Secondly, our aim is peace, a peace with freedom and justice, a peace with dignity. Thirdly, Ukraine is Europe and it belongs in the European Union and the starting of accession negotiations is within reach, maybe even this year.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, There is a European pact on migration and asylum, which already addresses most, if not all, of the issues we discussed, whether it is about external borders, second movements, returns, the external dimension, solidarity and it's all in there. So our point would be to get to the legislative work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, This morning the European Parliament adopted its position on the EU gas regulation and on the last big file of the Fit for 55 package, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. We are finalising the European climate law and therefore what we should be aiming for is how we are going to gain a competitive edge globally by sticking to our democratic values, but also by pursuing our ambitious climate agenda.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We must avoid the slippery slope leading to the bottom of the protectionist race. We do not need to fence ourselves in. Our economy has grown over the years precisely because we did the opposite. And we must continue to insist that our way of doing things works.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I would like to mention that yesterday the European Parliament gave its full support for the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania, as we have already done for Bulgaria. And I want to restate our strong support for Schengen accession as possible as soon as possible for these two EU members.