Joint press point by Roberta METSOLA, EP President and Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister ahead of the 'This is Europe - Debate with Robert Golob, Slovenian Prime Minister'.

Strasbourg

press point

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Slovenia (T)

GOLOB, Robert

Joint press point by Roberta METSOLA, EP President and Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister ahead of the 'This is Europe - Debate with Robert Golob, Slovenian Prime Minister'

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Dear Prime Minister, Dear Robert, it is a pleasure to host you in the European Parliament for our "This is Europe" debate. These have been difficult days for European democracy and I am grateful to the Prime Minister for making the time on such a crucial week for the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Allow me first to reiterate that the European Parliament and I personally will do everything we can to fight corruption. There will be no impunity. There will be no sweeping under the carpet. Our internal investigation will look at what has happened and how our systems can be made more watertight. Our house is on the side of the law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, The upcoming European Council this week will be crucial to ensure that Europe's energy legislation will not only help get energy bills of households and businesses under control, but also contribute to our long term climate goals. It is essential that the European Parliament is fully involved in the legislation to reform the gas and electricity markets.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, This is not the time to backtrack on our climate ambitions. Skyrocketing energy prices have also pushed inflation to record heights coupled with rising interest rates. This has created a tsunami effect on the current EU budget and a revision of the current monthly annual financial framework is therefore becoming inevitable.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, The EU budget needs updating to include new priorities for more flexibility in response to emerging challenges. Final point I would like to highlight the rule of law and the importance of the conditionality regulation. And let me here welcome the decisions taken in the Council last night. This Parliament has insisted from day one on this point it is fundamental that all Member States adhere to the treaties they signed up to when they joined the European Union. Thank you very much, Robert. The floor is yours.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Good morning from my side as well. It's a special honour to be here for the first time to address the European Parliament. The times that we are living in right now are really dire the year and they do need bold and decisive actions. The fields of energy, the geopolitical situation and even more so the rule of law are those topics that I will be addressing to the Parliament as well in my speech to the parliamentarians.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, When it comes to geopolitical situation, if there is one thing that if I need to choose, one thing to pinpoint, is the unity of Europe. Europe is as strong as its united. And this is a clear message that we need to not just send to the world, but we need to stick to at all times. And especially during the forthcoming week, not just because of the situation here in the parliament, but also the situation within the European Council, where we need to be not just decisive, but we need to stay united.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Speaking about energy, energy is one of those particular topics where we did have some success during the October European Council meeting, but we shall not linger. We need to work further and this week is going to be a very, very important week to show again the unity and to address the issue of high energy prices.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Implementing to coming to an agreement on price cap is so important because that's really what our people, that's what our industry, that's what our economy is awaiting from us. We cannot show any weaknesses here. And speaking about rule of law, Slovenia and me personally, we're always supportive of rule of law. We've had not so nice experience in the last couple of years. When the consequences of weakening rule of law could mean internally to our democracy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, That's why we will be always, my government, supportive of any measures to increase and improve and strengthen the rule of law, either within my own country but also in other EU member states. And that regard we fully support the measures and we will also express that support at the European Council meeting this Thursday.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Having said that, I invite all of you to come and listen to the debate that we will be having and discussion we will have at the Parliament later, and hopefully we will come to some conclusions that will be of value as well to the wider EU.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Because one lesson that I have learnt is that when it comes to Europe, it's not how big the country is that you are coming from, but how much knowledge you can bring to the table. And this is something that I want to emphasise not just here but also back home: to be ambitious, be ambitious not because you are big, but be ambitious because you know what you're talking about.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So what is your experience with political corruption? Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, this is a difficult week. It has been a very difficult few days. But what I have seen in terms of our response, first from a practical level in our full and immediate cooperation with the judicial and law enforcement authorities, both in Belgium and in other countries over the last few days.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, As well as the political statements, the unanimous decision of the Conference of Presidents today in order to trigger Rule 21, which will remove a vice president from her position with a vote at noon. That will be taken a few minutes after the Prime Minister's speech, together with a commitment of practical implementation, whether it is tightening of our rules, whether it is enquiring further, whether it is looking at the influence of certain third countries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We will not stop and leave no stone unturned. I cannot predict where this will go. But what I can say I fear and this is in a general point of view after our initial findings, is that the story will not stop here.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, First, let me reiterate that we have a zero tolerance when it comes to corruption, but that doesn't mean that we were not witnessing corruption, especially in the energy in Slovenia a decade ago when a large investment in a thermal power plant in short time was undergoing. And at that time and the problem is that that scandal has not been really it hasn't come to a judicial end yet in the law courts.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, So hopefully during our mandate, we will the judicial system will be able to conclude that particular process when it comes to corruption scandal. But the one good, good news is that usually the corruption is linked to big traditional investments. When it comes to energy, that means big foresight investments.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Now, we've seen that the green transition is here and that is really the only way forward. And that green transition is more dispersed when it comes to investment, meaning there is a large number of small investment. That definitely brings good news to the table, meaning that there is less chance but also less need for any kind of corruption. So that gives me some optimism for the future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So I think starting with your second question, our reaction so far has been precisely to fight against the temptation to do that. This institution is a proud one. I have not only the honour but the responsibility to lead it and make sure that our effectiveness in dealing with a scandal such as this will not tarnish an institution that has fought so proudly on rule of law and against corruption.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, That's why I said yesterday in my speech, this is not about right or left. This is not about north or south. Let's not let these individual members who unfortunately have let themselves be influenced, but also let's not let down our guard with organisations that pose with, let's say, some sort of facade when it's clearly not the case.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We need to look at all of this and we need to make sure that our reactions are immediate and clear and effective. If we do that, then we can go to the citizens in 2024 and say we as co-legislators, we as directly represented institutions that are directly elected, can be once more the bastion of the rule of law and fundamental rights that we have been fighting for.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, At least if I can talk about my experience here for the past ten years and specifically on this on rule of law, when we talk about what has happened this week, I am glad, of course, that we will be able to grant the macro financial assistance, which we will also vote on in under an emergency procedure today at noon of €18 billion to Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, That is important when we have millions of Ukrainians without electricity, without heating, without clean water, and at the same time making sure that we have the possibility to move further with our project. And on this, I would also take it to our longstanding plea for the enlargement of the Schengen area.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, I will once again make this point during the European Council that it is truly a pity if we do not proceed with the enlargement of Schengen to those countries that have for years now fulfilled all the technical and legal requirements because of the lack of political will. I think that that is when our responsibility, our positions are put to the test and we have to stand up to it and we have to take responsibility for them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Just reverting to back what I was saying before, we experienced ourselves what's the mental effect on democracy, The weakening of the rule of law can have in our own country in the past years. For that reason, we really feel that it is crucial that we take this issue totally seriously.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, Now, coming back to yesterday's agreement, I also believe that it's there is there would be no excuse for anyone to block the so needed help to the Ukrainians at this particular point in time when ordinary people are freezing because of Russian aggression on their critical infrastructure. No, no excuse here. Nobody can say we will veto that help.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert GOLOB, Slovenian Prime Minister, In that regard, I of course, I'm glad that they come to a let's call it peaceful agreement, but that we still we didn't back off of the implementation of the rule of law. So it's a it's a good decision. It's a good trade off if we want, and we will fully support it in the European Council.