Debate: Preparation of the European Council meeting of - October
Date: WEDNESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2023
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

In the previous debate, I was also informing about our efforts in providing humanitarian assistance: we tripled our budget, we opened air bridge towards Egypt and our dedicated staff and personnel is already on the ground and doing its utmost to deliver the humanitarian assistance where it is needed the most, and that is in Gaza. I also would like to quickly react on the points raised by Mr Azmani, Mr Niedermayer and Ms Schaldemose, who reminded us about the importance of our continued support for Ukraine, which is very clear for us in the Commission and I am sure also will be clearly reconfirmed by the next European Council. So, there is no question about it. We continue to stay by Ukraine, and we do whatever it takes to make sure that they will liberate their country. Ms Bischoff was referring to the social pressures, to the inequalities and to the high inflation, which is still very persistent in the European Union. I agree with her that this must be permanent focus of all of us and all of our institutions. A big part of the inflations are the high energy prices, where I hope that I can see it as positive and good news that yesterday the Council of Energy Ministers found a solution on the new electricity market design, which now will be brought also in the discussion with the European Parliament. I hope that this would allow us to finally establish the system which would push energy prices in Europe down. You are probably informed that we already had three very successful rounds of the common purchase of gas, for more than 50 billion cubic metres being offered to the European common aggregation. This had not only helped us to fill up the storages in Europe, but also stabilise the energy prices on the market, which is still very volatile. But of course we have to remain vigilant and we have to make sure that energy is cheaper in Europe and inflation is permanently pushed to the lower levels. Ms Bischoff and Ms Hayer also made a very important point on the mid-term review of the multiannual financial framework. I agree with all of you who underscored the point that we must have an agreement on this before the end of the year. And we must have an agreement on all the components of our proposals, because otherwise we will not be able to continue to finance our policies nor the support for Ukraine. So this is of tremendous importance, and I very much appreciate also the discussion on this point we had yesterday with the Conference of Committee Chairs and my colleague Vice-Presidents on how to deal with these outstanding issues. So, honourable Members of the European Parliament, of course, I know that you will have a very long voting session, so I will not extend my intervention here. I just really would like to thank you for the support and for some of the points, like the points of my very good friend Mr López Aguilar. We can discuss them between us and also with my colleague Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who is working day and night, together with the Vice-President Schinas, on making sure that this new migration pact is adopted as soon as possible, because we believe that this would be a key tool to tackling this very important issue for all of us.