Debate: Presentation of the programme of activities of the French Presidency
Date: WEDNESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2022
Speaker: Manfred Weber
Political group: PPE
Country: Austria
Language: EN

France is ready and, after your speech, I’m sure that Europe will be in good hands in the next six months. The priorities are well set. If I may say, from an EPP point of view, I hear defence, I see industry policy and I see jobs. Your Presidency will even organise a conference on the fight against cancer, from what I saw. Many EPP priorities are therefore present, and that’s why you can count on the biggest political family in the European Union to deliver on these issues. We need progress in Europe. I want to focus, in my contribution today, on more general considerations. My first consideration is ‘no more words, we need actions now in Europe’. We listened to your Sorbonne speech, in essence. You had a great speech here in 2018, in this House, and that was also the case today. We hear a lot about a vision for Europe, about sovereignty, about a stronger Europe. I deeply believe in what you say in this perspective for Europe. But in the last five years, is Europe really more sovereign than before? Every six months we welcome here in this Chamber a new Presidency: Angela Merkel was here, Prime Minister Janša, Prime Minister Costa. For Prime Ministers, it is probably interesting to be here and to present ideas on European stage. For us, it is a kind of a routine, and sometimes I even must say kind of a boring routine, because we hear the same on the big things on the agenda every six months. That’s why the question is: can we speed up? I give you a few considerations, a few examples of this. For years, we have known about Putin’s behaviour. He threatens us. He wants to go to war against Ukraine. He wants to build up an empire, an empire of oligarchs against our idea of freedom. The European Council, let’s be frank, is not capable today of making a firm stand with today’s world on the table. Nord Stream 2 – in my opinion – must be stopped if there is a military escalation in Ukraine. What is going on in Council? After Afghanistan and Ukraine, it’s obvious that we now need someone in the Council who goes to the Council and tells them we have to stop unanimous votes on foreign affairs issues. Who will do so? Take rule of law as another example. I voted personally here, in this House, in favour of an Article 7 procedure against Hungary. My party today is – in Slovakia, in the Czech Republic and in Poland with Donald Tusk – the frontrunner for rule of law and for a pro—European approach. That is the EPP today. On the other hand, I see that the Article 7 procedure is not even on the table of the Council. You do press statements among leaders, but when Viktor Orbán and you are sitting together, you are not ready to talk about this. Let’s be clear on the question of voting. You are even obliged to vote now on the Article 7 procedure on Council, but nothing is happening. We fought, as Parliament, for a binding rule of law mechanism, and the Commission will do what we asked them to do, but the Council is not capable of delivering. There are two examples of what I mean when I say that we need actions now, and no more words. That is what Europe needs. I would add another point, the second consideration. You have to consider that, in the Western democracies, you see more and more splits. A real big question for us is: how can we keep our societies together? Cities against rural areas, young generation against an ageing continent, vaccinated people against unvaccinated people. I try also to explain this on an example. The ‘yellow vests’ are not only a French phenomenon. Yes, we are committed to the fight against climate change, but when we discuss the issues of the ‘Green Deal’ in the next two years, we have to take care about the poor. Energy poverty is unacceptable for us in Europe. Higher energy costs will also bring high inflation, and that will also be a problem for the poor in our societies. That’s why we have to put this subject at the centre of the debate about the ‘Green Deal’. Otherwise, populism will grow and the transition will fail. That’s why the EPP will take care of this. Allow me to add a final point, a more general consideration again on this splitting up, about the political concept. You know that I am a Christian Democrat. My party, as the EPP, are ‘bridge builders’ by definition. In some of your contributions in the past, I understood that you are increasingly separating progressives and populists to create this split in our society. This is not healthy in the long run. It’s good to have competition in the centre of the landscape, between different political ideas among democrats, and not creating the split towards the populists. Probably, with this approach, we’ll make the populists even bigger than they are. That’s why I’m happy, as an EPP politician, that with Valérie Pécresse we now have real competition in the centre of the landscape. I’m happy about this, and maybe let’s see about the French voters. The French voters will also make gender balance a reality as they vote the first time for a French female pro—European candidate. So that is allowed, if I may say this as a party politician, Mr President, but I really like your ambitious approach for Europe, and especially the support for this Chamber. 210 million people voted in 2019 for this Parliament. The second biggest democracy in the world is Europe. To strengthen this institution, and to show that the decisions of the future are made in this Institution, is something we all believe in. We count on you to turn the outcome of the Conference for the Future of Europe into reality. Mr Macron, Mr President, welcome! Time is running out; let’s keep Europe united! No more words, let’s practice actions!