Debate: Presentation of the programme of activities of the Swedish Presidency
Date: TUESDAY, 17 JANUARY 2023
Speaker: Manfred Weber
Political group: PPE
Country: Austria
Language: EN

You won the elections last year and formed afterwards a pro-European government, and now your Presidency starts. I would say it’s a young government. It’s a young government and that means also a government full of energy and motivation. And that is so urgently needed for development on a European level. With the increasingly absent Berlin and Paris, we need more Stockholm. We need your leadership now. And that’s why we welcome you.  In 2009 – the last time Sweden led the Council – Europe was in the middle of a euro crisis and facing the most severe economic recession in decades. The Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, also from the EPP, became President of the Council, kept a cool head and steered Europe through the crisis. And on top of this, Sweden managed to reach a deal on the Lisbon Treaty. In an extremely difficult moment, you showed leadership. Sweden proved to be an effective crisis manager, to be an ambitious agenda-setter and a credible bridge-builder. And that is what is now also at stake.  Your predecessors did a great job. A centre-right coalition, the Czech Presidency already did a lot of good things – Fit for 55, REPowerEU, migration – and even, as a centre-right government, it was the first time activating the rule of law mechanism, and I think that is a great achievement. So that is preparing the ramp now for Sweden.  You spoke about the war and, on this question of security for Europe, you already showed leadership. You have taken responsibility and committed yourself to our European security. You are not only making NATO now stronger by joining NATO, but the entire European Union. And I speak here on behalf of the EPP. So let me underline that the socialists were always opposed in Sweden to joining NATO, and at the beginning also the European Union. It was your party, it was the EPP, always together with Christian Democrats, always fighting for Europe, always fighting for NATO. So you were always on the right side of history. And finally, socialists understood we had to go. So congratulations to the Socialists as well. For us as the EPP, as you can imagine, the most important point in this Presidency is jobs, jobs, jobs. We speak again about competitiveness, and it’s about people when we speak about competitiveness. Being social means, above all, providing people with a job and a decent income. And that’s why, again, thank you so much, for Sweden is the best country to do so because you are a European champion of innovation: number three in the world, with innovative frontrunners like Skype, Tetra Pak and Spotify. And on top of this, Sweden is the home of the Nobel Prize. So that’s why innovation is, in a way, Swedish.  We welcome this very much. And with this challenge in mind – you mentioned already some examples – I can say that in artificial intelligence American firms invest six times more than European firms, and the top 10 leading companies investing in quantum computing are in the US and in China, not in Europe. And that’s why we have to pick up this competition. But for us, this also means all that we have to do it on a European level because the Member States have not the capacity, the tools and the resources to do so.  In addition to innovation, more has to be done. Yesterday, we celebrated 30 years of the single market: a great moment, but the work is not finished. In the telecom sector, we can do more. We have to answer the $430 billion Investment Reduction Act proposal from the Americans. Competition is good and we like competition, but our competition law and legislation is outdated. We need a reform of this. The creation of global champions is so urgently needed. And I have to say that the resistance from Commissioner Vestager – for example, to allow the merger of Siemens and Alstom – was a mistake. We need these kinds of global champions to be competitive on a global level.  And finally on this issue of jobs, we want to support you on your trade policy. We finally need to ratify CETA in all Member States. And with the election of President Lula in Brazil, we now have to sign Mercosur – that is so needed for global level, but also for us as Europeans.  We showed ambition and an ambitious approach to climate change in the last months. We did this together and now we have to show the same ambitious approach to jobs creation.  And finally, a second wish – very briefly – and that is migration. We have to continue on this. The Czechs did a good job. We have to help people in need – there is no doubt about this. We have to rescue people in the Mediterranean. We have to strengthen Frontex. We have to build up strong border protection against smugglers. And we have to show solidarity on a European level. That is what we have to do, and let’s use now the momentum to find a European solution on migration. The upcoming special meeting of the Council in February is the momentum to deliver it. Dear Ulf, I’m convinced that the Swedish Presidency will be a success and, dear Ulf, you can fully count on your EPP Group to deliver. Good luck.