Debate: Commission Work Programme
Date: TUESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2020
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

I was part of a very vigorous discussion in the General Affairs Council as you know, this was also debated on the level of the European Council, and I know that you devote a lot of time to looking for the best ways on how to tackle the pandemic and I think that the answers you provided are the correct ones.  We need more coordination. We need to inform each other better. We need to listen more to the science and we need the stronger health union – where we will find the better ways for how to inform each other about border closures, where we would align the methodologies for testing for scientific data and where we, as we are doing right now, would be focusing for making sure that we will play this good role of Europe, for making sure that we will guarantee the high quality, tested, proven vaccines for all, not only in Europe but on the entire planet.  That’s, I think, one of the key missions: to show that Europe is doing its utmost to make sure that our world is a better place, and I’m sure that with your support we will build the stronger health union in the European Union and also we will equip Europe with the instruments we need, and thank you very much for that support.  The green and digital. There was a lot of discussion and I remember that we have been debating also together whether COVID-19 would in any way slow down our efforts in making sure that this twin transition will bring the transformative effects we expect from it to the benefit of the European economy.  I think we have seen the opposite. We have seen that the COVID—19 crisis has served as an accelerator of our efforts and that more and more people in Europe realised during this first lockdown how nature is important, how protection of the environment is crucial for the survival of the human species, and how important it is not to waiver in protecting our environment, and therefore we need to find the ways for how this twin transition could be mutually reinforced.  It will be part one of our foresight studies for the next year: what are the links and how can we reinforce these green and digital processes together? I would really like to thank you for the very good discussion and your legislative reports on artificial intelligence, on the digital services act and on digital policies. They will, for sure, help us dramatically in launching what is already happening, that this decade should be the decade of digital policies for Europe. Mr Marques and also Mr Papadimoulis but also Mr Azmani have rightly highlighted the importance of social policies. I think that if you look at our programme you will see that we are presenting a very ambitious action plan. It’s not a plan, it’s an action plan. Concretely, what we are going to do in making sure that nobody is left behind and that we are going to deliver on the very concrete elements, how to build the European pillar of social rights, and I think that we will be debating every single measure and I’m sure that together we will create a much stronger social network, much stronger social policies, which I hope would mitigate the dire consequences of not only the health but also the economic crisis through which we are going together. I would like to thank Mr Kovatchev, Mr Marques, and also Mr Lamberts, for on one side the strong calls for being more ambitious and also for reminding us that to achieve all these ambitious policies we need sources, we need instruments, and in our case this is the multiannual financial perspective, this is the Next Generation EU.  I can assure all of you that we will do our utmost to be an honest broker. You know where we stand in this very important institutional debate and discussions, I heard that the negotiators are working very hard, that they are optimistic, despite the very difficult discussions, that we will have this very important financial instrument at our disposal as of 1 January 2021.  I think the citizens would have a hard time forgiving us if we wouldn’t manage to get that, so I think we have to put all our minds, all our creativity, all our good political will, to making sure that we will have the budget and the Next Generation EU in place as of 1 January 2021 so we can implement all of the proposals which we discussed today ,because as you all underlined, this should be really the year where we will move from strategy to delivery. That’s our intention and I’m sure that thanks to your close cooperation and your support, we will achieve that.