“In the next months, the European Parliament will be called upon to stand up for Europe. It will not be easy and neither will it be straightforward. But I am convinced that we can do that and prove that politics remains the best agent for positive change in our societies and in our communities.” President Metsola stated this as she addressed representatives of employers, workers and civil society during the Plenary Session of EESC
Thank you very much President Röpke, Dear Oliver, Dear friends, Dear fellow Members of the European Parliament, Former Members of the European Parliament, A lot of colleagues, familiar faces,
Nice to be in the hemicycle. We haven’t been in here since before the European elections and it is good for us to be back as we prepare for the Constitutive Session of the European Parliament next week in Strasbourg, and starting our 10th legislature.
To all of you, I say welcome here in Brussels. Thank you for the invitation to address you today. Just one month ago, Europeans were called to voice their opinion in the largest multinational democratic exercise in the world: The European Parliament elections.
People have elected 720 new Members of the European Parliament, and they have delivered a clear message for us on what they expect from us - from their Europe.
There are big challenges ahead of us, the next mandate will be not easy. But if I can say this very clearly: the onus, the responsibility, is clearly on all of us to take those electoral messages on board and turn them into action for the European Union.
Whether that is standing up for our common European values; the urgency that is required to show the power of Europe to have a positive impact on people’s lives; the necessity we have to stick to our commitments and keep our continent as the global leader of rights, of security, of equality, of sustainability; of opportunity, of competitive, social, free and fair markets; an area where we can level up our communities; people expect results.
How can we deliver on those results? This is by us finding the political and the legislative response that people want from us. Because if we don’t do that, then we really risk that our people retreat to the easy comfort of the extremes.
In the next mandate, perhaps more than at any other time, this Parliament - all of us - will be called upon to stand up for Europe. It will not be easy and neither will it be straightforward.
But I am convinced that we can do that and that we can prove that politics remains the best agent for positive change in our societies and in our communities.
If there is one thing that I learned during this campaign is that we can really re-gain that narrative. We can recapture that enthusiasm for Europe that we saw in each of the Member States during the election campaign - particularly with young voters, voters who voted for the first time. Those who used to find that there was no political party for them to vote for, no candidates to identify with, who thought the European Parliament is far away.
The first image we saw on that Sunday night when all the results started coming in, is that the pro-European majority can hold. And that is what will have to take us through the next years.
To do that, we need to find answers, collective answers on security; on ensuring Europe’s global competitiveness and growth; completing the capital and banking unions; reinforcing our strategic autonomy; on fighting social exclusion, poverty, loneliness; on making sure that our polices work equally well for families, farmers and industry. It means looking on how we can tackle issues that have nationally or for a long time not wanted to be tackled at a European level - like housing. If there is one thing that each Member State brought back with us is that we have an acute emergence of a need of more accessible housing across the European Union.
So will we, and here we turn to you as our partners in delivering this, be able to give hope to the next generation that they will have the conditions and frameworks that enable them to grow in our societies, to prosper, to be able to invest, to be able to stay in Europe, to be able to own and afford their own homes.
Over the past months, as we travelled from country to country in order to ask from people what they wanted from us, from the next legislature, including first asking them to vote, but then saying ‘what is important for you’. And here, I have a lot of colleagues – we did this together during the campaign – and the one thing we realised is that we need to urge those people and convince them not to take democracy for granted. And to urge them to vote. Now they have voted and we must deliver.
In this age of disinformation, populism, easy cynicism, responsibility lies also on all of us, on the democratic institutions - on the European Parliament and on the European Economic and Social Committee - to live up to the expectations that rest on our shoulders and to demonstrate that democracy is worthy of people’s confidence and support.
To do that, we need to push back against the idea of identity politics, push back the idea of populism and nationalism.
As Europeans, we’re not homogenous. You yourself know this as colleagues -and all of us know this well in this House - we have different traditions, languages, and cultures – but the beauty of our European project is that it is precisely these differences that give us strength of purpose. It is these differences that autocrats mistakenly thought were weaknesses. We proved them wrong in our response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and we will keep proving them wrong.
In the end, when see the result and how this Parliament will work, that democracy is still extremely vibrant in Europe. Democracy is understanding that together we can all be safer. It is a belief, a realpolitik. Democracy is that hope that really guided the European project from the onset, that guides us today and will guide us further.
This year, we celebrated 20 years of Membership of 10 countries – one of them mine - when we were in the very heart of the European Parliament elections campaign. And the one thing that unites all of us who come from those 10 countries, is the transformative effect of EU membership on the lives of generations of Europeans. That is without any doubt. Even those who doubted 20 years ago, don’t doubt any more.
And that is why it is important that we have friends here from the candidate countries. We’ve been discussing this also – how we could bring them closer in the European Parliament, in order to deliver back. This is the hope of membership. Enlargement is a win-win. Both for Europe and the countries waiting to join. And it’s not only about opportunities. It is about protection, it is about rights, making sure there is no backsliding on what we take for granted in the so called Article 2 of the Treaty.
Here we talk about enforceable rights afforded to citizens, opportunities offered to everyone. This is about the Single Market as we blend it with our cohesion policy, strengthening our economies. The European Union is not just about having legislation and transposing it. It goes much deeper, much broader and much wider than that.
And for over 65 years now – we recalled this when we signed the Agreement of Cooperation between the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee - this has shown this to be true by you. By those who came before you and no doubt by those who will come after you. You have shown and played a key role in the democratic process. You have been the body voicing the concerns of the various economic, social, occupational and civic organisations that make up civil society in all our Member States.
The importance of employers, workers, civil society is essential to our European construction - across our towns, cities and regions. That is where Europe starts and where democracy is in action.
The immediate challenge is how to keep it strong, how to defend it from external, internal but also internal and digital threats; how to fight for it and how to nurture it.
At a time of increased polarisation across Europe, European economic and social gains cannot be taken for granted. We must continue to listen to our people - to their concerns, and listen harder to them.
That is ‘the State of Democracy in Europe’. A democracy, that we will always defend. And I am very proud and glad that the European Parliament can count on all of you, Members of the European Economic and Social Committee, to play your part to continue to defend it further.
Thank you very much.