Europe is only what we make of it  

Good morning everyone.

Thank you for having me here. It is an honour but also a responsibility to take our discussions back to Europe. 

Thank you President Scholz - thank you, dear Bernhard - for your invitation and for the warm welcome.

And thanks also to all the volunteers I met this morning and to civil society, who made all this possible.

I wanted to start by saying that Europe is what we - all of us – have the courage to make possible.  

It is not set. It is not complete. But the future of this unique project in the world depends on every single one of us. 

And here's my appeal: let’s fight for Europe. We cannot allow ourselves to surrender. Let us never underestimate what we can become.

We are still at the beginning of our project. Yes the world has changed, yes the US is more complicated than it was, yes the war in Ukraine exposed our dependence on Russia, yes the horrific situation in Gaza showed a new generation how much we need a stronger Europe pushing for peace and yes - as Mario Draghi said, Europe's economic might and soft power is simply not enough anymore to ensure Europe remains a global leader. 

Status quo means surrendering. It means allowing Europe to be on the sidelines. Europe has never been a spectator in the world and we must never become comfortable being that. We are leaders. We just need the courage to take the decisions we must take. 

We need to stop thinking of the Europe that is and start to build the Europe that can be. 

There are two options left for Europe: bold change or the slow agonising spiral into irrelevancy.  I stand for change. The European Parliament stands for change. 

We all know that change is not easy. Change requires sacrifice. 

We need to ask ourselves the difficult questions: do we want to be able to defend ourselves? Do we want to truly integrate our markets and unlock the huge potential we know about? Do we want to support our businesses and entrepreneurs? Do we want to ensure our way of free enterprise and social safety nets? 

Then the answer my friends is one: Europe. The Europe that can be. Now is the time to build.

It is true what you say, Bernhard, that the European Union has faced challenges that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. It is true that they are real and it is also true that the last years have meant that in order to respond to the new world we now live in, Europe must change. 

It must become more agile, faster, fairer, better able to deliver for people, better able to use the tools we have, and courageous enough to create those tools when we do not have them yet. It means admitting that the status quo, that we have all been very comfortable with, that has delivered change for a generation, is no longer fit for purpose. 

Courage is a difficult word to use in politics. Sometimes it feels that everyone wants change, but few actually want to change. 

In recent years, the European Parliament has been radically reformed because we realised that if our institutions become too short-sighted, too complacent, or too weighed down by bureaucracy to adapt, citizens will lose confidence in Europe’s ability to keep its promises. My dear friend David Sassoli had also warned us about this here in Rimini.

Europeans are by our nature builders, innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs – we create and we strive for excellence. That is what made this part of the world lead the global shift and industrial revolutions. That’s how we created art, nurtured culture, built businesses, and carried generations out of poverty and war to prosperity. Few know this better than Italy. 

Yesterday morning I was in a small village in Calabria and I met Nicola, a young entrepreneur. What Nicola wants from Europe is that we make his life a little less complicated so that his small business can grow in his beautiful hometown. Nicola is not asking too much of us.

That is why my message today is one of optimism and hope. Of belief in our capacity to meet this moment. Europe was not born to be a spectator, and it is not in its nature to become one.

The first step is creating the right conditions for stable and sustainable growth: by simplifying rules, deepening our single market, and expanding trade. And I want to assure you - the European Parliament is not shying away from taking the necessary decisions to move Europe forward. 

A few months ago, President Mattarella, during his visit to the European Parliament, described our Parliament as ‘‘the centre of gravity connecting the institutions and citizens” - it is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.

When it comes to our simplification agenda - the heart of our commitment to building a Europe that works better for its people - we’re also making progress. 

In Italy – and in Europe - there is no shortage of innovators, of talent, of creativity. I have visited many centres of technological excellence, including the Leonardo supercomputer, one of the most powerful in Europe, located in Bologna, capable of processing enormous amounts of data and supporting research and innovation. But we also know that passing 13,000 pieces of legislation in the past legislature - compared to just 3,000 in the United States - would hamper anyone’s chance of leading the way forward. 

And so we need to be honest with ourselves. About where we’ve gone too far, too fast. Where, perhaps, we haven’t gone far enough. It is this reflection, this awareness, that today must guide the way we govern and legislate, as well as the daily work that my colleagues and I carry out in your House in Europe.

It’s what led to the compromise on the packaging dossier - with many thanks to the input of Italian industry players and the efforts of Italian MEPs, including some colleagues present in the room, whom I greet: colleagues Picierno, Sberna, Fidanza, Salini, Gori. Thank you for being here.

It’s what enabled us to postpone the application of corporate reporting and due diligence requirements, and the readjustment of importation tariff thresholds that would have hit European companies still finding their feet. 

We need to remain in lock step with our citizens. In Europe, our industries support millions of jobs. Europe should moralise less and act more. I’m proud of our industries and I want to help them not hinder them.

So ultimately our belief is simple: where we can make things easier, simpler, and more straightforward - we must. Where we need to correct and adapt to new realities - we should. This is the direction we are taking our work. 

The same applies to strengthening our single markets for energy, banking, capital markets, telecoms and defence. 

This is how we can bridge the technological gap between the United States and China. Deeper integration is what could support that. It would bring prices down, drive investment up, and make it easier for companies to operate throughout Europe.

One of the dominating headlines over the past months were trade talks between the European Union and the United States. 

To be clear: there is no stronger alliance, nor deeper democratic harmony in the history of the modern world, than that between Europe and the USA. Our companies are integrated, as are our ways of life.

The provisional trade deal is a step forward for our transatlantic ties - and for the trust between our two blocs. Parliament will do its job: we’ll scrutinise it closely to make sure it works for Europe’s businesses and consumers.

But let’s take this as a lesson. We must look further, towards partnerships with Africa and Latin America, based on investments and strong trade partnerships. It’s a message I carry to every country I visit, and next week at the G7 Speakers’ Summit in Canada, I will take it there too.

Europe has never shied away from the hard work of building global cooperation and sustaining the world order. No place demonstrates this better than Ukraine. Kyiv would not be free today without Europe’s support. The peace negotiations would not be possible without Europe’s sustained efforts.
 
In this commitment, I wish to thank President Meloni and Foreign Minister Tajani for Italy’s decisive contribution in defending European values.

We have always pushed for peace - a real peace - that comes from Ukraine’s ability to stand strong.

And we need to keep explaining why our support for Ukraine is so determined. It is not only altruism but about our – Europe's – ability to defend ourselves and about our quest to live free. A principle we will never forget.

That’s where our insistence on real security guarantees comes from – because history teaches us that without them, all we would achieve is the postponement of a bigger, bloodier, battle later down the line with far worse consequences. 

So of course we want peace. We have always wanted peace. But a peace that lasts. That keeps us all safe. That is based on the principle of nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine – and for that to happen it must mean that nothing about Europe can be decided without Europe. 

Not because we want war but because we want peace. 

And we understand that we must keep people on board and that is becoming harder with a younger, more sceptical audience. That is why we need the European Parliament - the elected voices of citizens. 

We also need to address a younger more sceptical audience on Europe’s role in finding a path forward in the Middle East and Gaza, where the situation remains horrific. Too many innocent victims. The hostages have not yet been released. And too many children are paying the price; yesterday more journalists were killed: this situation is intolerable.

We want the killing to stop. The suffering to end. And the hostages to be released. We cannot remain indifferent.

We owe it to all future generations to help end this cycle of perpetual war. And this is possible. 

My dear friends, 

Security, competitiveness, subsidiarity, simplification, peace - these are not just buzzwords. They are the building blocks to Europe’s next chapter.

If we want peace, we must safeguard it. If we want growth, we must enable it. If we want trust, we must earn it. And if we want to lead then we must change - with smarter laws, coherent policies, and the courage to act.

Thank you. Viva l’Italia e Viva l’Europa.
 

You can read the President's speech in Italian here.