Brussels, 31 May 2022
Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Michel following the 1st day of the special meeting of the European Council of 30 May 2022:
I want to note that other elements in the package are also important. It is the de-SWIFTing of the Sberbank. The Sberbank is the biggest Russian bank, with 37% of the Russian banking sector. So this is good that we now de-SWIFT the Sberbank. There is a ban on insurance and reinsurance of Russian ships by EU companies; a ban on providing Russian companies with a whole range of business services. And, very important, there is the suspension of broadcasting in the European Union of three further Russian state outlets that were very typically spreading broadly the misinformation that we have witnessed over the last weeks and months.
And then, we had a very good discussion indeed also on Ukraine. Here, I want to emphasise two elements. It is mainly the financial support that Ukraine needs urgently now. As you know, Ukraine needs by now per month round about EUR 5 billion to maintain the basic services. That is paying pensions, paying salaries and, as I said, the basic services that are necessary. There, we agreed that on one hand we take note of the very good result of the G7 that put USD 9.5 billion already on the table. USD 7.5 billion of those are American contributions, and EUR 1 billion in the G7 by Germany in grants. But we think that, of course, the European Union has to carry its fair share, too. Therefore, we are working on a mechanism to have an extraordinary macro-financial assistance package of EUR 9 billion, on which we will work now in the next week, on how to put it in place.
And my last point – but a very important one, too – we discussed intensively the question of the reconstruction of Ukraine. Here, we all know that we will invest; we will have a large amount of work – colossal, as President Zelenskyy said – for the reconstruction of Ukraine. I think that it is important that we are very well organised on that. Therefore, it was good that we could discuss the proposal of the Commission in the Council to create a platform where we can channel all the international initiatives – be it from the OECD, or the G20, or the IMF, or the World Bank, the European efforts, the ones from our American friends, for example – to be clear together on the direction of travel to raise the necessary investment, but also to be very clear that investment comes with reform. Reform of the administrative capacity, the judicial independence, to fight corruption, to create a conducive environment for the business sector. Here, it is important that we really stand together to give Ukraine a fair chance to rise from the ashes and to be able to really leapfrog forward what reconstruction is concerned in investment, but also in the improvement of the state of Ukraine.
Thank you.
Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Michel following the special meeting of the European Council of 31 May 2022
Brussels, 31 May 2022
And then, the third is the most important pillar, and this is the massive investment in renewables. It is accelerating the deployment of renewables across the European Union. The renewable energy has the big advantage that it is not only good for the climate, but it is also good for our independence and good for our security of supply, and it creates jobs at home. So for this plan, REPowerEU, we have been discussing with the European Council, we are proposing to support it with EUR 300 billion from EU funding. There are different parts that are contributing to this funding. If there are any questions about it, I am very happy to respond to them. But this is the house of REPowerEU that we have presented and discussed today.
Basically, it is solidarity and cooperation that are at the heart of any successful strategy to deal with Russia no longer being a reliable supplier. Cooperation, for example, as has been demonstrated by Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, who, a couple of days ago, showed at the joint Summit on offshore wind what it means to develop the offshore wind power in the North Sea. And of course, solidarity, this was a big topic today, ensuring that, in case of a full disruption of gas flows from Russia, gas is indeed allowed to flow to wherever it is needed in Europe.
The second topic was defence. The war, again, was and is a stark reminder for our Member States on the need to strengthen our defence capacities. We have seen positive developments, notably: Of course, we are all aware of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join NATO, the strongest military alliance in the world. And they will benefit greatly from their membership. But also the fact that, since the beginning of the war, Leaders and the Member States stepped up and announced by now EUR 200 billion in extra military spending. Now, it is important that we ensure that we get the maximum value out of this stepping up and additional investment.
And we all know the challenges that exist within the European model. On one hand, it is the lag in investments over the last years, so the gaps have to be filled. But the bigger challenge is the fragmentation we have within the European defence industry and the duplication of weapons systems. Here, we see that this leads to increased costs, to reduced interoperability. So we have to improve this situation. And therefore, it is, first of all, helpful that, since the beginning of this mandate, the European Defence Fund is up and running. It is a strong incentive to work together. The pilot programme so far has benefited more than 600 entities, and 26 Member States have used so far the European Defence Fund. This is an encouraging start. But there is also a second element: Now, when we replenish the military material that has been sent to Ukraine, for example, it is important that this is coordinated. And for that, we are setting up a Task Force to coordinate, also to de-conflict the replenishment of the national stockpiles. And the Commission will propose, before the end of June, to mobilise EUR 500 million over the next two years from the EU budget to incentivise the joint procurement by at least three Member States. This is, let us say, a pilot for a longer-term proposal that will come in the course of this year for a European Defence Investment Programme.
Finally, the third topic was on food security. Charles already introduced the whole topic. At the moment begin, we are facing one overriding urgency. And that is: 20 million tons of wheat are stuck in Ukraine, and they have to get out. And therefore, we have created and we are working hard on the solidarity lanes that will enable to bring out parts of this wheat through land routes and trains towards our parts. It is not trivial and it is, of course, more tedious and expensive, but it is necessary to get this wheat out. The second point that is important is that we now give relief to the vulnerable populations, and the possibility to afford the food. For that, we have pledged EUR 2.5 billion, and we propose to mobilise reserves from the European Development Fund to support, for example, Sub-Saharan Africa. The third element in that is that we step up our own food production. We expect a record export of cereals of 40 million tons in 2022 and 2023. And, within this scenario, we call on all partners not to restrict global trade of agricultural products. So any kind of trade restrictions have absolutely no place in our Member States, or globally.
And finally, but this is the mid and long term, we really have to develop better strategies, for example in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, to increase the production and the resilience, with new technologies, precision farming, the nanotechnologies that are out there. So there are a lot of topics that are combined to this food topic, from the urgency, to the mid, and to the long term. We will coordinate all our actions with the Team Europe approach. To feed into this work, I will travel to Cairo mid-June to discuss all these issues with President El-Sisi. Because we have to look at them, not only from a European, Ukraine perspective, but also from a regional and bilateral perspective.
Many thanks.