“Check against delivery”
Dear Manfred,
Dear EPP family,
It is wonderful to be here today. A very special thanks to you, Alberto Feijóo, for your amazing hospitality. You have organised this incredible Congress, at this really important time.
Allow me a word on yesterday’s events. Yesterday, citizens across Spain and Portugal and parts of France faced an unprecedented power outage. I would like to commend them for the calm and the civility that they have displayed in the midst of this most challenging blackout. They have shown collective responsibility and solidarity with the people that suddenly found themselves unable to go home. And let me thank in particular the police, the firefighters, the traffic controllers. In all countries, they have been working under immense pressure to protect the citizens and maintain the order. ‘Gracias e obrigada a todos.’
This EPP Congress is a reunion of friends, and I particularly want to pay tribute to my dear friend Manfred. You are known for your outstanding leadership. Last summer, it was an honour and pleasure to hit the campaign trail with you. And look at what we have achieved together: We scored a resounding victory in the European elections; we are by far the largest group in the European Parliament; Roberta’s leadership has won her a well-deserved second mandate; and we have one of the largest EPP teams ever in the European Commission. And it is great to see so many of you here. Dear Manfred, you have made the EPP strong, and a strong EPP means a strong Europe. So, you have my full support to lead us for another term as President of EPP.
Let me also thank you for choosing Dolors Montserrat as candidate for Secretary-General. Dear Dolors, thanks for putting so much passion in everything you do. You are a great choice to be the first woman Secretary-General of our party, and I think Roberta will agree when I say: Other parties talk about gender balance, we deliver on it.
Dear friends,
Just over a year ago, I stood in front of you in Bucharest to ask for your support. I remember sharing with you the lesson of my father – that Europe is more than a market. It is more than a set of institutions. Europe is more than a Union, Europe is our home, and our first mission is to protect the place we all call home. It is about prosperity. It is about security. It is about democracy. This is what we, as EPP, have promised to the people of Europe. And they have entrusted us to deliver on this promise. Because they know what the EPP leadership can achieve. From Donald Tusk in Poland to Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Greece, from Petteri Orpo in Finland to Andrej Plenković in Croatia, from Nikos Christodoulides in Cyprus to Ulf Kristersson in Sweden, from Luís Montenegro in Portugal to Luc Frieden in Luxemburg, from Evika Siliņa in Latvia to Christian Stocker in Austria, from Rossen Jeliazkov in Bulgaria to Ilie Bolojan from Romania, and in a few days Friedrich Merz in Germany is joining us. All of you here, from ministers to mayors, from the European Parliament to local governments, you know the simple truth: With greater power also comes greater responsibility. My friends, we are willing to take on this responsibility. EPP means leadership, and we will deliver for Europe at all levels.
My friends, our victory last year belongs to all of you. But election day is never a finish line, it is the moment to hit the ground running, and this is what we have done from day one. In our difficult times, nothing can be taken for granted. For decades, free trade has been a driver of global prosperity, it has lifted billions out of poverty and sustained the livelihoods of millions of European families. Now, global markets are shaken by the unpredictable tariff policy of the US administration. US tariffs on the rest of the world are at their highest in a century. The IMF issued a stark warning last week. That is not a surprise: Tariffs are like taxes, they hurt consumers and business alike, they affect Wall Street as well as Main Street. Millions of citizens will face higher grocery bills, medicines will cost more, transportation will cost more, inflation will go up, and this is hurting in particular the most vulnerable citizens. Businesses – big and small – suffer from day one. Greater uncertainty disruption of supply chains burdensome bureaucracy, we cannot and must not allow this to happen. We have to double down on our hallmark policies of open markets of win-win trade and investment partnerships of free and fair trade.
But in every crisis, there is also an opportunity. Not only is our Single Market the largest in the world, because its openness to the world is so much greater than that of the US or China, but we are also world champion in export to GDP. Our companies need the global markets. In this moment of crisis, it pays off that Europe is reliable and predictable. We already have the largest network of free trade agreements, with 76 countries around the world, now the world of trade is turning towards us. Since last year, we have concluded a new wave of trade deals, from Mercosur, to Mexico, to Switzerland. We are working with India and Indonesia, with the Emirates and Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, and the Pacific. They all want to deal with us because we are fair, reliable and we play by the rules. So let us stay the course, cool headed and united, because that is who we are. That is the European way of trade.
But the key to our prosperity is to put our house in order, and to make business easy right here in Europe. Our Single Market is a safe harbour for European businesses, a place where they can grow strong before they set sail on global markets. But the vitality of the Single Market is held back by too many national barriers, fragmentation and bureaucracy. That is why we introduce – the now famous – omnibus, to simplify and speed-up. We have so many opportunities now, but we have to grasp them. Take a digital start-up that wants to scale up in the European Single Market; instead of having one single rule to deal with, they are facing across all Member States over 270 regulators active in digital networks. That fragmentation is the key factor why we are falling behind. If we remove all trade obstacles inside our Union, we could boost our GDP by as much as 10%. So, my friends it is time to break the chains. Europe was the cradle of innovation, let us free up European innovation and boost again the entrepreneur spirit of Europe.
This is the moment to stand up for our strengths and values. We do not invade our neighbours, and we do not punish them. On the contrary, there are twelve countries who absolutely want to become members of the European Union, that is about 150 million people. In Europe, children can go to good schools independent of their parents’ income; controversial debates at our universities are welcome; we consider freedom of science and research as fundamental, not only because it is a core value for us, but also because this is how excellence and innovation thrives. This is why Europe is open to the best and brightest. This is why we will make proposals to help them ‘Choose Europe’. Because we want scientists and researchers from all over the world to make Europe their home – and to make Europe the home of innovation again.
Dear friends,
We must continue to deliver on what matters to the people of Europe. Food security is key to our overall security, and we must always be grateful to our farmers, who provide us with quality food every day. They are the custodians of our land and our most ancient traditions, but their job is also of key strategic importance, so their hard work must pay off. Farmers deserve a fair income for the food they produce, and a level playing field with global competitors. Last year in Bucharest, we discussed to provide them with better incentives, better rewards for protecting nature, and much less administrative burden, and now we are getting it done.
And from the beginning, I have emphasised that migration is a common European challenge, that requires a common European solution. We are following a two-fold strategy. First, we have to take control of numbers of illegal arrivals. It is important that migration does not happen at a faster pace than our communities can keep up with. We will fulfil our international obligations, we have done in the past and we will do it tomorrow. But it is us, Europeans, who decide, who comes to Europe and under what circumstances, and not the smugglers and traffickers. Since the start of this year, illegal border crossings are down by 30%. This shows that our engagement with our Southern neighbours delivers, and we will continue this work. Second, we have to implement the Migration Pact. We have a new body of law that helps us to put our house in order. Let us focus on doing this. And we need better results on returns. It cannot be that only 20% of those who have a negative asylum decision, actually leave Europe. This is way too low and we cannot explain it to our citizens. We must do better, and this is why last month, we proposed new legislation. Being tough on illegal migration allows us to pave the way for the much-needed labour migration, because Europe should always be open to more talent and more skills.
Dear friends,
Security for Europe also means doing more on our own defence. The threat posed by Russia will not go away, and we know that the American focus will increasingly shift towards other regions. So, there is no doubt, peace in Europe requires that we take much greater responsibility for our own defence. Already at our Congress in Bucharest, we discussed to turbocharge our defence industrial capacity. But no one could imagine how much we would achieve in the short span of a year: up to EUR 800 billion in investment for our common defence; all 27 Member States on board; new defence partnerships with Norway and soon the UK. We have done more for European defence in a single year than in several decades. The EPP has always been the party of European Defence, and today, we are the party that is delivering the European Defence Union.
This was the dream of De Gasperi, Schuman, Adenauer, and now their dream is coming to life. And the people of Europe are massively in favour. But the far left and far right have always opposed this idea, and now again, from the fringes, some are trying to boycott this European awakening. They say that Russia is not a threat, and Europe is not the answer. So let me be clear: Only a strong Europe can protect peace in our continent. The far-left and far-right are not pro-peace, they are just pro-Putin.
And we have all seen how Putin negotiates. Just two weeks ago, on Palm Sunday, Putin launched ballistic missiles on people going to church. He has proved time and again that he cannot be trusted, and he can only be deterred. For a just and lasting peace, we must continue to stand with Ukraine, with more military and financial support, with more pressure on Russia – and yes, with a clear pathway for Ukraine to join our Union. Our message to Ukraine is clear: Your freedom is our freedom; your security is our security; and your future is in our Union.
Dear friends,
We in the EPP stand for a democratic Europe, where the people decide, and are masters of their future. This has been our guiding light ever since the EPP was born – back in 1976. 50 years ago, come next year. That is when our founders joined forces and laid out the first EPP manifesto. Its title was ‘Together, for a Europe of free people.’ This is the aspiration that has guided us for half a century, and it must still guide us today. A Europe of free people, free to choose our path, free from fear and oppression, free to shape our European home. That is the soul of the EPP. It was our first motto, it remains our mission and our moral duty.
Long live the European People’s Party. And long live Europe.
Source – EU Commission