EN/DE - European Parliament President Martin Schulz takes part in the European Council meeting to reach agreement on the outlines of the 2030 EU's climate and energy policy and to focus on the state of the European economy - 23/24.10;2014 - Brussels. Greetings of EP President to Prime Ministers. Greetings to Herman Van Rompuy, President of the Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, new Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Martin SCHULZ, EP President (in German): "We have discussed about the € 300 billion programme, and we referred to the fact that a broad majority of the EP want a balance between budgetary consolidation, a sustainable consolidation, and strategic investments in growth and employment. We have advocated this for many, many years. Over the past few weeks more and more people have been saying that this is the right approach; I would have wished that would have been the case earlier than today but better late than never. So we have fiscal discipline on one hand and then investment to support growth on the other side. That is the solution. And when there is a threat, in Germany for example, where the growth figures are shrinking, I think that this growth package that Mr Juncker is proposing is coming at the right time. And in December we will look at where the money should come from and where the investments should take place. But I can say that in general de proposals have received a lot of support in the Parliament.” Martin SCHULZ, EP President (in English): “We are for this ambitious 40 and 30% goals which the Parliament after very turbulent debate, you know, decided not with a broad majority but with a just majority. The debate in the Parliament and the majority represents and reflects the reality in Europe, Europe is divided, not only between the members of the Parliament but also between the member states. They have different approaches because they have different energy structures internally. Therefore I have full understanding for the different approaches. But on the other hand we have no time. If we want to avoid that we fail once more next year in Paris as we did in Copenhagen, we must really stick to our own goals. If there are countries who have problems to achieve the goals then we should discuss with them about compensations that they can get. But to give up the goals is the worst signal that we can give to the international community." © Frédérick Moulin 2014 - EU2014 - All rights reserved.

• published: 24 Oct 2014
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