[Music]
welcome everyone
uh to this panel we're here live from
bratislava we're going to talk about
the eu and what you can actually deliver
to eu citizens
uh whether we're talking about consumer
protection security or even democracy
we have will welcome our three
participants
uh first the french junior minister for
eu affairs clement boone
as well as martin klutz the state
secretary for the ministry of foreign
european affairs
of the republic of slovakia and finally
monica holmeira will be joining us
remotely she's the chair budget control
committee
at the european parliament welcome to
bratislava to the globsex security
uh to the globsec forum um we're gonna
give you the opportunity
uh to you in the audience as well as you
joining us from home or wherever you are
to ask questions via the globetech app
your questions must be brief because we
won't have time to go through them if
they aren't
and in the audience you'll be also able
to ask questions and i'll ask you to
stand
up when you do and not to touch the
microphone for safety
and health reasons obviously that you
are not now very familiar with
unfortunately
uh we'll start this panel with a live
poll that you can answer
on on you can give answers on the app my
question to you
is um as an eu citizen today
what uh did concretely did you bring to
you
in your daily life don't be afraid when
you answer of being trivial if your
answer is
it's free roaming well be it but i'm
just asking you to give
short answers and preferably two three
keywords so that we can sort out your
answer
um we'll start with uh mr bone
your visit here is very very very timely
because france still will have to
deliver
france is taking over the rotating
presidency of the eu
in january but frankly most people in
europe
and uh most people in france don't know
or don't even care who holds the eu
presidency right
so how can you change that that's my
question how can you make sure that
people know who is
presiding over the eu and care and i'm
not just talking about diplomatic
circles i'm talking about your
regular european citizen mr bone
thank you very much and i'm very happy
to be back to globsec and
in bratislava today this is a big
challenge to make sure we prepare our
presidency well and we try to have
deliverables but of course usually it's
not enough
to make people just realize that there
is something happening about europe
in their country in france in this case
so we are trying i'm trying to
develop a kind of environment i would
say
of cultural projects sports projects
which
make people realize that there is a
something european happening or that
they are part of it
uh we are trying to identify for
instance all
events before the presidency even before
the presidency
uh like we have a culture days in
september in which all
monuments are public we want to make
them europeanized in a way so that
people
know when they go to the elysee palace
or to the versailles castle that there
was something about europe bad or
positive
which happened in the past here and that
they have a european background
i think the most difficult thing is to
make people understand that europe is
not about
directives regulations summits
of course we need that we are working on
it and it's necessary to deliver
reforms but there is a european culture
there is a european uh sports
community we are going through the euro
championship at the moment syria is a
eurovision there is uh people think it's
anecdotes
i do think it's very important to use
this
backbone of popular cultural sports
events to make sure that people
understand they're part of something
so we will try to make as many events
as we can not just for the sake of
organizing nice things
and postcode we need them more than ever
but also to develop this sense
of belonging if i just can conclude on
this we
we have defined so far three key words
for the presidency
uh which are uh roland's pisos
apartments in french so recovery
we will need this recovery still to be
implemented
and our recovery plan in particular
power because we have a big
sovereignty agenda we may revert to that
as you know but also belonging a
partners because
i think that developing through mobility
through cultures through education and
concrete initiatives
france in europe but europe in france
even more important
we need to insist on this to make
these six months very useful
and as as
fruitful as possible also for the french
public
to make this awareness higher so it's
mostly about communications then
no no i don't i mean for communication i
don't think it's a dirty word it's
important to explain what is happening
and to make this six months a moment of
yes of communication of public
communication events gatherings but it's
also explaining what have what we have
achieved over the four years because
as you know president macron and the
french government have insisted
probably more than any french government
before on
the importance of belonging to europe
the ability we have to push
what we think are important reforms in
europe to develop
bilateral relations on the network in
europe this is also why i'm
coming for the first time to slovakia
for instance and i will come back
dear martin um but uh it's uh
it's also about this european reflex
i can say this european feeling this
european sense of belonging that we need
so much of course we all know about
erasmus but it's five percent of
students of one generation i want this
type of
i would like that each young european
or less young european have the memory
of one european experience whether it's
just a striking movie a trip
a university exchange an internship
somewhere
a discussion in another language with a
european colleague whatever
but if you have this european experience
you are a european
foreign right um can we can i
kindly ask our backstage office to
display maybe the first answers of the
poll
so that we see what the eu has brought
to
uh the citizens were voting or using the
app right now so i see freedom of travel
free movement
a big one the euro um interesting we
were just discussing
the fact that some people don't find the
euro
being an advantage human rights safety
standards trade consumer protection
traveling uh peace and security
peace etc interesting so um
all these advantages are clear and and
clearly benefit eu citizens and yet
anti-eu parties are on the rise in
europe they're knocking at the door in
many countries slovakia
might somehow be an exception with
rising support for eu membership i think
a recent poll showed that 80
of people in slovakia are in favor of eu
membership which is very high
and yet the government uh grabbed the
headlines earlier this year for ordering
sputnik vaccines from from russia
which is a key success of russia's
vaccine diplomacy
um i just at the time when uh the eu was
having a slow start with vaccine
deliveries
so mr kluse my question is for you all
in all
how do you see uh the strategy the covet
crisis
uh an eu strategy to tackle this crisis
affecting the opinion
your citizens have uh on on the european
union
thank you and uh good morning to
everybody i'm very happy to have you in
bratislava uh
as far as i can see we are looking like
a twins with clemont today
that's fantastic and uh well
uh first of all uh strategy
communication i believe it's very
important for all of us
if it comes to the european union that's
why i really appreciate what clemont
said about his uh
idea of a french presidency we need to
speak up to our citizens that's why we
start also the conference of the future
of europe
and i believe it's very important too
for us
politicians but not only also for
business also for
academic environment for everybody to
speak about
what the european union concretely
delivered to our citizens because we are
forgetting that
very often you mentioned vaccine
diplomacy but
uh let's not forget uh march 2020 when
we spoke about the mess diplomacy it was
about the chinese in the time
now it's about the russians if it comes
to the vaccine diplomacy
unfortunately this country is heavily
affected by
propaganda hoaxes and
that's why i really appreciate also the
effort of the european commission and
european parliament
to discuss what should be the social
responsibility
of the social networks for instance
because it's heavily interconnected
especially in uh small countries like
slovakia uh
so if we want to keep the track of a
positive mood if it comes to the
european union we need to work hard on
that and
we need to bring very concrete
deliveries for our citizens
and when i saw the poll we can clearly
see that uh
people appreciating especially free
movement and
what we can't repeat never ever
is to have a situation like during the
first wave of pandemia
that we lock down our countries so even
if it comes to the movement of the
people
we slow down at least slow down
locked one of the main freedoms of the
european union which is freedom of
movement
and i get thousands of emails from our
citizens who are all around the european
union
this is the european union you promised
us so
please don't repeat it uh anymore and
try to find uh
all together uh the way
uh out from uh from pandemia a different
way
than the locking of the borders because
uh that will be very critical
also in 2022 during the french
presidential election
german presidential uh german uh
parliamentary election in autumn time
uh i believe people understand what's
going on in this case and uh
we need to find european solutions for
that so you think
after these lockdowns after a slow start
with the vaccines it's going a bit
better but a slow start nevertheless
especially compared to the uk do you
think
people will come out of this crisis more
uh involved a more pro-eu or less
keen to be eu members that's up to us so
i believe if we are using strategy
communication we are trying our best in
slovakia not only
i can say many positive words for
instance about the portuguese presidency
nowadays
uh then people understand how important
are these so-called european solutions
also if it council to strategic autonomy
for instance
which which we will speak about later
also if it comes to
uh join uh procurement of vaccines for
instance which was very very important
for this country
uh except of this uh short story uh with
uh
sputnik vaccine and i believe uh
uh what is most important now is to uh
introduce
european uh kovit certificates uh with
no delay anymore
and which will be technically prepared
well because that will allow our
citizens to travel more
and i'm sure that uh most of us need to
go for a vacation to some of the
european countries
indeed mrs hallmeyer
welcome one important uh point
for eu citizens i think is that the
european union
did manage to find an agreement to spend
billions
on recovery from the covet crisis now
the challenge is basically to make sure
that these funds are channeled to
regular citizens and any citizens what's
the biggest
obstacle in your opinion for these eu
funds to be disbursed and to be
efficient
um so firstly perhaps and so firstly
reactions
short reactions on my uh my two
speakers said two co-speakers
or received the member states of that
member states
then eu effective if manchester united
are not doing it if represented i'm not
doing so receiving the
recovery phone we see it very clearly we
see it very clearly that
uh we can be successful we can decide
well it seems that we have some
technical issues that's fine
um mr bone the question back to you then
what do you think would be the biggest
obstacle to a smooth disbursement of
these eu funds
well the idleness is a big obstacle we
had some
obstacles to get where we are which is
now the moment when you can disburse the
fence and
you can it uh in two ways you can say
in comparison with what we were able to
do sometimes at the national level
when the emergency measures had
everywhere in the eu to be put in place
that it was long and slow because
we had a political agreement in european
council
last summer in july and it's just
starting now
as i tend to say it was not a
bureaucratic time it was a democratic
time that we used and it's true because
we needed an agreement between the
council and our european parliament that
all europeans elect
and then they needed a ratification by
all national parliaments
i mean if we want to do differently we
have to say it but
can we say at the same time that europe
is too slow and that we want democratic
checks
at the national level if we need that
and i think we need that
it takes a bit of time that's the way it
is overall it was quite quick
and it's starting now after a few months
of this process and if we want to make
it a success
to be frank i think a country like
france
has a big responsibility because as you
know we
we pushed so very strongly for it at the
moment when
it was so difficult we worked together
on it
but it was extremely difficult to even
mention the idea in march 2020 april
2020
a month afterwards there was a french
german agreement two months after that
there was a unanimous agreement in
european council
now if we want to make sure that this is
a big opportunity
and not just a nice surprise
that came up out of a long night in
brussels
we have to make sure that it goes to the
right sectors
green transition digital transformation
that is spend quickly
that it spends wisely on key investments
and not a
less useful project and so on so i think
this
idea that we are discussing our national
plans
at the european level which was
sometimes criticized in france
because it's you know european checking
what is the what is being done with the
money of course
we are borrowing together it's normal
that we have
everyone a say on what the others are
doing
and france is the same it goes both ways
it's perfectly rational perfectly normal
and perfectly sounds
but now it's good that through this
discussion we have a coordination of the
big
issues and i think what maybe we should
do better
in the coming months is to have common
projects
when we want to invest in hydrogen we
want to
to invest in more medical research
innovation when we want to invest in in
batteries
all we need for the decade to come for
europe to be
at the technological frontier we need to
coordinate and to have common projects
we are starting this with germany but i
think maybe if we
want to make this plan successful we
need more of these common projects at
the european level between
eu countries you said in overall it uh
it we were quite quick in in sorting
this out and
finding an agreement mr kluse do you
agree um because these projects you know
the hydrogen project is
starting to uh starting to get in shape
but for example project on health are
taking a bit of time
at eu level especially if you compare it
to what the u.s can achieve
do you think it's fast enough well
of course could be faster but uh let's
take a look on
aki community which is not allowing us
to
to move some of the competencies from
the national states without changing of
the treaties and uh
uh that was one of the very clear
answers when people start to blame on
european union
uh in uh uh spring 2020 that uh
why they didn't act quickly enough the
same like russians or chinese
uh and uh the answer was uh very clear
that uh well they can't
because it's our responsibility it's a
responsibility of national state so
let's discuss also this option during
the conference of the future of europe
i believe we need to speak frankly to
our citizens that in some occasions like
pandemia for instance
maybe more europe is a good idea then we
need to speak about
some other competencies where maybe a
little more subsidiarity will be better
idea
so this is the conference of the future
of europe about and i believe we will
get very clear answers from our citizens
because they expect
as i said very concrete delivery from us
and
we are failing sometimes so i'm
optimistic of course so
and i believe uh 2021
uh was much more successful than the
2020
and if it comes to uh this recovery fund
i believe very concrete deliveries will
come in next two years
and this is very good news for all of us
because it's not only how to recover
from the pandemia
it's also how to make uh our national
states and european
union more digital more green better
educated
and uh i i believe this will bring uh
europe to the future generations in very
different shape that we get used to
indeed i just for those who are uh
eagerly waiting for mrs whole meyer to
appear
again we're just sorting out technical
issues just be back
probably shortly hopefully mr bony
wanted to react
i i just wanted to to to add something
because you said
are we going fast enough or going uh are
we going far enough
i just want to insist on that i think
when you look at the figures they will
not want to be too too detailed here but
in terms of emergency measures what we
did usually at the national level but if
we add up the numbers
of what was done in germany in france
and slovakia everywhere in the eu
we are exactly or even higher than the
level of spending
in terms of social protection protection
to our companies small businesses
jobs that the u.s has been doing
if you look at the recovery now i think
the figures are quite close
what i think is potentially
a gap is as a long-term investment plan
the us
is now developing we'll see what happens
in congress because president biden has
announced big numbers
maybe smaller in the end but on this i
think europe should do more but on the
rest i think we should not be shy or we
shouldn't be proud
of what we've been achieving it could be
faster
we all want it to be faster and to
improve our processes
but it's big it's very big and what we
have done at the national level
protecting our jobs our small
restaurants cafes all these small
businesses
and now with a recovery plan for the
next two to three years is big and
we should be aware and proud of it
yesterday there was the first
market emission of the eu regarding the
financing of this recovery plan
when you just look at the interest rates
it's interesting because it's
it's highly political in a way the
investors the markets
pro asked for seven times more what we
should and the interest rate
is just a bit higher than the german
rates a bit lower than the french
sovereign rate it means that there is
trust
in the eu financing it means that there
is trust in the future because you have
people and they are not ngos there are
market investors
who are defending their own financial
interests and they invest in the eu
for the next 40 years because we will
repay this plan
over 40 years so i think it's a sign of
trust in our future which is
extremely important after brexit after
the crisis we went through we should be
aware and proud of it
clearly the these investors believe the
eu will still be there and will still
stand at 40 years
um do you think mr bone as
mr macron actually mentioned it that you
must
start working on another short term
mightier
investment plan well it's the point i
was making
i think we should
we should not consider that our recovery
plan this uh
750 billion is small it is big now we
have to deliver to implement to make it
successful and so on
so to be direct and frank i don't
believe we could or we should have
another
four day summit in brussels in the
coming weeks to
change the numbers i think it would not
work to be realistic and pragmatic
especially since we have not spent the
money yet
what i do think is that what we could
lack
what when where the u.s could be faster
and more ambitious than us
is a 10-year investment plan
i'm not impressed about the numbers
2 000 um
to the 2 000 billion dollars that
president biden has announced for
immediate recovery or immediate support
what is impressive is this 10-year
investment plan in the u.s for
infrastructure and so on this we don't
have yet at the eu level
so it's not about our recovery our
recovery is for the next two years it's
quite short-term
it is what we do in 2030 in 2035
how do we invest now in microprocessors
microchips
in semiconductors in space industry
in uh batteries we have made progress in
the last two years
two to three years with a common project
at the level with
common eu funding but we don't have a
10-year investment plan at the
level and it's not only with eu money or
it's not necessary to command that it
could be i think
it could be but if this works
if this recovery plan works if it's
common networks if this investment
is producing concrete projects and
concrete results it will be easier
and necessary to open a discussion
probably
next year maybe starting during the
french presidency i would like it
on a 10-year investment plan at the eu
level this is not a second recovery plan
it is
i think a longer-term perspective with a
big investment plan
if we don't want to be lagging behind
the americans
chinese and others that is if the
so-called frugal countries agree to it
um glovesec has a perfect timing in the
sense that it's
coming right after g7 and right after
nato submits
both events show that eu allies are
still uncomfortable when it comes to
adopting a common position on china and
how to deal with china
and that makes sense i mean see germany
and its uh
car exports to china are you hopeful mr
bone that maybe
after the september elections in germany
um perhaps during the french presidency
of the eu even
you can be the uk it can be more united
on on china
well again i think we should it's not
perfect of course but we should
look at what has been happening the last
four five years
uh i remember when i was already working
in a different position for
minister macron at that time a french
economy minister we had discussions
about
recognizing the market economy status of
china in wto
that was five years ago only and there
was a debate
in the eu to recognize it that would
have mean that would have meant
dismantling our anti-dumping tools
and so on and so forth to open widely
our
protections in all respects to chinese
investment and chinese
dumping to be clear
the debate and the dna of eu and this
has totally changed
not only we have not recognized market
economy status we have transcend our
anti-dumping
instruments we have developed a
screening mechanism which i think is too
soft but it's the first step
to make sure that in strategic sectors
not in all sectors but in strategic
sectors we can
check nationally rdu level what is being
done by
third country investors like chinese
investors
we will have very important reform i
think proposed by the commission in the
coming weeks
a foreign subsidy mechanism which means
that when you are
a foreign a non-eu company
investing buying a company bidding for a
public procurement
in the eu we will make sure that you
don't have
subsidies so unfair competition from
your
home country china or others but china
so i think this
software has totally changed i think we
are not there yet
we are more united we are less naive but
we are probably not strong enough
in terms of trade policy in terms of
trade negotiations
there was a lot of talk about this
investment agreement
made with china at the principal level
last december it was criticized as too
weak or naive which i think is
interesting because now people even i
think business community ask for more
level playing field and somehow
protection with china
it is a step in the right direction but
probably now it's not seen as
enough and i think beyond the key issue
of human rights
of a international labor organization
convention that china will have to
ratify if it wants us to rectify this
agreement so it's not a given
beyond this we want more fairness
and so more defensive approach
more offensive approach as well from the
utah west china i think we are getting
in this direction
with this foreign mechanism with a new
screening mechanism that will have to
strengthen
so yes i hope that we can go in this
direction and work with the us in this
just to be clear on that i don't think
that we are
in a position of equidistance between
as eu between the u.s and china we want
to cooperate with china
on a lot of topics including trade but
also climate and so on
we have a no our own eu position which
is not necessarily the american position
but
our key partner of course for security
strategic approach but also for trade
and for multilateralism
is the u.s and we could work on this
right thank you it's a work in progress
indeed so we have
mrs hallmeyer who is back apparently i
think you're back can you hear us
we i i hear you but you can't hear me
then that's the problem
we have some problems today in brussels
um so so
back to my we had some problems admire
in other committees either
do you as agreed i was saying that the
use has agreed to spend billions on
recovery and i was asking you uh
what is the biggest obstacle to smooth
delivery of these funds and
i think you've pointed out that we have
to make sure that eu funds
are not channeled to people who are not
entitled to them
that has happened in the past is that a
serious risk
and how does do you work to prevent that
kind of things i'm thinking corruption
for example
i think the most important issue in our
first is
that we are really using the 750 billion
for innovation for research for recovery
and that it is really delivered to those
um
who need it or to those who are really
delivering in the area of research and
innovation
so corruption is an issue but it is not
the first issue
on rrf yes it is an issue for our
committee
and it's an important issue to really to
avoid
any kind of corruption and there we have
to do more we need more transparency
uh we need um at the end if we're
discussing digitalization
it's really very interesting that we
have no cross-border digitalization to
trace back european money because until
now the member states
don't agree with this um i think we
should
we should do it in a i think that it
would be of a cross-border
positive action to have a digitalized
system to trace back
as we are just discussing other issues
in digitalization
20 of the amount of
rrf are for um digitalization
so for innovation not only for control
but for real innovation in
the digital area and if we want to be
successful in the green deal
at the same time recovering then we need
a lot of innovation
and really a european initiative in in
the innovation area
therefore i really would appreciate it
very much
if member states would agree on more
financial means in the area of research
um you had talked about for example the
kubit-19 crisis
um we would not have a mrn
rna technology if europe wouldn't have
invested in this kind of technology it's
a up technology
so it's very interesting that now china
russia and
explicitly the united states are asking
for giving them the patents
i think if it would be if they would be
american patents and not european ones
they would
ask to open up i think we really have to
act together
europe can deliver if member states
agree on it
and if member states are not um for
example
in this vaccination area we saw uh for
example
um to give european union and their
responsibility but not the tools
so if member states did not order
vaccines
for example um then at the end
european union was responsible that the
vaccines were not there
so it was it is always mostly it is a
problem if the 27 and mr bone is right
when he's saying
we need to be more united in areas
where we have to be united and um
um where her mr close uh i'm i'm very
happy about it that he talked that not
there there shouldn't be this reflex
on um if we have a problem that the
first thing what we do
is closing the borders not talking to
each other not fair
finding uh strategic ways how to
to to solve problems at the borders
because i live nearby a border
so to be frank for us it was a huge
problem that suddenly
borders were close to czechia uh and for
all our
workers for the smaller companies
across border working every day it was
really a problem
so i think rrf should be used either for
this
for the issue that we should not know
any border anymore when we are working
together in economy in
in economic areas or in research areas
or
innovation areas i think you three
agree on that we have an interesting
question coming up from michelle
patrick concerning the need for an eu
investment plan
prime minister quote spoke yesterday at
globsec and he said that the recovery
plan was a
one-shot common eu debt project do you
see it as the same
mr close
well i can easily share this opinion of
chancellor kurtz uh i'm coming from the
party where where we are
uh quite hesitating to speak about uh
common debts in europe for
forever uh we believe that
pandemia needs to have special solutions
so okay
we agreed uh with the solution made
in the council during the july time but
uh
we need more than just a recovery and
resilience plan
for next couple of years and i guess
this
investment plan sounds okay we need to
we need to hear details because uh
devil is always hidden in the detail uh
and we need to discuss it uh very
precisely at the european level
what that investment plan uh should mean
but uh
as far as i know uh chancellor kurtz uh
he's
very like-minded uh with us in many
cases so
i believe he will come with the details
soon and uh it's one of the most
important partners i mean austria for us
uh hopefully they will count on us too
chancellor you're right i said pm um
okay
mr krustu bounce back on that um right
now a big flashy keyword for the
european in the european union
in most countries is strategic autonomy
what does that mean to you what's your
number one priority in that regard
is it tackling china the us or
russia for example
well uh i can easily tell you what the
strategic autonomy is not for me
uh first of all we need to fight against
protectionism
and uh uh kind of an interpreting
interventionism uh
we had a
possibility to to to deal with the last
couple of years
from one of our very important partners
and
uh i believe we need to use a single
market much more
to be more strategic autonomy uh to have
more strategic autonomy and to be more
strategic autonomous
within the europe and uh i also believe
that
we need to have more resilience in
europe so why not to speak about it
it's a good idea especially after the
experience of
march 2020 musk diplomacy now vaccine
diplomacy and many other
diplomacies all around the world but uh
let's
speak very correctly that first of all
we need to have a free market
within the european union and also
global free markets uh so
in this case uh i'm the one who is very
heavily supporting uh
uh common voice of european countries
against china
and for this country it's even more
important to speak
with the common voice if it comes to the
russia but
much more in security issues than the
economic one
um the question for mrs olmeier now
there was a recent um a recent and
important
agreement on a 15 percent minimum
corporate tax
uh that was decided at g7 level that
would be
i think a tangible achievement for eu
citizens avoiding a race to the bottom
in
in corporate taxation and once again on
this topic
there seems to be it seems to be a long
shot for the eu to find a common
position
on that with you know ireland warning
that it would make
its economy less attractive to
businesses do you see
a way forward to for the you to stand
together
on the issue of corporate taxation
i think it's absolutely necessary
because a fair taxation
is a necessary tool so if um
companies are only looking um where they
have zero taxation
and a maximum of profit um but no
social security um no
fair rules between the companies and i
cannot explain to a smaller company
not being a digital company as google or
facebook or some chinese companies
they pay them more taxes in percentages
than um the big ones amazon mr bezos or
whatever
so i'm um i'm absolutely
friendly-minded to big companies that's
not my problem but a fair taxation is a
necessary tool
and explicitly for europe we need more
own resources
debts are not a solution and if we have
companies
paying 0.5 taxes 8
taxes percent taxes and at the same time
other companies
explicitly the small and medium-sized
are paying
30 25 or 35
or even more then this is not a fair
taxation so i think a basis or a
minimum tax in the corporate tax area
and explicitly in digital tax area
is absolutely necessary and it should be
a european one
and not nationally nationally
once because these companies are acting
really european and worldwide so we need
a common basis for this not ireland
against germany or france or france
against the
netherlands and luxembourg we need a
common basis
that a minimum tax is absolutely
necessary
mr boone you know ireland very well i
think you studied there
do you think there there's a way to find
a common stance
on this minimum corporate tax level i
hope so
i hope so uh yes no i'm optimistic we
can find a
unanimous agreement because we need it
first thing is i i regret we
are blocked or slowed down by unanimity
in this area
um there are now two areas basically in
the
eu decision making which are by
unanimity votes
tax issues and foreign policy i think on
both
sides we will need to unlock this but
regarding ireland we will have tough
discussions obviously what is the issue
if we
think we should always try to understand
it's not about teaching a lesson to
everyone to anyone
why does islands have this position
because they have
had and it's true difficulties
because of their geography because a
smaller market concern
to get full access to the single market
two or three decades ago and they
developed a model
which was based on this competitiveness
what we would call now tax dumping but
which was
a competitive advantage they probably
need it
i think now also through european
solidarity
through what we displayed in the brexit
negotiation what we
have concretely shown with european
funds
ireland has developed to a very
impressive level
it's a success story in europe and
that's the only one with a very
impressive success story
and i think and i have the feeling
ireland knows it
they will have to move probably not
overnight but to another economic
model which would include
to be more convergent regarding taxes to
accept
evolutions i know it's difficult it's
more difficult to accept
such a move than it is for france and
for other countries
it is but we will need that and i
i don't want to threaten or to have a
kind of conflict on this but we will
need ireland to move
and i think we have to explain why we
have to convince
we have to to say it
vocally we cannot as eu because in the
end it would be
you fail now that there is
an international consensus i hope or at
least an american move
we cannot fail as eu on this reform
it's not i think conceivable it would
not be
understood i think starting with our
citizens
all across the eu even in ireland i
think
we have been as europeans leading
this debate we should not forget about
it we have been leading this debate when
the u.s was
blocking it for four years now
that's good the u.s is moving it is the
u.s moving to the
european consensus or european overall
position
which cannot waste or spoil this moment
we have a window of opportunity which is
probably
unique extremely positive very highly
expected i think by citizens
we cannot miss it we only have a couple
of minutes left
um so i'll take some questions from uh
first from the app and then perhaps from
the audience if anyone has questions
um a question from iman mahana i hope i
i'm not mispronouncing uh the name
given the economic emergencies inside
the eu can they also
can the eu also deliver on international
development
development eight commitments especially
towards
its neighbors in the south and in the
east
um and uh i want to add a guess that
at the g7 summit where i was a couple of
days ago um
there was a big promise on vaccine
donations from european countries as
well but it was not as high as expected
initially
uh perhaps the question for mr cruz do
you think the eu uh
should and can keep its goals in terms
of development aid
given the emergency inside the eu
of course and uh
everybody knows that slovakia is a huge
proponent of uh
enlargement of the european union
especially if it comes to the western
balkan
and uh let's not forget our very
important neighborhood ukraine
and uh we understand that uh for
some countries like france for instance
also uh
africa and mid-east is very important
too
uh let's discuss this topic also if we
will uh broaden it to the topic of
uh migration for instance which is also
quite sensitive in the european union
so uh we are ready for such a discussion
it's very very important for us and
uh i'm very grateful especially for
instance to the portuguese presidency
now that uh they
dealt with this topic very openly
and finally we are having gac format
meeting
uh next tuesday uh where we will open uh
next chapters with
montenegro and serbia to discuss and i
hope
and i really hope that we'll move
forward also with
north macedonia and albania this is very
important for this country it's a top
priority of
our foreign policy and we are also
somehow active
also in some other countries which are
very important as i already mentioned
for the other
european countries we are having our
forces in mali for instance
we used to be very active in mid-east
before
so we understand how important this is
for europe
and europe need to be a global player in
this case and uh i hope uh
we are having plenty of opportunities
how to be a global player
so let's use them uh otherwise uh we
then need to just manage uh uh the
damage
like the migration of 2015 2016.
we are slowly running out of time uh
perhaps uh mr hallmeyer you want to have
a few words to close the session we have
about one minute left if you you have
basically 30 seconds
that's very nice thank you very much i
think we are already successful if you
see the kovacs initiative
but we are not moving strategically mr
bone was
referring to it before i think we need
really to be strategic
in the development area either because
if we are not doing it
then others will do it um they are not a
risk but they don't feel to be
responsible for their own populations
but they move very strategically
strategically in the european union and
try
to bash the european union back or to
separate european union
or to diminue our our our power
so i think it's very necessary to move
strategically in the development sector
thank you mrs hallmeyer and thank you
for bearing with us despite the
technical difficulties
thanks to your to our three uh great
panelists um
this session is now ending refreshments
will be available downstairs the next
session here in mario theresia
will start at 11 15 and we'll be talking
about the western balkans thank you very
much
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
you