Our goal during the Cyprus Presidency is to enhance the strategic autonomy of the EU and bring the Union closer to the region, said the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, welcoming the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, during the bilateral meeting at the Presidential Palace on Monday afternoon.
In his brief remarks at the beginning of the meeting, President Christodoulides said that Cyprus is assuming in one month the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, “which for a small member state is a national mission.’
‘We have two main goals. The first one is to enhance the strategic autonomy of the European Union, and when I say strategic autonomy, I mean all the fights that we are going to carry out in terms of business, competitiveness, defence and security, migration, MFF, housing, etc.’, he continued.
He added that the second goal is bringing the European Union much closer to the region, ‘this region of greater political importance, and we need to see concrete outcomes, substantial progress towards enhancing our relations with the region.’
‘We know very well that in order to have a successful presidency, we need to work with the European Parliament and there is a clear political will to work together in order to have a successful outcome. So I welcome you to Cyprus once again, together with the Conference of EP Presidents this time, and I am looking forward to our discussions on how to coordinate, how we can deliver much more to the European citizens’, he concluded.
For her part, Metsola said it is a pleasure and an honour for her to once again be in Cyprus, this time accompanied by the Conference of EP Presidents, which brings together all the leaders of the political groups.
‘We have eight political groups here to discuss the next six months. It is a tradition for the European Parliament to visit the country of the presidency well in time before you will start in order for us to be able to hit the ground running”, she continued.
‘The workload that we are going to have is very high. We are now, I would say, at legislative speed in terms of the amount of files that are open on the table. In fact, our data shows that we have over 250 open legislative files, not least files that will be needed to complete the Migration Pact, the Multiannual Financial Framework, climate legislation, digital legislation, simplification, which the European Parliament takes very seriously, all of which require our work, finding majorities in the Parliament, but also your team of ministers, yourself, led by you’, she further noted.
‘We look very much forward (to it). The work in preparation, not only for this meeting, but your presidency, together with your cabinet has been impressive. So we can only say, as we have known you for a long time, that not only will we be your partner, but that we share a lot of the goals and that our colleagues in the Parliament are extremely looking forward to working with you and your team’, she concluded.