00:00That was the main outcome of yesterday's gathering in Belgium.
00:02There was a sense of urgency in the air,
00:05but stark divisions remain on the issue of joint debt,
00:08with the German Chancellor clearly saying nine.
00:10Euronews' EU editor Marie Tadeo was on the ground
00:13and had the chance to speak exclusively
00:15to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola,
00:18and she started by asking her for her view
00:20on how to boost the European economy.
00:23We have a narrow opportunity before the March European Council
00:27to have concrete outcomes and a timeline.
00:31Those who have said that for far too long
00:33the European Union talks a lot and have not come with actions
00:37are now needing to be disproved.
00:40So all the proposals on the table,
00:42no matter how different they might be,
00:44at the end of the day, they ask to do more.
00:47They ask to do more now.
00:49If you look back to the last few months of 2025,
00:52when there was an agreement between the European Commission,
00:55the Parliament and the Council on 10 legislative priorities,
00:59deeds need to be backed up by a full commitment
01:03on the Capital Markets Union, on the Banking Union,
01:07Savings and Investments Union, the Energy Union,
01:09all of these big words, but ultimately they boil down
01:14to legislative initiatives that will make it easier in Europe
01:19for you to invest, for you to grow, to innovate and scale up.
01:22So what do you want to see?
01:24Well, 2026 is going to be the year
01:26where we need to save the automotives industry.
01:30Two, we need to shore up where we are market leaders.
01:34Three, we need to conclude more trade deals.
01:36We're doing this already.
01:37We've seen what happened with the US, with India,
01:40different trade deals on the table
01:42that we need to, in Parliament, also vote on.
01:45This is the year where we no longer say
01:47we might do it next year.
01:48We need to vote this year.
01:50And we're already going through that.
01:51The head of the commission, she talked about a commission
01:53that is committed to providing that executive action,
01:56but she also said that co-legislators really need to do their part.
02:00Do you view that as criticism,
02:02that the European Parliament is not playing its role?
02:04Absolutely not.
02:05If anything, it is a common call to action,
02:07just as the European Parliament has asked for a long time
02:11for the commission to come forward with simplification proposals.
02:14We now have the proposals on the table
02:16and we're working pretty fast on them.
02:18Mario Draghi was in attendance to this retreat.
02:20It's been almost two years since that report came out.
02:23What makes you think that this is really the time?
02:25And what makes you think that it will come to fruition?
02:27Because many would argue it's two years late
02:30and the money question is still not solved.
02:32Well, if you think about this simplification drive
02:35and what we're currently working on,
02:36all of this comes, if you will,
02:39from the Draghi and Letta reports.
02:41Do we need to go further?
02:43Absolutely.
02:44We're talking about 800 billion euros
02:46that are injected into the European economy every year.
02:49What are we doing on that?
02:50Are we going to manage to save the industries
02:53where we are market leaders?
02:54This is what 2026 is about.
02:56And this is the discussion
02:57that it's not only Mario Draghi having
02:59with the European leaders,
03:01but every single leader of a company in Europe,
03:04every single family,
03:05but also every citizen that would like his and her bills
03:08to go down lower for us to be able
03:10to make it easier for them to live.
03:12And I think it's a common discussion across the continent.
03:15Perhaps in the past,
03:16we would have waited a little bit longer.
03:18Now's the time because we have no choice.
03:19And the question of the euro bonds,
03:21is that something that you think it should be explored?
03:23And then secondly,
03:24Mario Draghi has talked about
03:25this pragmatic federal union.
03:27Is that something you can rally behind,
03:28a form of federal Europe,
03:30pragmatic federal Europe?
03:31Well, first of all,
03:32we've never been against member states going further.
03:35We've had it with the Schengen area.
03:37We've seen it with the euro in different areas.
03:39This is not an obstacle or a shortcut to unity.
03:43Rather, it's a pathway to unity.
03:44That's number one.
03:45The second thing is,
03:47what are we going to do
03:48to decrease the productivity gap that we have?
03:51At the end of the day,
03:52the arguments are weighed
03:54between whether you increase the financing
03:57in our economies by capital.
03:59At the end of the day,
04:00we have savings in the European Union.
04:02It's the tools that we use
04:03that need to promote growth.
04:05And on the other hand,
04:06how are we going to pull up
04:08those member states
04:09that still see a big gap
04:12in their productivity level?
04:14This is all one that needs to be coming together
04:17because as a union,
04:19the better we are together,
04:20the better economically we can do.
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