Von der Leyen debates debates top priorities for #EU2024BE Belgium’s EU Council Presidency

Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates It gives me great pleasure to be here for the launch of the Belgian Presidency of the Council and, firstly, to take a few moments to enjoy Brussels’ exceptional artistic, cultural and historical treasures. Even if we live and work in Brussels every day, we sadly have too few opportunities to appreciate this heritage. The Belgian Presidency is therefore a welcome opportunity to remind ourselves of Belgium’s exceptional role in Europe’s history – a role that continues with this Presidency that comes at such an important time. Your Presidency will mark the finish line for many of the projects launched during my Commission’s term of office. I am counting on the talents of Belgium’s sprinters, who are world famous thanks to your cycling champions, to make that final sprint. We have some important pieces of business to finish. All of these should contribute to the aims of your Presidency: protect, strengthen, prepare. These are priorities that I fully support.

Let me start with the most strategic of these priorities: support for Ukraine. We all witnessed Russia’s recent brutal airstrikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. After the historic decision to launch accession negotiations with Ukraine, we must urgently move forward on stabilising our financial aid to the country. The Commission will come to the European Council with operational solutions to ensure that we can agree on the Ukraine Facility. Belgium will then have the key task of transforming the political agreement on the Facility through Council and Parliament as quickly as possible.

The Ukraine Facility is a central element of the revision of the multi-annual budget, but it is not the only one. We need to conclude the revision during the Belgian Presidency. This will give us the means to implement many of the policy priorities that we have identified and on which we have made progress. Take migration for example. With the recent political agreement on the Pact, we now have the basis for a new and effective policy. It will be important to bring these files now over the finish line.

Another example is competitiveness. I very much look forward to an agreement between Parliament and Council on our proposal for the Net-Zero Industry Act. This will provide our industry with a greatly improved regulatory framework to drive forward the green and digital transition.

Of course, competitiveness is a wide theme with many different angles. We also need modernised fiscal rules that help stimulate sustainable investment throughout Europe. The agreement in Council a few weeks ago was a very welcome step forward. Now I am confident that the Belgian Presidency can ensure an agreement with the Parliament before the end of this mandate.

We also need very strong social dialogue. First, because long-term competitiveness relies first and foremost on Europe’s main talent: And that is the people and their skills. Second, because competitiveness is a tool to ensure prosperity, and this is prosperity for all. So I am very much looking forward to the Val Duchesse Summit to discuss the future of work. And I share your objective to sign an interinstitutional declaration on Social Europe in La Hulpe, with a focus on a new drive for implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights. I am also very much looking forward to our discussions on the two reports you mentioned, the report by Enrico Letta on the Single Market and the report by Mario Draghi on competitiveness more generally. I am convinced that these reports will provide inspiration for new initiatives to reinforce our long-term competitiveness.

Dear Alexander,

One of your Presidency priorities is to prepare for the future. My College, entering its last year of mandate, will continue to work hard to do just that. Let me mention two points. We will come forward in particular with a communication on the 2040 climate targets. After the COP28 and the success of our European initiative for global targets on renewables and energy efficiency worldwide, it is important for the European Union to continue to set the standards and trends. And second, following the decisions of the last European Council, as you said, we must prepare for an enlarged Union. And before we get bigger, we have to get better. So during the Belgian Presidency, we will come forward with our roadmap for policy reviews, and I look forward to discussing them with you.

The European Union we both are striving for is a Union that delivers and a Union that empowers. So let us go to work.
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Mer sh Alexandre thank you Alexander it’s a big pleasure for me to be here today as we launch the Belgian presidency of the Council of ministers and uh firstly to be able to benefit for some of the artist historical Treasures here in Brussels because even if we live and work here every day

Unfortunately opportunities to benefit from this heritage are far too few the Belgian presidency is therefore welcome to recall for us the exceptional role which Belgium has played in European history and this role continues with this presidency which is coming at such an important moment in time your presidency will be a

Presidency when it comes to the landing strip for a whole range of pieces of work which were started under my presidency and I’m counting on the uh talents and the talents of Belgium known in particular because of the Excellence of your cyclist to actually get us

Through the final furong now we have got some very important files that we need to close all of them or everyone has to contribute to the aims of your pres protect uh reinforce prepare the priorities which you have are ones which I share fully priorities that is the support for

Ukraine we all witnessed Russia’s recent brutal air strikes on civilian Targets in Ukraine and after the historic decision to launch accession negotiations with Ukraine we must urgently move forward on stabilizing our financial aid to the country the commission will come to the European Council with operational

Solutions to ensure that we can agree on the Ukraine facility and Belgium will then have the key task of transforming the political agreement on the facility through Council and Parliament as quickly as possible the Ukraine facility is a central element of the revision of the multi-annual budget but it is not the only

One we need to conclude the revision during the Belgian presidency and this will give us the means to Implement many of the policy priorities that we have identified and on which we have made progress take for example migration with a recent political agreement on The Pact we have now the

Basis for a new and effective policy and it will be important to bring these files now over the Finish Line another example is competitiveness I very much look forward to an agreement between Parliament and Council on our proposal for the Net Zero industry act because this will provide

Our industry with a greatly improved regulatory framework to drive forward the green and digital transition of course competitiveness is a wide theme with many different angles so we also need modernized fiscal rules that help stimulate sustainable investment throughout Europe and the agreement in Council a few weeks ago was a very welcome step

Forward now I am confident that the Belgian presidency can ensure an agreement with the parliament before the end of this mandate we also need a very strong social dialogue first because long-term competitiveness relies first first and foremost on Europe’s main talent and that’s the people and their skills and second because

Competitiveness is a tool to ensure prosperity and this is prosperity for all so I’m very much looking forward to the values Summit to discuss the future of work and I share your objective to sign an inter institutional Declaration on social Europe in laul with a focus on a new drive for implementing the

European pillar of social rights and I’m also very much looking forward to our discussions on the two reports you mentioned the report by enria on the single market and the report by Mario Mario dragi on competitiveness more generally I am convinced that these reports will provide inspiration for new initiatives

To reinforce our long-term competitiveness dear Alexander one of your presidency’s priorities is to prepare for the future and my college entering its last year of mandate will continue to work hard to do just that let me mention two points we will come forward in particular with a communication on the

2040 climate targets and after the cop 28 and the success on our European Initiative for Global Targets on Renewables and Energy Efficiency worldwide it is important for the European Union to continue to set the standards and the trends and second following the decision of the last European Council as you said

We must prepare for an enlarged Union and before we get bigger we have to get better so during the Belgian presidency we will come forward with our road map for policy reviews and I look forward to discussing them with you the European Union we both are striving for is a union that delivers

And a union that empowers so let’s go to work thank you thank you thank you very much