August 2025
NEW BUILDING BLOCKS FOR EUROPE
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
12:00 p.m.
Sala Neri Generali Cattolica
Speakers:
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament
Introduced by Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples Foundation ETS
BERNHARD SCHOLZ
Good morning, welcome to this meeting with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. Dear President, I warmly greet you and welcome you on behalf of all the friends of the Meeting. I also greet the authorities present, particularly the other Members of the European Parliament who are with us today.
You, dear President, preside over the most representative institution of the European Union, composed of 720 MEPs directly elected by the citizens of the 27 Member States. In these years the European Union is facing challenges and problems that only a few years ago seemed completely unimaginable: a war in Europe, an increasingly conflictual geopolitical situation, an international market marked by new protectionisms and, above all, by ever more powerful and invasive technological oligarchies, and last but not least, a civil society that is increasingly fragmented and polarized.
Faced with this situation, the debates in the European Parliament show approaches and sensitivities that are at times convergent, sometimes distant from each other, but some also very far from the founding values of Europe. There is no doubt that the Union needs even significant reforms to streamline decision-making processes, strengthen Europe’s position in the new geopolitical context, make its economy more competitive, and simplify the procedures of a bureaucracy that is too invasive and often paralysing.
Europe is our home, our one big home – let us always remember this – where respect for human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and universal welfare coexist. Unfortunately, however, this house has some cracks. This calls on us to consolidate its foundation: a freedom lived with shared responsibility, both socially and politically. Only in this way can unity in diversity avoid turning into uniformity or disintegration.
Dear President, we know well how much you have committed yourself to building a Union rooted in its tradition. It is precisely thanks to this rootedness that we can face this historical moment with courage and broad vision.
In the famous declaration of 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman stated: “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.” Today we find ourselves in a new, difficult and particularly demanding phase of this construction that requires all of us to urgently contribute new building blocks – to borrow the title of this Meeting. And so, all the more, thank you, dear President, for your willingness to share with us, with your authority and long experience in the European institutions, your vision of this construction. Thank you.
ROBERTA METSOLA
Good morning everyone,
Thank you for welcoming me here. It is an honour, but also a responsibility, to bring our reflections back to Europe.
Thank you, President Scholz – thank you, dear Bernhard – for your invitation and your warm welcome. And thanks also to all the volunteers I met this morning and to civil society, who made all this possible.
I want to start by saying that Europe is what we – all of us – have the courage to make possible.
It is not defined. It is not complete. But the destiny of this unique project in the world depends on each of us.
Here is my appeal: let us fight for Europe. Let us never allow ourselves to give up. Let us never underestimate what we can become.
We are still at the beginning of our project. Yes, the world has changed, yes, the United States is more complicated than it used to be, yes, the war in Ukraine has exposed our dependence on Russia, yes, the terrible situation in Gaza has shown a new generation how much we need a stronger Europe that promotes peace, and yes – as Mario Draghi said – Europe’s economic strength and soft power are no longer sufficient to ensure that Europe remains a global leader.
The status quo means surrender. It means leaving Europe on the sidelines. Europe has never been a mere spectator in the world, and we must never get used to being one. We are leaders. We must only have the courage to make the necessary decisions.
It is time to stop looking at Europe as it is and start building the Europe that can be.
Europe has only two options left: bold change or a slow and painful spiral into irrelevance. I support change. The European Parliament supports change.
We all know that change is not easy. Change involves sacrifice.
We must ask ourselves the hard questions: do we want to be able to defend ourselves? Do we really want to integrate our markets and unlock the great potential we know we have? Do we want to support our businesses, our entrepreneurs? Do we want to safeguard our model of free enterprise and social safety nets?
Then the answer, my friends, is only one: Europe. The Europe that can be. Now is the time to build.
Bernhard, you are right: the European Union has faced challenges that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable. These challenges are real, and the last years have taught us that, to respond to the new world we live in, Europe must change. If we are not leaders, we are followers.
It must become more agile, faster, fairer, more capable of producing tangible results for people; it must know how to make the best use of the tools at its disposal and have the courage to create new ones when we do not yet have them. This means recognising that the status quo, with which we had all felt comfortable and which guaranteed change for a generation, is no longer sufficient.
Courage is a difficult word to use in politics. Sometimes it seems that everyone wants change, but few are really willing to change.
In recent years the European Parliament has been radically reformed, because we realised that if our institutions become too short-sighted, too comfortable or too burdened by bureaucracy to adapt, citizens will lose faith in Europe’s ability to deliver. My dear friend David Sassoli warned us of this here in Rimini as well.
Europeans are, by nature, builders, innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs: we create and aspire to excellence. This has made our part of the world a driver of global progress and industrial revolutions. This is how we created art, cultivated culture, built businesses, and led generations from poverty and war to prosperity. Few know this better than Italy.
Yesterday morning I was in a small town in Calabria and I met Nicola, a young entrepreneur. What Nicola wants from Europe is for us to make his life a little less complicated so that his small business can grow in his beautiful land. Nicola is not asking us too much.
That is why today my message is one of optimism and hope. Of confidence in our ability to rise to this historical moment. Europe was not born to be a spectator, and it is not in its nature to become one.
The first step is to create the conditions for stable and sustainable growth: simplifying rules, strengthening the single market, and developing trade. And I assure you: the European Parliament is not shying away from making the necessary decisions to move Europe forward.
A few months ago, President Mattarella, during his visit to the European Parliament, described our Parliament as “the centre of gravity that connects institutions and citizens” – this is a responsibility we take very seriously.
As far as our simplification agenda is concerned – at the heart of our effort to build a Europe that works better for its citizens – we are making progress.
In Italy – and in Europe – there is no shortage of innovators, talent and creativity. I have visited many places of technological excellence, among them the Leonardo supercomputer, one of the most powerful in Europe, located in Bologna, capable of processing enormous amounts of data and supporting research and innovation. But we also know that passing 13,000 legislative measures in the last legislature – compared with only 3,000 in the United States – would slow anyone down from being able to lead the way into the future.
We must be honest with ourselves: understand where we have gone too fast and where we have not gone far enough. It is this reflection, this awareness, that must today guide our way of governing and legislating, and the daily work that my colleagues and I carry out in your House in Europe.
It was this approach that led to the compromise on the packaging dossier, thanks above all to the contribution of Italian industry and the efforts of Italian MEPs. Like some colleagues here today whom I greet: Picierno, Sberna, Fidanza, Salini, Gori. Thank you for being here. All this work has allowed us to postpone the application of certain business regulations, to delay the application of reporting and due diligence obligations for companies, and to adjust import tariff thresholds, protecting European companies still in consolidation.
We must stay aligned with our citizens. In Europe our industries support millions of jobs. Europe should lecture less with a moralising tone and act more. I am proud of our industries and I want to support them, not hinder them.
Ultimately, our principle is simple: where we can simplify, we must; where we need to correct and adapt to new realities – we must. This is the direction we are giving to our work.
The same applies to strengthening our single markets in the fields of energy, banking services, capital markets, telecommunications, and defence.
This is how we can close the technological gap between the United States and China. Deeper integration could support it. It would reduce costs, increase investment, and make it easier for businesses to operate across Europe.
One of the most significant developments in recent months concerns trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States.
On this I want to be unequivocal: there is no stronger alliance, no deeper democratic bond in the history of the modern world than that between Europe and America. Our companies are integrated, as are our ways of life.
The provisional trade agreement is a step forward for our transatlantic relations – and for the trust between our two continents. The Parliament will do its part: it will scrutinise it thoroughly to ensure it works for European businesses and consumers.
But we must also turn this experience into a lesson. We must look beyond, towards partnerships with Africa and Latin America, based on investment and solid trade relations.
This is the message I share in every country and which I will take to the G7 of Parliamentary Presidents in Canada next week.
Europe has never shied away from building global cooperation. No place demonstrates this better than Ukraine: Kyiv would not be free without European support, and peace negotiations would not be possible without Europe’s constant efforts. In this commitment I wish to thank President Meloni and Foreign Minister Tajani for Italy’s decisive contribution to defending European values. We have always pushed for peace – real peace – born from Ukraine’s ability to remain strong. We must continue to explain why our support for Ukraine is so determined. It is not just altruism: it is our ability to defend ourselves, it is Europe’s aspiration to live free. A principle we will never forget.
This is why we insist on real security guarantees – because history teaches us that without them all we would achieve is only the postponement of a larger, bloodier conflict with even worse consequences.
So yes, we want peace. We have always wanted it. But a lasting peace. One that keeps us all safe. One based on the principle of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” – and for this to happen it must mean that nothing about Europe can be decided without Europe.
Not because we want war but because we want peace.
I know well how essential it is to maintain the consent of citizens, especially today, when younger generations are more sceptical. That is why we need the European Parliament – the elected voice of the citizens.
We must also reach out to a younger and more sceptical audience about Europe’s role in charting a way forward in the Middle East and Gaza, where the situation remains horrific. Too many innocent victims. The hostages have not yet been released. Too many children are paying the price; yesterday more journalists were killed: this situation is intolerable.
We want the killings to stop. The suffering to end. The hostages to be released. We cannot be indifferent. We owe it to all future generations to help end this cycle of perpetual war. And this is possible.
Dear friends,
Security, competitiveness, subsidiarity, simplification, peace – these are not just slogans. They are the building blocks of the next European chapter.
If we want peace, we must protect it. If we want growth, we must enable it. If we want trust, we must earn it. And if we want to lead, then we must change – with smarter laws, more coherent policies, and the courage to act.
The European Parliament has always been clear and consistent in defending peace, human dignity, and the centrality of the person. And I say this as a Catholic, as a profound European, as a daughter of the Mediterranean, and as a European President.
Thank you. Long live Italy, long live Europe.
