Remarks by President Charles Michel at the press conference following the special meeting of the European Council in February

• Europese Raad
• Verklaring en opmerkingen
• 10 februari 2023
• 03:00

Remarks by President Charles Michel at the press conference following the special meeting of the European Council in February

Good evening everyone, thank you for coming. A few moments ago we were able to close the European Council meeting, where we had some extremely important topics on the agenda.

But first of all, I would like to begin with a few words about the tragic earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. We have taken the opportunity to extend our condolences to the victims of this earthquake, and to express the European Union's determination, together with the member states, to take action to assist the victims, to assist the survivors and to help with search and rescue operations. We have also taken the opportunity to send a letter signed by all the members of the European Council to President Erdoğan, and we really want to continue to mobilise to support all the efforts in the context of this tragedy that has struck the people of Türkiye and Syria. Furthermore, the Swedish presidency, together with the European Commission, has announced that a donors' conference will be held in Brussels in March, in liaison with the Turkish authorities of course. That is the first point I wanted to mention.

The second point that I would like to mention briefly is the economy. As you know, in December EU leaders wanted to put a process in place so that, at this special meeting, there would be an opportunity to give additional impetus. Today, the conclusions adopted on this topic show the unity and the determination of the European Union around three points, which are the three key points.

First, the question of funding for which the relaxation of state aid must be targeted, must be time-limited, coupled with greater flexibility for existing financial means. To start with, the European Union must ensure the swift mobilisation of targeted capacities to support the EU's industrial and economic base.

The second pillar is linked to regulation, authorisations, permits, speeding up procedures, and increasing predictability.

The third pillar relates to public and private investment in the key sectors for the future. I also want to say a word about trade in particular: we will have the opportunity, most certainly in the coming weeks, to step up efforts to re-engage on trade agreements and on the capital markets union, a very powerful tool which is probably under-used currently but should allow us to mobilise more private resources in the future. Finally, we agreed to encourage the work on economic governance, taking into account, of course, the decisions taken today in relation to the economy.

The penultimate point I want to mention concerns migration. As you know, we had decided to hold a discussion on this topic. Last year we observed some significant increases in the number of movements towards the European Union. We had a good, frank and very respectful exchange of views, conscious that this is a matter of common concern for the European Union which we need to address together in order to provide a European response. We agreed to focus our efforts on three areas: strengthened external action, boosting cooperation with countries of origin and transit, and the issue of returns and readmissions - the return rate is low. We identified the areas in which we need to work actively to raise the return and readmission rate, and then we addressed the issue of controlling and protecting the external borders, to which we agreed to commit more resources. I told the leaders that the intention was to have another discussion on migration in March. The aim would be not to discuss lengthy conclusions, but rather to have an update on the implementation of the decisions taken today and allow the Commission and the rotating presidency to report back to the leaders on the steps that have been taken. The Council of Ministers will focus more specifically on the Dublin roadmap, on the external borders and on how best to address the question of private entities, i.e. the boats carrying out search and rescue operations, which will need to be discussed at ministerial level.

Lastly: the conclusions on Ukraine were endorsed and you should have received a copy, or if not you will receive them shortly. I will not return to that subject, which has just been addressed with Ursula [von der Leyen] and President Zelenskyy at the press conference. I would simply point out that there is an additional element from today's discussion, concerning the need to be able to fill munitions stockpiles, which is clearly in line with the message we recently gave to President Zelenskyy; we agreed to work on this so that we can take some steps forward on our industrial cooperation and on the need to keep our defence systems stocked with munitions, by the forthcoming Council meeting in March. Those are the updates I wanted to give you at this stage of the night.

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Persverantwoordelijke

Barend Leyts Spokesperson for the European Council President +32 486 22 68 65 +32 2 281 5150 @BarendLeyts

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