Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
The EU parliament president says it faces a “challenge” to turn electoral promises into practice.
Roberta Metsola was speaking after the recent EU elections which saw a big increase in support for so-called far right political parties.
Speaking on Thursday at the EU summit in Brussels she said, “We have now a much clearer view of what people expect us to deliver on over the next five years. The challenge is now to turn these electoral messages into a political programme for the European Union.
“One that is serious, deliverable and implementable.”
On Ukraine, she the Parliament welcomed the new security cooperation pact between Ukraine and the European Union, adding. ”The presence of President Zelenskyy here to mark the occasion is of important symbolical value and bears proof to our mutual commitment to our common security and shared destiny.”
Meanwhile, another senior MEP, Danuta Huebner, has welcomed the appointment of Mark Rutte as NATO’s next Secretary General.
He takes over at a critical point in the future of the alliance and with the bitter war in Ukraine still rumbling on.
Rutte, long time PM in the Netherlands, succeeds Jens Stoltenberg.
Rutte will assume his functions as Secretary General from 1 October when Stoltenberg’s term expires after ten years at the helm of the Alliance.
Speaking to this site, Huebner, a former EU commissioner and Polish Government Minister, said, “There is the next leader.”
“More good news is that the security agreement with Ukraine has been finally signed by the European Union. Also, Lithuania and Estonia have been added to the list of those that already did it.”
“This sends a clear signal to Putin that NATO is not about to go away.”
“I keep my fingers crossed for consensus building capabilities of the new leader when it comes to his determination in supporting Ukraine, but also capabilities to manage this support.”
“We all worry about the credibility of NATO in case of a political shift in the US. One more test for the new Secretary.”
“The big question is whether the East European states would request meaningful positions in NATO, in particular a replacement for the deputy secretary general. And I expect that the new Secretary will not allow new mushrooming far right parties to weaken NATO.”
