President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola in London at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit: Europe is the place to do business

President Metsola touched upon how Europe is responding to the current geopolitical situation, where it aligns-and diverges-with other global powers, and what this means for business, trade and global stability.

Ahead of next week's vote on the Turnberry deal by the European Parliament, President Metsola said: "I would have preferred a zero-tariff arrangement, but the best thing we can offer businesses on both sides of the Atlantic is predictability and stability. We have also learned to be more self-confident as the EU and what it means to fly the EU flag. With next week's vote we are keeping to our part of the deal."
On EU-US relations she added that "Europe has learnt not to react to every public statement. Sometimes boring is good, and we can be the boring part of the relationship. "

Addressing a room full of CEOs, President Metsola stated: "Europe is the place to do business. In my meetings with companies in Silicon Valley, the message has been clear: they want to invest and grow in Europe, but they want it to be easier. My message to them was that we are building an integrated market of 450 million people, with the capital, talent and services to compete globally. The key is not to become dependent on one another, but to recognise that Europe and the United States each bring strengths the other needs. That is what makes the partnership strong."

"The European Parliament is working on major simplification initiatives, such as the Industrial Accelerator Act. Yet, decades of regulation have left us with barriers that continue to fragment our markets and have prevented the emergence of a truly integrated Capital Markets Union. We must remove those obstacles, deepen market integration, and ensure that our procurement processes create a genuine level playing field for European businesses."

The discussion can be watched here.

Contacts

Jüri LAAS
Spokesperson of the President
(+32) 2 28 44090 (BXL)
(+32) 470 95 75 61
[email protected]

Mina ANDREEVA
Strategic Communications Manager
(+32) 2 28 34761 (BXL)
[email protected]

Typhaine MORILLON
Press Relations - European Parliament Liaison Office in the UK
+44 (0) 7786 060531
[email protected]