Roberta Metsola calls for action on climate, migration, rule of law

Partit Nazzjonalista will vote for Ursula von der Leyen

In an emotive debate with European Commission President nominee Ursula von der Leyen, Partit Nazzjonalista’s Head of Delegation Roberta Metsola called for EU action to tackle climate change as she confirmed that Partit Nazzjonalista would back von der Leyen’s nomination.

MEP Metsola said: “We cannot accept that the next generation will have more plastic than fish in their seas. If we cannot find a bold fix for our environment and for our climate now, then we never will. It is an emergency.”

Underlining the need for reform, MEP Metsola said: “European nations are not all the same but we face similar challenges. Our EU project has inspired people across generations, continents and peoples, but we have to keep working. Our social economy, our free and open approach to trade, has raised people out of poverty, but it is still too hard for too many. We are still too far away from the people we represent.”

“I want my children’s generation to see Europe as the answer as much as it was for my parents,” said MEP Metsola.

Twenty one months from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, MEP Metsola said: “More than personalities, Europe is hope. More than bureaucracy, it is justice.  That is why selling passports is a contradiction for us. That is why we stand for the rule of law. That is why we cannot be silent when our fundamental freedoms are under threat. We can never accept that journalists like Daphne Caruana Galizia are intimidated and killed 21 months ago today without an EU legislative response.”

MEP Metsola, who is the EPP’s Coordinator in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, emphasised that “we cannot allow issues like migration or security to become existential questions that are fought only on short-term ideological lines. We need better border management where we must remain fair with those in need, firm with those who are not and strong with those who seek to exploit the most vulnerable.”