Good morning, Buonjorno President, good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much indeed for this invitation.
It is always a real pleasure for me to be able to address the parliament, to talk to
and with the parliament.
Over the last 5 years the European Commission has always been able to count on the far sightedness,
cooperation and support of this assembly, and that applies equally to the work we have
done together on the UK's withdrawal.
And this chamber, I know, remains open minded and remains hard at work.
Michel Barnier and myself lunched with Prime Minister Johnson on Monday.
Now you'll hardly be surprised to learn that the Prime Minister assured us that he continues
to want an agreement, but whatever happens, he, the United Kingdom, will leave the European
Union on the 31st of October with or without an agreement, and that is why the risk of
a no deal is palpable.
Hi fans!
These are my best fans and groupies, don't be surprised that they are shouting.
As I was saying, that means the risk of a no deal remains real and basically is going
to come down to a decision by the United Kingdom government, but will never be the choice,
the preferred option of the European Union.
And that's why I think it is better now to focus on what we can do in terms of concluding
that deal.
Something which is desirable and still in my view possible.
You have to applaud.
No.
Nor will you be surprised to learn that the main sticking point is the safety net, the
backstop in other words.
Now, everybody by now has heard of the backstop, but not everybody understands why the backstop
was agreed between the 27 and the UK government.
The safety net or the backstop is an operational solution to a practical problem.
A problem which is caused by Brexit for the island of Ireland, and would not have come
about if the United Kingdom had not decided to leave the European Union.
The backstop is designed to do three things.
First of all to avoid a physical hard border on the island of Ireland, secondly to safeguard
the integrity of the single market, and above all the place of Ireland in that market, and
thirdly to protect north/south cooperation and the all Ireland economy which is absolutely
crucial for stability and peace in Ireland and indeed enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.
I said to Prime Minister Johnson that I had no emotional attachment to the safety net,
to the backstop, but I stated that I stand by the objectives that it is designed to achieve.
And that is why I called on the Prime Minister to come forward with operational proposals
in writing for practical steps which would allow us to achieve those objectives.
Now, until such time as those proposals have been presented, I will not be able to tell
you, looking you straight in the eye, that any real progress has been achieved.
But what I can tell you is, and this perhaps runs counter to many press articles that have
appeared in the UK, I can tell you that the talks we've had were friendly, constructive,
and, in part, positive.
The Commission is prepared to work day in, day out, morning until night, with a few breaks,
to try and find the technical and political solutions we need.
But I'm not sure we will get there.
There is very little time remaining, but what I do know is that we have to keep trying.
I ask the British prime minister to spell out the alternative arrangements that he is
envisaging and I said that there should be political negotiations in the positive sense
of the term between the UK and the EU and I will entrust my colleague Michel Barnier
as well as the UK Brexit minister to take up and pursue those negotiations, so that
they don't remain purely at technical level.
In July of 2016, the 27 countries concluded that it would be a mistake to focus exclusively
on Brexit.
We are determined to forge a stronger union of 27, and improve the daily lives of all
our citizens in the process.
I recently spoke, before this parliament in my State of the Union address and also to
outline my proposals for the future and all European leaders welcomed the programme in
their meeting in Bratislava.
That means the 27 members of the European Union have spent two and a half years negotiating with
the UK, looking for ways to organise our divorce.
During this time the European Union has shown great unity of purpose.
With solidarity with the member states most affected, this unity is our most precious
resource and our greatest asset.
It will continue to guide me over the next weeks and I'm sure it will continue to guide
this house in the future.
Thank you for listening.