H.E. Ms Deike Potzel:

I thank the committee for having me and giving me the opportunity to present the priorities of the German Presidency. A couple of months have elapsed but it is good to look at the state of affairs. I thank the Chairman for organising this meeting. Let me first congratulate Ireland on its new EU Commissioner, Ms Mairead McGuinness, and I congratulate her on her success.

I am very happy to have my Portuguese friend and colleague with me because for us it is very important to closely co-operate with our Portuguese and Slovenian friends as a trio for the Presidency. I am sure that we will have a chance to discuss the trio programme a bit later.

After one to two years of thorough preparation, obviously the Covid-19 pandemic has considerably impacted our Presidency preparations and the motto we chose for the Presidency is: Together for Europe's Recovery. We chose it because what we will need to manage this crisis is solidarity, a willingness to compromise, pragmatism and co-operation. The guiding principles of our programme and Presidency are that we really try to permanently overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and have an economic recovery. We want a stronger and more innovative Europe; a fair and sustainable Europe; and a Europe of security and common values, which is also a strong Europe in the world.

Our foreign Minister said, at the start of the Presidency, that we want to be a driving force and a facilitator in building bridges to jointly make progress in this endeavour. We know that the German Presidency faces very high expectations. We are ambitious. We want to work in unity and solidarity in the remaining months as we did since July. At the same time we must remain realistic about what we can achieve in the remaining six months of this Presidency. We are focusing on nine priorities but due to time constraints concerning opening statements I will briefly talk about a few of them.

Overcoming the pandemic is central and managing the economic recovery takes centre stage. Agreeing on the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, and the next generation EU, that is the recovery fund, is very important for us. The German Chancellor, Mrs. Merkel, has often said that extraordinary situations needs extraordinary measures. We want to make sure that this happens and that the money can flow by 2021 so we are working very hard to reach an agreement with the European Parliament. So far, about seven meetings at political level have taken place. Our aim is to finalise the procedures as soon as possible. Also, we want to improve co-ordination within the EU and I am sure that the members have seen the recent developments there.

The next big issue, which is very important to Ireland, is concluding the negotiations on a future relationship with the United Kingdom. Yesterday, the Chancellor spoke at the EU Committee of the Regions where she again stressed the agreement is in everyone's interest, that the EU remains united in the fight for that agreement but that we also have to be prepared for a no-deal outcome.

She stated:

We want an agreement: from the Irish point of view in particular it is extremely important. We won't let Ireland down but will continue to stick together in these negotiations. But we have to bear in mind the realities because an agreement has to be in the interests of both sides, in the British interest and in the interest of the EU's 27 member states.

Our Minister for Foreign Affairs most recently warned against a failure of the negotiations calling a no-deal outcome completely irresponsible and underlining that we want a close and ambitious partnership with the United Kingdom. Yesterday, Michel Barnier briefed the General Affairs Council on that and he will brief the European Council tomorrow and the day after. Unity remains important to us and we will keep negotiating. As members may know, Ursula von der Leyen will speak to Boris Johnson by telephone this afternoon. We will keep the process going but significant difficulties remain. Talks are at a critical stage, as our Minister of State for Europe also underlined. I will happy to discuss that in greater detail later.

I will briefly touch on a few more issues that are priorities for the German Presidency. On migration and asylum policy, yesterday the Chancellor said that we want to move forward. She spoke of our "humanitarian duty" with regard to what happened in the Moria camp. She believes it is a burden on Europe that agreement has not yet been reached and stated the Commission's proposal was well worthy of discussion. A compromise is needed, she said, and each member state will have to contribute to a fair solution. The debate has started between the member states based on the Commission proposal for a new pact on migration and asylum. We hope we can make progress and agree on that.

The next very important issue to Germany is the rule of law. We believe Europe should be at the forefront on climate protection and digitisation. Germany supports the aim of a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030. We want to work on producing climate legislation within a year. Other topics are digitisation, Europe's role in the world and the relationship with Africa, which will also be discussed at the European Council this week.

For us, it is very important that citizens are on board. That is why we pay great attention to having a conference on the future of Europe. We would love to see that conference kick-started during our Presidency but we will have to see whether the pandemic will allow us to do so. As the Chancellor said, this is an excellent opportunity to talk to our citizens about what they wish to happen in the future and how we can reach that aim. We would like it to be a wide-ranging debate on our joint future in Europe. With that, I thank members for their attention.