 Let's start our debate with the Slovenian prime minister on the presidency of the Council of the European Union. I think Prime Minister Janša is already connected. Yeah. Hello, Prime Minister Janša. Hello. Good to see you. All good. Good to see you again. And I'm really honored to welcome you to the plenary of the European Committee of Regents. First of all, I would like to thank you for your really fruitful cooperation. The Slovenian presidency of the EU has been a great success so far. And the excellent organization of our external bureau and the high-level forum that we held on regional recovery in Lipica. And of course, for the world welcome during my recent visit to Ljubljana, I have to admit that under your leadership, Slovenia has done great, great steps towards reforming. And this is very important for us all Europeans. I'm very confident, Prime Minister, that the European Committee of the Regents can count on the commitment and the exceptional work of our Slovenian members here and that we will continue our close cooperation with the Slovenian presidency in the next couple of months. Prime Minister, under your guidance, Slovenia took over the EU presidency just as Europe begins to cautiously open its internal borders and start working again. For instance, we welcome the very strong support announced yesterday by the Slovenian Council presidency and the EU health ministers to build, finally, the European Health Union. However, I want to be clear that conceiving a health union only between Brussels and 27 capitals, I'm afraid, will never work. And we will never support it because regional and local authorities hold legal responsibilities today on health in all of EU's 27 member states. And now we must continue to work together. We saw the crucial role of regions and cities during the pandemic in tackling the health crisis and also restarting our economies and our real lives. So we must work together so that Europe can deliver a just, a green and a fair recovery for every region, every city, and finally every citizen, with our shared principles, of course, and in particular the fundamental value of cohesion. This should be the value that will be guiding our efforts. And this will require not only investment but unprecedented cooperation and solidarity between all of the levels of government, the EU, the national and the regional. Therefore we ask for the Slovenian presidency to support our efforts to avoid especially blind recovery plans that would ignore regional and local authorities because our role in the planning and in the implementation of the resilience and of the recovery plans is indispensable. And the same applies, of course, to the Green Deal. Since we deliver 70 percent of climate change reduction measures and up to 90 percent of the adaptation measures, therefore our call to the Slovenian presidency today and to the European delegation to the COP26 next month is to include in the Glasgow declaration a clear reference to the key role of regional and local authorities in fighting climate change. Prime Minister Jansa, in our 2021 local and regional barometer that we presented yesterday and I will make sure you will have a copy in your office very soon, 65 percent of the leaders from regions, cities and villages feel that they do not have enough influence in the European Union. And 86 percent of them think that strengthening sub-national government in EU decision-making would indeed improve EU democracy. And this is basically how we also as a committee of regions see the House of Democracy. The European Union being the protective roof, the member states, the strong walls but the regions and cities are the solid foundations and as you know very well, no house can exist without strong foundations. So therefore my call to you and to the Slovenian presidency today is to join forces with us, to strengthen our values based democracy and trust more the regions and the cities. After all, the 300 regions of Europe and the 90,000 municipalities, the 1.1 million regionally and locally elected politicians are the level of government which holds a lot of trust by the people. And therefore we can be useful for the future of Europe. We can be the actors who can bring Europe closer to its citizens and make the citizens feel closer to Europe and the decision-making process. So I am positive that with your collaboration, your help and support, especially after the very fruitful bilateral meeting we had earlier today, we can count on you. And we want you to count on us and together to build a resilient future for Europe, a future closer to its people. Thank you very much and the floor, Prime Minister Janča, is yours. Thank you very much, Prime Minister Janča, for your cooperation in the first part of the Slovenian leadership of the European Union. I think that this cooperation is a great example of a battle, so I would like to make a conversation about the future of the European Union, which is the key theme of this semester. I would like to thank all the members of the European Commission, the majority of the European Union is already in the second phase, it is in the phase of the opening of the first meeting that the national calculations have come in, so it means that the high time is the most important part of this cooperation. I would like to thank the European Commission, the majority of the European Union is already in the phase of the opening of the second meeting, so it means that the European Union has already in the phase of the opening of the second meeting, so it means that the European Union is already in the phase of the opening of the second meeting, so it means that the European Nobody would have made it without the fact that we were working with local level, with local communities, with regional development agencies at that time. They were also preparing the real environment, as they had previously placed in front of Covid. So, from the bottom of my heart, the practice, which has already proved absolutely, in the Bosnian presidency, was based on the fact that the regional level of local health is included in the so-called movement and all other activities. In Slovenia, the importance of health is also in the presence of local communities, as well as in other European countries as well. And most of the local health services are connected to local communities. That is why I am here with you to talk about the health of our communities through the respect of the local health system. Since the epidemic, since the pandemic has proved that, for example, in a major crisis, not only local and national levels are satisfied, but they are also satisfied with the need for other means and forces, as the European Union said in its first speech, with the funding, with the expansion of the development, so that we have received the funding, the real progress that has taken place with the number of such shocks in the past. And then the distribution of water from the European level would be a success, a success for the global solidarity of the European Union, as far as the biggest donors drink, as opposed to COVID-19 in that time. Green agreement on the inclusion of your choice of local and regional levels in the green transition is a key change. There are two reasons. The first reason is that Europe is one of the biggest donors of the European project and it is possible that within the European Union we change good practices. There are no problems, no matter how many people live, which in some part of Europe would not be a good solution. No matter how many people live, no matter what region, no matter what state, those problems are solved very well. Not only good, but also very good. There are also many good practices that we do not have in the green transition. And without that, it remains, without cutting it, then the system inclusion of the regional and local level of the green transition is impossible to solve. There is also another reason, which is a healthy understanding. In various projects that take place on the European level and on the national level, in some cases it is necessary to be green, not only at the end, but also at the beginning and the whole process. Nothing helps us, we have a nice result that is unsurpassed. We are doing it for the electrical results of some faith, which will give us a better future. And this is usually in those debates, in the upper balances, on the European level, they do not see, many times they do not see, not even on the national level, they see themselves in the tanker, people, what product they used. And for your appeal that in the declaration of the meeting of COP 620 Glasgow, we turn to the regional audience, absolutely anything we support, we will try for that and I think that we will easily be satisfied with anything. And in the end, I am pleased that there is still some attitude for the view of the discussion that runs into the conference of the future in us. First of all, thank you because you are included in this, and second, thank you for the fact that you greet someone who, in my opinion, is innocent. After one of the prashankas was set up from the inside of this drawing, discussion about the conference of the future of Europe, it was there that Europe did not have to bring people closer, but how it was that they brought people closer, and different, different conversations were made that were a big time in the field of phrase, that did not appeal to anyone. What it brought people closer, especially the most important statistics, which are directly related to the solution of problems in people in your community, in your city or in your region, when there are problems that people hear, and there is a serious part of the cause. Before the 20th century, let's say, there was a response to how to bring European Union people closer, before it was clear as it is today. So it was known that there are some people as close as possible to those things that people choose. And here we are talking about how those who are free and how those who are not free are free. That gradation of the European Union in the 20th century was very clear in the 20th century. The first place was the European institution, and the inter-government union, which the European Union is much more aware of, the City Club from Lisbon, because of my presence in the European Parliament, the Regional Court and so on. And then there was the local region, and the local community. That's why everyone who represents the region and the local community is free. Many times, it hurts as much as the European Parliament or the National Parliament, because we have the main proportionality in the system. Legitimacy was great. In the third place, before the 20th century, there was a social dialogue, social partners, the members of the parliament, and the unionists. In the fourth place, there were non-governmental organisations, and in the fifth place, there were lobbyists. In the 20th century, it was so that non-governmental organisations came before you, before the mention of the MUD, which deals with various subjects. And here, it is necessary to return to the reality. And the gradation that had to be done for the last millions of years from European companies and European faiths for social activities, it is necessary to return to the fact that they are at the top of the institutions that are free from the national, regional, local level. And then there is the social dialogue that combines important groups of interests and then there are non-governmental organisations. The non-governmental organisation is a representative of the interest and we have come to the point that we should have non-governmental organisations and lobbyists, because it is easier to get over the name of non-governmental organisations and lobbyists establish non-governmental organisations, because they will not allow them, because they themselves choose a membership that represents them. And that is the moment of one of the great anomalies in the European market, that is the end goal of the European Union to bring people closer. That is what we have seen at the end of our semester or at the end of our responsibility for the leadership of the conference about the coming of Europe. I would like to invite you to think about the changes that have come to the overall damage and to your damage and that we should not go back to the main outcome because it is clear that this gradation is a reason that I believe that the influence is primarily in the role of institutions where people are allowed to sit and therefore the corporate interests in the form of a social dialogue and their partial interests in the form of interests of the government organizations and therefore the lobbyists and that we should not interfere with the topic of the background because in the European Union this is such a big time. Thank you so much again for sharing your thanks for that because our appeal is that we share some points and that we ask for two opinions your choice of opinion, view, design, mechanism for the movement and resistance that was not presented to this meeting and then the second opinion which is for the girls including local and regional groups to prepare a partnership agreement for the 7-year financial perspective because our appeal is 2021 2027 we as a partnership with the president of the European Union and the region we have a very important background because we have a local community and it is important for the development of the European Union. Thank you for your very, very helpful positions I would like now to move to our debate with two rounds of interventions we will start our first round now with the political groups and I give the floor to Olga Geblevic from the EPP group. Dear Prime Minister it's a great honor for me to speak to you again and welcome you on behalf of the EPP group. I remember our fruitful debate with the EPP-COR members at the end of June just before the start of the Slovenian presidency since Slovenia under your leadership took over the EU presidency in the beginning of July many things have already been accomplished and many impressive events you have organized in the political format congratulations on that I'm very pleased that post-pandemic recovery is a key priority for your presidency we must ensure that we build back in resilient way that puts cohesion at the heart of European policymaking congratulations on your economic results you mentioned during your speech underway after commission approval and commission's endorsement of your recovery plan we are also glad to support your efforts in enlargement process of the western Balkan countries the cooperation between Slovenian presidency and COR is exceptional it is also thanks to the strong support from your presidency that we as the European Committee of Regions were able to increase our representation in plenary of the conference on the future of Europe to better reflect our role I recently had a pleasure of attending strategic forum alongside President Zikostas and meet with 50 Slovenian mayors and deputy mayors and once again the great emphasis your government is placing on increasing role that local and regional authorities play in the broader political context and I am convinced that this approach must be echoed throughout Europe and in order to ensure an inclusive recovery from the crisis I would like to ask you in your view how we can increase the trust of citizens in European project how can we use us local and regional leaders in that I am hopeful that Slovenian presidency will remain a faithful supporter of European Committee of Regions and its members thank you very much the floor now to Emil Bok from the EPP President Zikostas Dear Prime Minister Jansa we are extremely happy that Slovenia under your political leadership has placed the right priorities on the top of the European agenda in these challenging times Prime Minister you are absolutely right that the key to achieve our common goals is togetherness not otherness but an ecosystem approach only by working together in partnership we can lift up our economies from the crisis, create more and new jobs and strengthen our common European values Prime Minister Jansa you are true inspiration to all of us in the end Prime Minister I have a comment and a question first congratulations for the establishment in Slovenia of a national digital transformation office this is a groundbreaking initiative by the EU member states also at the regional and where possible local level and now a very present question guest prices doubled compared to the last year of course on medium and long term we must achieve energy independence in Europe based on renewable energies also I know that right now mainly we have to find national solutions my question is are there any discussion at the EU level for a common response or a solution to the guest prices thank you Prime Minister thank you thank you very much the floor now to Christophe Rouillon from the PES group we want the EU president to focus on the economic response to all the citizens on the future of Europe and to achieve concrete results Europe is a turning point because the challenge is to connect green and digital with solid political solidarity and protection of free free certainly the current political conjunction does not facilitate the future of the Slovenian president and the illegitimate arrest in the eyes of our common rules of the Polish constitutional court increases tensions but the European construction also increases the risk of crisis and challenges for our socialist group second political force of this assembly with 92 members on 329 the emergency challenges are the strengthening of the law the strengthening of security and stability in neighboring countries of our European territory and the creation of a real European social with a agreement on minimum wage descends what concerns the state of law the contestation by the Polish government of the principle of primacy of the law of the union is a new provocation that puts the foundations of the European Union with respect to the primacy of the European Union the principle of equality in a member treatment the application of treaties and the homogeneity of our judicial space would be unilaterally because of this it is unacceptable hundreds of thousands of people this weekend in Warsaw and in many Polish cities to reaffirm their attachment and to their legal protection of their freedom we are deeply preoccupied by threats on the freedom of the press on the protection of human rights and on the state of law for the strengthening of security and stability in neighboring countries of our European territory we are very concerned by the blockage of negotiations on the pact related to migration and asylum the new migration crisis the regions located outside the union will be again the most affected by the lack of solidarity between the member states we finally want a social Europe with fast measures of protection of the purchasing power families and middle classes the price of fuel and gas shows the European Union must act quickly against the energy poverty the president of the European Union must defend the values of the union that it represents this is why we hope that the sloven president will accelerate the addition of the European Union to the Istanbul Convention against violence made to women Mr. Prime Minister with the European Commission the territorial collectivities must be associated with the European project because they fight daily against poverty social exclusion and discrimination the defense of public freedom and social justice are the bare feet of our common home and a condition of stability and this must never be forgotten thank you for your attention thank you very much Mr. Dekoster from the Renew Europe Group thank you Mr. President Mr. Prime Minister my dear colleagues first of all in the name of the Renew Europe Group thank you Mr. Prime Minister for the welcome that he has reserved to the members of the European Commission who have joined his invitation to Bled to participate in the strategic forum which has shown all the space that the sloven president wishes for the local and regional collectivities in the animation of the European project Mr. Prime Minister I would like to say how impressed I was by the round table which assembled the heads of government of the Balkans and where we were able to talk about the perspective of adhesion I was also able to meet the Mayor of Crunch who presides over an association of the Slovenian mayor and we talked about the initiative of the European Commission of a network of councilors of the European Union within the local, municipal and regional assemblies Since a few weeks Mr. President of the Council of Ministers we have a debate on the place of the community in our legal order and this debate I believe it reveals the total understanding of what the European project is of what the European Union is Welcome First of all because it reveals that the belonging to the European Union which gives to all its inhabitants a citizenship the European citizenship remains still despite the fact that politics is too unknown and that there is an urgency to find the means to explain the function the role of the policies of the European Union and the European Commission of the regions is there to accompany you to reinforce the proximity of our citizens and then this debate at the time of the conference on the future of Europe where we could not talk about the future of the European Union if we do not take into account the foundations of the European project on May 9, 1950 we launched a new civilisation project we said that the solidarity must now organize the relations between the European nations that it must impose on a story that was above all by the repetition of civil wars between our countries we have tried to organize this solidarity so that it is sustainable so that it is fair and so that it is decided by political leaders we have created institutions we signed treaties the European Commission is the guardian its role is essential to protect this precious well which is our community of rights so the current remittances of the community are actually remittances of the European Union and so of the European project which was thought by the founding fathers put in place by its successors amplified since the fall of the Berlin Wall which brings back the consequences of treaties that their governments signed that their parliaments ratified in fact we are testing the European Union and the peaceful and modern political project that is in effect I believe Mr Prime Minister that our response must be strong we must remember the facts in the sense that the Slovenian President has a particular responsibility to clearly formalize a position that will be supported on nearly 70 years of European integration on a unique organization in the world and in history look at the stakes the half-answered will be the renouncements and face the world challenges to which we must face to support its history, its strengths the right to be an evidence at the same time as a responsibility what can we do thank you very much the floor now to Mr Ortil from the ECR Group I would like to remind you that the losses of the regional flights are 56 billion euros and 200,000 employees we are investing in the revitalization of railway lines it is important because of the development of passenger traffic but also the development of investment around railway lines I would also like to remind you that this is a very long reduction of the negative distribution of these projects would not be possible without the support of the European Union I am happy that these types of projects will be in the future in the new perspective financed what I do not like is the delay related to the confirmation by the European Commission of some plans from construction on the 1st of January the price of the Polish KPA devices, companies, employees are waiting until the funds are moved I think that in the years to come as regional leaders we could negotiate and solve system problems and also the problems of program records I emphasize the processes to be conducted evenly I think it is worth coming back to this model of work and what about the situation in Poland let's remember that other countries also took such an extremely legal let's be objective let's look a little wider I would like to direct an appeal Mr. Prime Minister so that the President of Slovakia conducted an active dialogue with the European Commission with the aim of guaranteeing that all national plans from construction will be treated according to the same clear criteria and of course also in accordance with the harmonogram established thank you very much Mr. Prime Minister for the declaration of cooperation with the authorities with local and regional authorities this is a very important matter thank you very much Mr. Prime Minister thank you very much the floor now to Mr. Cobor from the European Alliance Group Dear Prime Minister the European Alliance Group wish you all the best for your presidency it will be a heavy work I think the coming months are crucial for the future of Europe and Slovenian Presidency as a good and green opportunity to make it a success we welcome the Slovenian Presidency's priorities when together resilient Europe the good news is that Europeans are investing like never before in education and skills in labor market reforms and in affordably and energy efficiency and housing in our European Alliance Group we support your commitment that we will modernize on economies and we will leave nobody behind I am happy to hear the enhancement of public employment services and the building and European Health Union it is very important it has to be on local level too we fully support the goals of achieving climate neutral European Union by 2050 the Green Deal will play an important role in achieving climate goals but to achieve a sustainable economic recovery it has to be balanced and negotiated and bottom up last but not least I came from Hungary from south-west Hungary from city page in my city the average temperature has increased more than 2 Celsius grad in the last 40 years we are in the neighborhood so support please the climate problems and support please the neighborhood to support the historical roads between our regions thank you thank you very much Miss Power from the Greens will now close the first round of interventions thank you Mr President and on behalf of the Greens Group thank you to the Prime Minister Slovenia for joining us today for this debate the last 20 months or so of being able to work together as a union in the face of huge challenges that threaten our citizens the focus of the Slovenian presidency on building a European health union is very much to be welcomed and while the idea of such a union is not new the challenges and outcomes of COVID-19 have cast into sharp relief the need for harmonized approaches to health care across our union and beyond but this work must have awareness, equity and inclusivity at its core diseases have no regard for borders so we must work together at international, national and local and regional levels to share information, resources and advancements to ensure the protection of all building upon our commitments under the EU pillar of social rights and SDGs we must have an outward looking stance when it comes to health care we must act as part of a global community in relation to health care and well-being as per sustainable development goals 3 fairness must also be at the heart of our recovery and future planning when we speak of next generation of EU, the recovery and resilience plan and our green and digital transitions we must ensure a just transition for all is embedded in both our planning and our actions when we speak of a resilient union we must be aware that such resilience relies heavily upon no one person or community being left behind and as we move away from those polluting industries and build a truly sustainable green economy we must strive to prepare and support workers to also transition by providing the necessary training and resources and by working with local regional authorities and with civil society to ensure that these needs are met thank you very much for your time and I look forward to hearing the rest of the debate Thank you very much Prime Minister Yansha would you like to intervene at this point for your first reaction to what the political groups had to say Yes, of course Thank you very much for your great suggestions Thank you very much First of all, I look forward to the European project Here it is my opinion to have a big conversation but 200% Here I look forward to the European project and here is the blog of the Regi Open but not presently that constantly from day to day we prove practical examples that the European Union space in which we share and in which we are but we are good practices we make good decisions until they come to some region, to some community to deal with others This is the wealth of good practices that are present that are present that are present is an unused principle that Europeans are too familiar with and here we have to say that it comes to people because it is already 80% of the good practices we make good decisions in some places in Estonia which is already established and is for Slovenia fully unknown and then we come to the city and see and wonder how we did not know about it so here there is a lot of space and this club that we are in digital to talk about digital and do not go that we have all smart phones or tablets there is still one thing in Europe that are good or great because of that to make it in the right time to deal with here we are not yet talking about the mechanisms through which it would be better to get it the other answer is that Europe is in pain when solving problems that are too big too much because that cohesive element of Europe is not a part of it people then believe in what they hear what they hear they believe in in short, that it is not Serbian, that it is empty and in the epidemic is such a good example because of our reaction to the epidemic at the beginning it looked like Europe was in a mess they put themselves with the state because the summer was not there the whole med-locality somehow they put themselves on the rails to prepare themselves in their countries because it was a very big and it looks bad then Europe put themselves on the rails we prepared together so that they could recover again so that they could come then together on the ball we concentrated on the beast the success of the research the success of the preparation the success of the research the success of the research is and sometimes people will hear in the coming years and it is a matter of preparing for the end of Europe sometimes it was possible not to change and to listen to the agreement it was agreed on the 4th of July when they saw that they were part of some kind of agreement between Polish colleagues when it comes about the big increase of the price of the energy not only the fuel then it was enough for the price of 80 soles for the dollar which is more of an improvement in the price of the energy it was agreed on the European agreement on that shock we talked about the informal European world on the verge of the end of last week late at night the commission was prepared to solve the next top that month and then you know the price shock that came in some countries and I think it is asymmetric because it can not be more than 100 then the next year the whole European Union will be the trend on the left where this shock is a success of the European Union some kind of it was long time occupied being an autonomous of the energy faith is the second most important thing the first most important thing is being autonomous of food and that autonomy of Europe was not prepared it is one of the biggest strategic successes of the European project Europe is a group of medical politicians who today some have said it is very weak the autonomy of the European Union in food some kind of big problem in the past 100 years and then in the past 100 years and that is key to the great success of the European project I will talk about it for the second second place when it comes to the autonomy of the world of energy because without energy nothing without energy we return specifically I will say because there is no energy and this time it is running and solving the problem vendor that is my opinion in real time there was no solution how much the European Union agreed to prepare nuclear energy and then in all of those goals that we have without any kind of society without any kind of Europe until 2050 in my opinion and in my opinion such a part of the project cannot be reached by energy from nuclear power then it is a political dilemma within the European Union that is solved but in the past theoretically possible and in the next 20 years it is necessary to include nuclear energy in the national and European nuclear balance without it neither strategic autonomy nor green transition for the goals that we have set when it comes when it comes to some questions were found on the primacy of European rule on the rule of law on the human rights then what about the primacy of European rule there are no such dilemmas as how it may look on the background of the European-Polish court in today's world I think I am a member of the German chancellor Merklovedini who is the signature of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2007 I don't know what he writes because he spoke for a long time and because in the first year since we became members of the European Union the European Union in the year 2008 had one priority of the Slovenian ratification of the Lisbon Treaty we had the opportunity to ratify the majority of the country then the same who came to the referendum left the Treaty left the Treaty for Europe so there are no such big dilemmas that appeared on the last level when we had to rule the European Union to synchronize the Treaty and the European Union when we ratified the Lisbon Treaty is every member of the state of the ratification knows if the Treaty was passed with their Treaty and when we ratified the Treaty or the Lisbon Treaty we remain members of the state of the ratification that's why we don't have to talk about the primacy of one or the other but about the ratification of the Treaty we remain members or brothers but on the next level it is clear that the European Directives are preparing the Treaty over the national laws and the member of the state can't accept the laws that are against the Treaty or against the Treaty so the European Union can't accept the Directives that are against the Treaty and the Treaty and we remain members of the state of the ratification some of the national courts hold their rights to the interests of the EU not the Polish court the first one that was held I think the German court the first one that was held which in Slovenia we had our Supreme Court said that the European Directives would not be allowed but they were allowed and we are still there then it became known that the European Commission experienced an attack against the Germans because of some old man of the last German court and a similar attack against the Polish court I would say that what is really true is that the EU court had to decide when someone thinks that there is no way for the EU but there will be representatives of the courts at the national level at the European level there are few political bodies so that they don't have the right to hold their rights shortly before the dispute with the institutions of the European Court institutions that are leading it is not allowed to be a commission it can't be the European Parliament the political body because it is a majority and it can't be the world because it is a majority it has to be a court and it has to be decided and that is the right of the people what about the human rights I am a lawyer because of the human rights as well as the law of the right of the country we will talk about it later but here there is a great deal of the matter there is a list of human rights at the global level from companies, from society and there is a list of human rights which is in some way I think before the 10th millennium there is a way of operationalization of the state of the international agreement which talked about the European Union and everything is written political debates all that takes a long time everyone adds their own but it is a political debate about the decision of a lawyer which is agreed with the European list of human rights what about the confusion about the agreement we are trying to arbitrate as much as possible but here there is a mechanism which was agreed with in connection with the decision which was agreed to be an institution in the European Court which was passed and to be sent for a political debate which is not right a political debate about the use of European funds which are a common funds are from all parallel things additional conflicts and the destruction which is not productive and which does not build up the European Union Mr. Kovar I think it is very important to share with the region all those mechanisms which were established by the European Union which is possible including projects financed from European funds which is one of the great favorites of the European Union which needs to be developed and supported when it comes to the question about the impact of the power of the public transition I think that is one of the key questions which is wider than the term used in this debate I prefer the transition in the non-existent Europe or in the green Europe when it comes to the word we have not started to talk in the last three years if I could think the priority was to be at the top the priority of the European Union was in 2006-2008 the main ambition was to be at the top of our 2008 semester we were the world of the European Union but then the financial crisis and the green transition was removed from the role of the European institutions for five or more years and ten years we came back because this is a shock but the priority has changed it is obvious that if you are not directly threatened if you don't know how you will survive in the next few days if you have a problem how you will survive in the next few days and you can't concentrate on what will happen in one year and then the transition will be extremely important so the transition will be very important with the preparation of some decisions which, let's say, Europe will cause such a shock with the support of energy will be smelly in the recession it would be renewed from when the transition was removed from the European and then from the national agenda so it should be seen gradually rationally and in the thoughts and experiences that we have got so from that the transition has been extended and the transition has been extended because of the tragic shock and then the uncertainty and then the transition which has remained that is very important and it is possible that there was no doubt so with the support of energy especially in some parts of the European Union this debate is coming to an end and the Swedish process tried to look at that to learn from the distant past and then the transition to the right path and then to the future I think that was the main question Thank you Prime Minister we now move to our second round which will be a one minute one minute for every member who will take the floor intervention so we will start Mr. Vosch for one minute and then we will be able to do it in Europe and a successful green deal when we are able to implement it will also show that climate policy and energy policy are free policy and with that I come to another point Mr. Bock already said how important it is that Europe is independent and that means the expansion of renewable energy that is also social policy then it is also social policy but high-risk policy when you, like you, promote nuclear energy we do not come from a dependency from foreign-European countries and move into a high-risk policy we are technologically we have not needed that thank you very much thank you very much Ms. Magyar Dear Prime Minister I am conveying the message of the Hungarian FIDAS members of the ECR party group at the Committee of Regions congratulations for all your efforts you made during the past month it was a pleasure to take part on the Lipica Biro meeting having a good impression about Slovenia Dear Prime Minister our request is about the migration personally me, I live at the Hungarian-Serbian border I know well the unbearable migration-wave situation and it is getting worse please make efforts to gain a smooth resolution for the migration threats to gain a realistic treatment which involves all the interested countries from issuing areas to the western areas which regard the migrants as a new workforce my standpoint is we must bring the help to the issuing and neighboring countries instead of bringing the trouble here thank you thank you very much Mr. Rosen for one minute I am sure that the goals of the European Union were set up from the bottom of the mountain where we are building the goals of our European European Union and what are those goals those are supporting European municipalities green European municipalities digital European municipalities social European municipalities and global European municipalities we are actively helping the civil protection system we are building solar panels we are building a wide range of facilities with digital knowledge we are building European municipalities the goal of the project is to achieve a realistic local level but we need cooperation and cooperation from within local foundations European thank you dear Prime Minister we are pleased to welcome the Slovenian presidency it is free where the Slovenia or the presidency when the European Union will face grave issues as migration economic recovery democracy or demographic challenges it's sure that the presidency contributes the mature thinking focusing on the strategic goals rather than ideological questions which separates us just the strong nations can form strong Europe so we are in a great period because with the help of the conference and the future of Europe we can get to know the opinion of a wider social strategy during the conference of the local civil society and the civil organizations that build our cities and nations to share their opinion I would like to ask the Slovenian presidency to highlight the US policy because after the pandemic situation even more important to help empower the US generation giving better a job and educational opportunities for them Mr Prime Minister from Hungary I wish much success for the hard work over the next 6 months thank you thank you Mr Schwarzkiffer for one minute and in Hungary we have experienced for 30 years that this task is not easy at all I ask you that you keep this message in your eyes of the chairman of the Council you should not sacrifice our future with personal, political or economic advantages thank you Mr Bereni for one minute thank you for the floor Mr President Mr Prime Minister there is no question that the pandemic and hopefully the post pandemic crisis management is most important today for the citizens of Europe also the Green Europe the rising energy prices as it was said why colleague is highly important for us and there are big expectations about the enlargement of western Balkan countries because of the Slovenian presidency however what I like very much during your first speech was the role of the people the role of elected people as you said those who have mandates directly from the people and the differentiation about interest groups, lobbies and NGOs was a very strong statement from your first speech inside of that issue allow me to mention to you that also do not forget for the protection of national minorities because this is also one of the ways how to get Europe closer to the people during the last years out of the agenda of the European institution however there are 10 million people belonging to national minorities please don't forget it I wish you all the best during your Slovenian presidency Mr Prime Minister thank you thank you very much Mr Yevsek for one minute On the 206th of the European elections in July, in Slovenia on the 24th of September we have concluded the elections are taken for power due to the fact that the Slovenian government has allowed to prepare a set for the local elections connected with the mechanism to hide the resistance we understand this as a preparation to establish a partnership between the government and the public and we also promise implementation of this practice thank you Mr. Smerth Delph for one minute President Mr. Jan Sjaša among my colleagues we have a chance to decentralize this without exaggerating I am sure that the Slovenian government has already made a good effort for the local self-sufficiency and for the democratization of the Slovenian government in the last 10 years I would like to add the theme of the Western Balkans which is one of the most important ideas the problem is more important and closer to the present I think that as long as it is local with specific steps we will bring the Western Balkans closer to Europe we will congratulate them and Mr. Jan Sjaša will tell us more about the possibilities of the local levels for one minute please Thank you Mr. Smerth for the important and important support and we hope that the potential of the local and local enforcement government will increase the support and green transition I would like to thank and thank you that it is important for the civil which we understand global mega trends that the Slovenian presidency and Slovenia with the first countries that have a special government resource for digital transformation. We wish you success in delivering the precedence to the end of the year. Thank you. And the last intervention from Mr. Nakala Järvi for one minute, please. Thank you, the speakers and the Prime Minister. Slovenia, EU, the speaker and the Prime Minister have a European way of life, the right to vote, and European values. European values include democracy, human rights, public media, and the right to vote. The right to vote also includes local activities and international views. The European Union is strong when it comes to its own values. The right to vote theme is important, and I would also like to mention the right to vote if we want to be present in the time of EU negotiations. The right to vote themes in the end of the year are fair, and EU's basic principles are clear. The EU's decisions to vote are also international and international. The EU and the right to vote are clear, but this has also been challenged by the role of the side, the role of the party and the Prime Minister himself. I would also like to ask the Prime Minister Jansal, is Slovenia, in addition to the speaker and the speaker, in some way, a politician's voice, who has the right to vote in the end of the year in a fair manner? And is Slovenia in addition to the role in which many of the European countries are fighting for the betterment of the country? Thank you. Prime Minister Jansal, the floor now is yours for your final contribution to this very, very interesting debate. Yes, thank you very much also for those additional underlines and questions. First of all, maybe the most important issue, repeat it also in this part of the discussion, is the independence or strategic autonomy issue, because this is what's going on now as a main debate in Europe, and it's linked with actually all other open issues. The sudden rise of the energy prices in some countries, the problems we faced during the first wave of the pandemic last year, and also the quite significant differences felt by half of the European industry now because of the lack of semiconductors, and other very important parts for final products being produced in Europe coming mostly from Asia and some other parts of the world. It's not only triggering this debate about the strategic autonomy, but it's also pressing European Commission and also national governments to deal with this issue much more serious than any time in the past. With the same seriousness as the founding fathers of the European Union dealt with the strategic autonomy of the European Union on foot during the times of famine after the Second World. And this is a good thing. The bad news is that in some areas we are very late. For instance, despite semiconductors, there is a majority of European patents involved in the production. The European Union is producing only 1% of semiconductors. Only 1%. 50% of the semiconductors are produced in Taiwan. And the vast majority of other production is located also in Asia, Southeast Asia, partially in the United States. And now European Commission is scrambling to deny the programme how to encourage European entrepreneurs to start again the production of semiconductors we produced decades ago. And this is the same effort or we need the same approach as we invented last year when we encouraged the production of the vaccines against COVID. But we need years to come to this situation and till then we are facing significant troubles. Look at the car market, for instance, the delivery of the cars has been delayed from weeks to weeks. The demand is also higher than during the pandemic last year but this is not the only problem. We are speaking about the real issue, the real problem regarding strategic autonomies of the European Union. The second issue when we are speaking and there is no green transition and there is no digital transition without the semiconductors. Everything is based on this technology. The second problem we are not aware enough when we are speaking about the independence of the European Union is that in critical issues there is not enough lithium on the earth for all batteries we need to produce to secure the green transition in transport. There is not enough lithium so we need technological breakthrough in the last lithium period if we want to make our wishes regarding green transition. This means that billions of euros have to be invested into those researches and we don't know when we will have the final results. We are encouraged by what happened last year with the research regarding COVID vaccines so now we know that it's possible something within one year which was not possible within decades in the past but still it's under the question mark. This discussion regarding strategic autonomy is not something which will disappear from our agenda it will become even more important than we think today. Regarding involving the youth into the recovery and all this discussion we are making on the future of Europe I think this is one of the biggest issues we are missing in the first programme set by our predecessors in previous presidencies when they drafted the programme of the discussion regarding the conference on the future of Europe. So there is no Europe without people and demography is our strategic problem and if we want to strategically start to solve this issue we have to bring young people, families into our focus and this is also one thing Slovenian Presidency is trying to bring on the table on the highest forums dealing with the conference on the future of Europe. It's crucial and it has been neglected during the last period not in all member states but in the majority. I'm very glad you mentioned the enlargement issue there is not only western Balkans it's also our eastern neighbourhood and because the enlargement disappeared from the agenda of the European Union for more than a decade during this time we had to invest a lot of efforts when we were seeking tactical solutions for the strategic problems in our neighbourhood. Despite the fact that we all know that the enlargement of the European Union is not only fulfilling the dream of our founding fathers European Europe to become whole, free and in peace with itself it's also the solution for many issues we are trying to solve and mediate and we are not very successful always. So first of all we have to bring enlargement as a strategic approach strategic issue and during last informal summit between the European Council and the leaders of the western Balkans not so far ago we try to reach this consensus and we are partially successful so first time after long period in the final declaration from this summit adopted by consensus the very word enlargement is included because in many declarations regarding western Balkans adopted on similar summits in previous years this word was not included they all spoke about the European perspective of the western Balkans where European perspective is the present all those countries are in Europe but we are speaking about EU perspective we are speaking about enlargement and there was decision taken in Thessaloniki 2003 that the EU perspective of those countries is granted but since then a new generation those countries became old enough to vote and I cannot say that nothing happened there was significant progress in some areas in some countries and so on but we are not able to develop common approach of the European Union that this is what will happen and this is why we were not successful when we proposed also a timeline we would say that our goal is to make the decision from Thessaloniki Summits 2003 to become reality next decade we will do everything this to be fulfilled we were not strong enough to reach a consensus but we learned the discussion and I think that also with your support we can go further next year because we decided that such summit will be gathered every year every year and this is also one of the achievements of this meeting you also mentioned national minorities I think that European Union brought a variety of new opportunities for the cooperation for the solving of different problems regarding national minorities which didn't exist before for Slovenia I can say that this is completely new situation since we are a member of the European Union our national minorities in all neighboring countries their position automatically became much different there are new programs and it's the same with the national minorities living in Slovenia from neighboring countries the difference couldn't be bigger 3 decades ago little more than 3 decades ago for instance Yugoslav People's Army soldiers killed people who wanted to cross the time border with Yugoslavia and Italy and there was real beds on there now there is no border people can move freely they can work on their properties existed on both sides of the border and many other programs became possible with this change and it's the same I know the situation many other new member countries and I think that this is another issue when European Union brought strategic changes on better and the last thing on values as I said before when we negotiated the Lisbon Treaty the discussion regarding values was very important and indeed European Union is value based union at that time it was very popular to say we are creating even closer union because we share the similar of the same values and I think this is not under the question from any side the problem is when sometimes we avoid to understand that there are also differences there are differences among the local communities they are not all the same there are differences among the new member states there are differences among us as individuals so all values are not the same so we are speaking about agreed values written into treaty agreed by everyone and this is the value foundation of the European Union but sometimes some people want to include into this basket also their specific values some values are clearly also some values are clearly and this is part of the democracy political color and most often the problems arise when we mix this when we mix this and when we also mix the terms with which we name different values but the important thing is that we have what is the common basket we have written we have the main treaty we have the European Charter of Human Rights and we have many other agreed documents and this all together is the value basis of the European Union which we all have to respect but politicizing this with adding your personal values or your personal political values into this basket is complicated the situation and I strongly advise not to do this thank you Thank you very much Prime Minister Yasusha I couldn't agree more with you and I really want to thank you for your involvement today and your presence here in our European Committee of Regents assembly our plenary session which and this very interesting debate that we had together today I think we have gained a lot from this discussion our members and our committee in general local and regional leaders all across Europe and all the people who are following our plenary online it is very important because during this week we also hold the week of regions and cities with 12,000, 13,000 participants by now in 300 events so it's very important that we had this discussion in this very the most important week I would say for the European Committee of Regents every year and I want to thank you because not only have you highlighted the importance of involvement of regionally and local politicians but also you have set out the reasons why Europe needs to trust and empower its regions and cities in order to be able to tackle all these crises and all these problems that we have ahead of us it is very important for us to know that we have such an ally like yourself for the work that we are doing and we really count on your support during the Slovenian presidency and of course after and we really want that the Slovenian presidency will be a success and I want to congratulate you for so far having made it a success so thank you very much again for your participation and we will soon meet again thank you ok dear colleagues we've ended the debate on the Slovenian presidency with Prime Minister Janša and I would like to give the floor now to our first Vice President Mr. Cordero for presiding the next part thank you very much