 Welcome. Good to have you. Thank you so much for your interest to our today's group meeting as EPP Group together is our group with the Committee of Regions. We are here gathering in Bucharest with the EPP Congress and the European People's Party is the powerhouse of Europe. We have the biggest group with the European Parliament. We have the biggest group in the Committee of Regions. This gives you an idea that we are locally strong and we are on European level strong. And we do this together as a team. We see these as a combined effort to deliver for our citizens. On the one hand, we have to deliver on European level when it is about supporting our mayors, our governors on the ground. I want to underline, especially in the last years, the strong efforts after the corona crisis to establish a recovery and resilience fund with 750 billion euros. Siegfried Murison was main reporter on this, was fighting on European level for this money for the regions of Europe. And on the ground, our mayors are investing in this, are delivering then to the daily life of the citizens. And here in Romania, I can also see the success stories. When I'm driving here in Bucharest, you see the development. You see the positive development over the last years and decades, especially under the leadership of PNL. And also with Emil Bock, one region where inclusion really the Silicon Valley of Europe is present in a way. So where you see really the success story to being a modern, a very successful, economically very successful country. And it really delivers then on the daily life of citizens because income is increasing, the daily life of citizens is getting better. That is what EPP is doing. We do this together in the perspective of delivering to the results of the people. We have in front of us serious questions, generally speaking, the war to keep peace, which is for all those who are in Europe a key element. That's why we are close to our Ukrainian and Moldavian friends. And the second thing for us is that we want to keep our societies in Europe together. We need prosperity. We need economic growth. We have to build up bridges between rural areas and cities. We have brings things together. That is also part of the DNA of the European People's Party here in Romania, also of PNL. That we are bridge builders. That is what we and EPP is all about. And that is what we are showing today, especially with strong mayors and strong people on European level who deliver in the interest of the citizens. That's why it's great to have this common meeting today, this common session of the two groups today. We show unity in the interest of our citizens. Good morning, everybody. Buena Jua. I'm more than happy to be here in Bucharest together with all friends from Europe, from national level and with my people. People from the ground, mayors, councillors, presidents of regions. It is really great to work hand in hand together. And why I think that the European People's Party is so unique? Because you need to know that the European People's Party is the only one European party which seriously treats local and regional leaders. Which took us on board to co-organize, to have a common group meetings today, to co-organize with Great Congress. And you need to know that in Europe we have 300 regions and almost 90,000 municipalities. And in vast majority of them, we are in power. So that's why we are the strongest political group in the European Committee of Regions. So we can be added value, both for the party when we're preparing to European elections. We want to be engaged. We are going to be engaged to campaigning to support our candidates for MEPs, to support our future president. And on the other hand, we would like to put in the next mandate villages, cities and regions in the heart of Europe. Because what you need to know, there is 70% of European legislation which is implemented on the ground. Which is implemented in our cities, in our regions. Of course, in different aspects. For example, in Poland, we are responsible not only for European legislation, but also for European money. We are distributing, just like me in my region, beautiful region of West Pomerania in Poland. We are distributing European money. And thanks to this, we can have our regions much more modern, much greener. For example, my region is a leader of green energy production and right now green energy covers 100% of my regional consumption. It is possible thanks to the strong and united union. That's why we fight for a victory of EPP because we know how to develop, how to provide our people with sense of security. And how to make them healthier and wealthier. So once again, thank you on behalf of all mayors of regional leaders that we can work hand in hand together. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. Welcome to the main topic of the meeting of the European Popular Party this morning. It is the cooperation between the European Parliament and the local elections. The European Popular Party has always been convinced that to take the best decisions for European citizens, we have to listen to people and we have to listen directly to the primaries, to the presidents of the Judicial Council, to the presidents of the region. That's what we started last year. And as the president of the European Popular Party responsible for the relationship with the regional committee, a cooperation between the European Committee of the Regions and our group of the European Parliament. We started this cooperation together with the Prime Minister Emil Bock with the Supreme Court, President of the European Popular Party Manfred Weber and Olga Gieblevic and I would like to thank them for this prison. The message we are transmitting today is that the European Popular Party is the primary party at the European level and the National Liberal Party is the primary party in Romania. For the European Popular Party, at the European level, as well as in Romania, for the National Liberal Party, the people's voices count, the people's decisions, as close as possible to the people and to the basis of their expectations. That's exactly what President Weber said. At the beginning, I supported the implementation of the primaries, local elections, regional judges, as many decisions as possible regarding the European funds, regarding the national plans to address and resilience. The European Popular Party is a supporter of the rural media. As well as other political families, in the last few years, the decision made by the European Popular Party and the National Liberal Party has been the only political effort at the European level, which has approached agriculture, farmers and rural media. We want people to have the same quality of public services as people from the city. We will invest in infrastructure, in digitizing public services such as education and health in rural media in the next few years. And as part of the electoral manifesto that the European Popular Party will adopt in this afternoon, we also have a plan for rural media. We want to reduce the gap between the city and the city. In the end, I would like to say the next thing. The strict cooperation between the local and the European Parliament is the best instrument to fight extremism, populism in the European Union. At the local level, it is very clear that the first European pro-European of the right-wing are those who have solutions that can attract European funds and can develop local communities, and especially in the context. Including local elections and the European Parliament together in Romania, I consider that with a cooperation between the local elections and the European Parliament, we can present the best plans to develop local communities. Thank you very much. And allow me to address few words in Romanian also. This party is the party that has at least 5 major crises that we had in 2010. The economic crisis, the migration crisis, the war crisis, the pandemic crisis, to name just a few. This party is the one that gives the exact time in Europe, the European Popular Party, having the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the most important portfolio in the European Commission. For Penelay, it is an honour and at the same time it is an responsibility to be there, where the decisions are made for the future of Europe and for the future of Romania. Now, going back to the collaboration between the local, national and European dimension of the National Liberation Party and the European Popular Party. The first message. Extremism is the political force that can put the future of Europe in danger, the future of the democratic of Europe. We have to do everything we can to keep extremism out of the way and not within the fundamental democratic process. Primaries from Europe have shown that they can keep extremism aside. You will not find that with very few exceptions, primaries or presidents of the Judicial Council with extremist orientation. Primaries are the key to the future of the democratic of Europe and the European Popular Party understood this and established the priority of collaboration between the local, national and European level. Secondly, as we say in English, all politics is local. All politics is local. The first direct contact with the CET, the European Union is with the local administration and that is why the European Popular Party supports so much this direct relationship with the CET. Until then, the future comes from the vote given by the CET. Thirdly, this party is the party of the jobs, the party of the investments, democracy and freedom, but also the party of solidarity and cohesion. The party of solidarity and cohesion, with other governments, produces prosperity, because it cannot be left out if it does not produce something, but it also distributes solidarity for those who need our solidarity. That is why this party managed to bring over 70 billion euros to this European country in Romania. If we think about it, we have the 20 billion euro contribution to Romania at the European budget. We have 50 billion euros that have entered this country through the policy coordinated especially by the European Popular Party of cohesion and solidarity and we will not lose a place in Romania from the 3,200 of the communes, from the 106 municipalities that do not have a school, a garden, a park, a playground, a highway, without European funds. Europe has changed the life of Romania and we are in this direction. As we say in Romania and with this I will close, when the water from Covat is running, the children are running too. Yes, we have difficulties, the water from Covat. We can run them because we can get rid of them. But do not run this golden child who is Europe and the future of our democracy. We have to think about how we can keep this golden child, this gold we have, peace, peace and security of our houses and Europe through the European Popular Party. That is why I am honored to be today in this select company, this leader of the European extraordinary. Let's show that we, the Romanians, can succeed here at home. Because our great ambition is this. Yes, Europe has given us the freedom of movement. But the legal measure, as Enrico Letta said, the freedom of movement means the freedom of the choice to stay at home. That is, the freedom of the power of Europe. But there is no obstacle. Here at home, it remains at home. No Roman, no European citizenship must be forced to disappear from the economic motive. For this reason, Europe is here today. For this reason, Europe has invested over 70 billion euros to create the quality conditions of life in every corner of Europe that the Romanians choose. Europe can leave, but it can remain at home for the rest of the world. But it will be in 1890 on Mars, in Monza, in Belgium, the summit of the regions and the cities of Europe. The Romanians, as a specificity, over 20% of the active population from, especially, from working in serenity or living there, are the cities of the population. What do you see at the level of the European population in this sense to reduce this decline? No. That's my point. May I ask one second. The question was about the way in which the summit of the local and regional authorities from 18 March in Monza, how we will address the decline of development between the various regions of the European Union. Simply, there are two key investments and cohesion. There are the two key things that the European party has in the DNA. Investments and labor, well paid, on the other hand, cohesion, so that no one is left behind and no one is abandoned. From the beginning, from 2007, 27.5% of the internal product per capita, at 72%. An extraordinary progress. Of course, we need more from the European Union, but it is important that we set the right direction. Yes, we have nearly 4 million Romanians working outside of Romania. The freedom of movement is a European religion. We are happy with this freedom of movement. But as I said earlier, with the policy of cohesion we must create the same conditions as at home. No one must be forced to leave the country. This is what is happening today in Romania. Probably we should try more. And this is how we can do another question. But the fact that 50 billion euros have changed Romania is a certain thing. And continuing this policy, again, first and foremost through the European popular party, which is the European development engine. It is the party of investments and labor, we can create the same conditions as at home for the remaining Romanians because our political manifesto has a key phrase. How can we return the values of those who have left to return? To transform in brain-gain. That is, to gain from this export of values to return to their homes. Because once it returns it returns with a Western mentality to return with experience of doing to return with money and with this mentality that helps to return to their homes. We are building our power together. At the national level, at the local level with the Europeans to create the same conditions of life. We want them as soon as possible. We want them overnight. We cannot do that overnight. But it is important to see that the direction is correct. And we have to be careful not to leave others who do not have as much hunger as they do not have as much We are at the brink of war in Europe. We can do what we want without the fact that the drones are above us to kill us. To understand that this is a product of a united Europe, of this fabulous European construction. To not lose it. Because in Romania we had more experience like Poland, and other countries. When once you were outside a powerful embrace, you became extremely vulnerable. The message of the European Popular Party was already to demonstrate that we were able to succeed. And I think the share for Romania was 30 billion euros. So to invest this money was not an easy exercise on European level. But EPP, under the leader of Ursula von der Leyen, although in this period of time of Angela Merkel, we in the parliament, Siegfried, I myself, we succeeded with this. 30 billion euros additional solidarity from the rest of Europe for Romania. And I can only be very, very clear all populists, all extremists in Europe refuse this idea of solidarity. So everybody must be aware of this. When we speak now in front of the European elections, those who vote for populists here in Romania, these members of parliament will end up in a group which is the Putin friends and which are against solidarity on European level. So we can only ask people to take the vote serious and vote for those who are really defending the Romanian and solidarity interests in the European Union of today.