lThe heads of the list of five of the main European political parties They confronted this Thursday their proposals and diagnoses in areas such as defense, agriculture or migration in the last great debate before the elections to the European Chamber from June 6 to 9although without right-wing or conservative candidates.
(Read here: ‘The 2016 agreements remain the cornerstone of the implementation of peace in Colombia’: European Union)
The dynamics did not allow many concrete proposals to be put forward or for the candidates to delve deeper into their ideas, although each one had several opportunities for reply that allowed some “face to face” on issues such as the pacts with the conservatives or, briefly, the situation in Gaza.
They debated the popular Ursula von der Leyenthe social democrat Nicolas Schmitthe liberal Sandro Gozi, The green” Terry Reintke and the leftist Walter Baier; The right wing of Identity and Democracy could not participate in the debate because, according to the rules of the EBU, They had not formally nominated a head of the list.
Future coalitions
“I have been working very well with Giorgia Meloni, it is my job as president of the Commission. We will make an offer, we will see if she is pro-European, which she clearly is; anti-Putin, who has been very clear on that too; and in favor of the rule of law. If this holds, I will offer to work together,” she said.
Defending
“We have to talk about what financing is like. There are two options to do it: either national contributions or new own resources at the European level,” he indicated.
And he stressed that two objectives must be achieved at the same time: to continue supporting Ukraine and to improve the European defense industry, making sure to eliminate fragmentation in common projects.
Schmit, for his part, stressed that investment in defense results in the freedom of Europeans, which “does not mean not investing in our social cohesion.”
Digital
In this sense, Von der Leyen gave the example of TikTok, which Brussels forced to suspend the points program of its Lite version in Spain and France because it was considered to be addictive among minors.
And Gozi defended that teenagers cannot open an account on social networks until they are 15 years old, instead of 13, as several allow, and opted for asking for transparency from ‘influencers’ to know who pays them.
Agriculture
Schmit assured that the “appropriate” climate policy can “enhance a new type of sustainable growth”, but added that “it is not free”, which is why he urged “mobilizing in Europe large resources, large investments, to transform, decarbonize our industry , our agriculture, our daily lives”.
And Reintke considered it necessary to reform agricultural policy because “farmers can no longer live off what they produce.”
Economy
Only Baier made a concrete proposal – that the EU regulate housing prices and prohibit evictions of first homes – while Reintke warned that “the biggest mistake” would be “returning to austerity” and called for “investing in future”.
Von der Leyen urged to improve access to capital markets and job training, Schmit to reduce poverty and “give opportunities” to citizens, and Gozi to increase the cohesion or agriculture budget if the EU wants to expand.
*With Efe
#European #Union #main #candidates #European #Parliament #elections #stake