HS interview The smallest EU country to become the youngest president ever: Roberta Metsola, 43, leads the EU Parliament and prepares for a difficult final season

Through marriage, Metsola knows Finland well, up to the turnout in the regional elections. Every July, he travels between the Finnish summer cottage and Brussels.

Brussels

Maltese Roberta Metsola, 43, has now proved that even the smallest EU member state can strive for prominence in European politics. In mid-January, Metsola was elected Speaker of the European Parliament for the remainder of the 2024 parliamentary term.

“I haven’t had time to deal with it yet,” says Metsola in his twin-room study in the Parliament building in Brussels.

The new president sits in an armchair in a leather jacket and thick-bottomed running shoes and says he can’t afford high heels now.

Metsola is the youngest ever Speaker of Parliament. The woman has been number one twice before, the French Simone Veil At the turn of the 1980s and Nicole Fontaine In the early 2000s.

The Speaker of the Parliament has the same type of position as the Speaker of the Parliament in Finland. He chairs the main plenary sittings, signs EU laws on behalf of Parliament and leads Parliament’s work with parliamentary group chairs and the Bureau.

The President is also a front-runner in Parliament: he attends EU leaders’ summits, for example.

Roberta Metsola rose to parliament in 2013. Prior to that, she was an official in the Maltese EU Delegation and in the EU Foreign Service.

Metsolan the first major decisions are to set out how Parliament will work in the future. During the Corona era, EU parliamentarians have been able to work and vote remotely – even the presidential vote was historically remote.

“The current rules will expire in mid-March, when we will reassess the situation.”

Many MEPs would like the distance option to continue, but Metsola, on the other hand, would like to be present at key decisions. He predicts a long debate on the matter.

“I personally love parliamentary work. The decision must be somewhere in the middle of these positions. Parliaments around the world have seen us as an example of how quickly we can adapt to the hybrid model. ”

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Inside, there are major Commission proposals, including laws to combat climate change, which are currently being discussed in committee. According to Metsola, their final negotiations will not be successful remotely but will require attendance.

Usually the presidents have come from a large member state, most recently Italy. Likewise, they usually come from a large parliamentary group. Metsola represents the largest of them, the European People’s Party (EPP).

Metsola’s start is behind schedule, as everyone wants to meet the new President, and the new President intends to reciprocally establish uncomplicated relations with, among others, the Permanent Representatives of the member states to the EU.

In the EU, the Commission passes bills, the content of which is decided by Parliament together with the member states, and Metsola wants to improve communication with member states in particular.

“Husband kept his promise. Personally, I’m not sure if I should have. ”

Realm of the forest is married to a Finn with a Coalition background Ukko Metsola with. They both ran for the EU Parliament in 2009 and remained in the reserve, but Roberta Metsola got a seat as a Member of the European Parliament a few years later.

According to him, they promised each other that if one is elected, the other will no longer continue in politics.

“Husband kept his promise. Personally, I’m not sure if I should have, ”says Metsola.

Ukko Metsola currently works in public relations for the cruise company Royal Caribbean. The family has a home in Brussels and Malta, as the work of the MEP includes close visits to the home country. The couple has four children.

“Every July, Ukko takes the boys and goes to the cottage in Finland. I will still be working until July, and I will be here in Finland. After that we go to Malta. Husband refuses to go there until he has been in the sauna in Finland for a month. ”

Roberta Metsola does not speak Finnish fluently, contrary to what Politico magazine, for example, claimed.

“But I understand well enough to differentiate, for example, when the boys talk about me.”

Roberta from Metsola made in 2020 documentary gets a glimpse of the couple’s family life. Four lively boys ensure that there is no quiet moment at home and the mother does not survive the working day without negotiations on a mobile phone Fortniten playing time.

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The boys’ picture is on the bookshelf in Metsola’s study. Next to it is another important image in which he shakes hands with the pope. Nearly 90 percent of Malta’s population is Catholic.

Malta has not yet allowed abortion, and six MEPs in the country, including Metsola, have voted accordingly whenever the EU Parliament has considered the matter.

Before the presidential election, rival parliamentary groups highlighted Metsola’s voting behavior regarding the right of the Maltese Parliament to decide on abortion itself. After his election, Metsola said he would respect the position of the majority in parliament on abortion issues, as he had already done as vice president.

Both the EU Parliament and the EU Commission are now led by a woman from the center-right European People’s Party, the EPP. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke in Parliament on 27 January. In the background Roberta Metsola.

The European Parliament visibility is Roberta According to Metsola, decreased during the Korona period.

“60% of those elected to Parliament in 2019 were new members and have not yet seen this as it should be. The rest of the season will be very difficult, because we have big bills to deal with. ”

In addition, according to Metsola, Parliament needs to address the concerns of EU citizens about, among other things, how the climate package will affect energy prices and create confidence that new jobs will be created at the same time.

“The conference on the future of Europe is also important. In general, we should think more about where we are going and what needs to be improved. ”

“Parliament has not been able to say enough about the importance of the decisions we take.”

During the French Presidency, which began at the beginning of the year, the EU’s strategic autonomy, independence from the rest of the world, has come to the fore. According to Metsola, it is a good opportunity for the EU to think about the gaps left in Europe’s security when the United States can no longer be trusted as a guarantor of security in the same way as before.

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With the exception of trade policy, Parliament has little foreign policy competence, but according to Metsola, it can exercise its power by urging the Commission and member states to act. Similarly, Parliament has called on the Commission, inter alia, to uphold the rule of law or to obtain a corona certificate.

Parliament will also speak and raise topical issues in the debate. It also invites top speakers from outside the Parliament.

“I would like the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin [sd] should speak in plenary. We are currently looking for a suitable time, ”says Metsola.

Realm of the forest intends to tour the Member States with the Vice-Presidents before the 2024 EU elections and to encourage young people in particular to vote. The turnout in Finland’s EU elections was 42.7 per cent, well below the European average.

The President’s knowledge of Finland raises his head, as he immediately points out that the turnout in Finland’s recent regional elections was not significantly higher.

“Parliament has not been able to say enough about the importance of the decisions we have taken. We are planning a campaign for 2024 that looks ahead and does not apologize for being pro-European. ”

Roberta Metsola

  • President of the European Parliament.

  • Member of the European Parliament since 2013. He rose to parliament in the middle of his term and regained his seat in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

  • In the EU Parliament, Finland is part of the EPP group in the European People’s Party, which has conservative and center-right parties.

  • Party National Party of Malta Partit Nazzjonal.

  • A lawyer by training. Worked at the EU Delegation to Malta from 2004 to 2012 and thereafter until 2013 as Legal Adviser to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

  • 43-year-old, married, four sons.

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