My first day in Italy

It has been an exciting first day in Italy, with a lot of interesting encounters. I thank all of you who have tweeted about my visits and shared photos of me with the rest of the world. Below you can see my day in pictures.

At the Joint Research Centre in Ispra in the morning for the opening of the European Union Crisis Management Laboratory:

by @LaRadman

by @EC_Live

by @LaRadman

by @twittwehr

At the Università Cattolica in Milan in the afternoon speaking about the European Commission and the governance of the European Union:

by @andreacomi

by @Ludovicanic

by @LucaG_Castellin

by @GiuliaRedJoy

I would like to thank all the colleagues at the Joint Research Centre for their warm welcome and the staff and students of the Catholic University for the very good colloquium. And also big thanks to my team for helping me to gather all the photos for this blog post!

En forme à Strasbourg

I have spent the day in Strasbourg, speaking at the European Parliament in the morning session that I attended for two hours together with Maros Sefcovic, the Commissioner responsible for interinstitutional relations. I reported to the Members of the European Parliament my views on the last European Council, finally one without the drama that the public became used to see in many European Council meetings throughout the last two years. If you want to watch my speech it is on video below (thanks for my team who sent me the correct link):


I think I was particularly "en forme" in my replies to the interventions of the distinguished MEPs at the end of the debate. You can see that especially the letter that I received from certain heads of state and government has surprised me as many of the measures they propose are in fact blocked by the member states, the same that sent this letter. And sending me a letter that does not even mention once the Europe 2020 strategy, our common European strategy for growth, did show that we still have some way to go in our common approach. Maybe I even let myself go a little too far with certain remarks, yet some things need to said! But see for yourself:

At 13h00, we had our weekly College meeting and in the evening, I participated in the meeting of the EPP group, my political family in the European Parliament. Thanks to Austrian MEP Elisabeth Koestinger there is even a photo of me at this meeting (to my right Joseph Daul, the EPP group chairman and Martin Kamp, EPP group secretary general):

One of the things I have made clear during that meeting was that I strongly condemn the anti-immigration websites in the Netherlands. This kind of discrimination should not take place in our common European Union. Tomorrow, I will meet with the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament. That is it for today, good night to all of you!

Speech at the Lisbon Council and European semester debate

I gave a widely recognised speech at the Lisbon Council today, speaking about smart growth and the ways out of the crisis, many media reports followed, which I welcome very much. I will share a speech video with you as soon as I have time to add it. I also participated in an extremely interesting discussion with national deputies and members of the European Parliament on the European Semester (the strengthened coordination between Member States' budgetary and structural policies). This debate was a very good example of European democracy, crucial for the legitimacy of the work of the joint work of the European Union's institutions and the member states. I reiterated that fiscal discipline is not a goal in itself but that we need intelligent ways to make growth possible by stimulating confidence, private investment and consumption to get new jobs and growing economies.

 
 video added to the article on 29 February

Question & answers in Hamburg on Europe's economy and democracy

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I was in Hamburg on Friday, visiting the future concert hall and speaking in the evening at the historic dinner, the Matthiae-Mahlzeit about "A stronger Europe in stormy times". During the day I was also discussing after a short introductory speech one hour with students and professors of the Bucerius Law School. My team told me that I was pretty convincing, more convincing than in most of my speeches (if you listen to me a lot you will notice that I prefer to speak openly and that am not the best speaker when I have to read my speeches), so here is the video from the event where I answer questions on European integration and economy, the European Public Sphere, democratic procedures in the EU and more:

Now the weekend is already over and the next week will again be a very stressful one. On Thursday and Friday there will be another European Council focused on the European economy, and as usual I will be very much involved in the debates. I hope I will find the time to blog during the week to keep you informed about what is going on in Brussels. Have a good week!

1st European Competition Forum

There is nothing more refreshing than giving the keynote speech on vital topics for our continent. This morning, I will speak at the first European Competition Forum which shall provide an inspiring environment for debates around competition policies. I hope my speech will foster this inspirational atmosphere, and that this will be just the first in a series of of Competitiveness Fora in the years to come.

Reading the press this morning, everyone will notice that the Commission took an important decision regarding the merger of the Deutsche Börse and the New York Stock Exchange, and so it is almost fitting that I will speak at the Competitiveness Forum later today. This week, we have also seen the first European Council I have seen in years where the heads of state and government seriously focussed on competitiveness and employment, so the debates at the Forum come at the right time, providing input into the wider European discussions.

I have to leave now and I wish you all a pleasant day!