H Ursula von der Leyen’

ing point of her initiatives in the Parliament will be the forces that want a stronger Europe.

How were these first weeks in the Presidency?

I have been overwhelmed by messages from all over the world. I found myself in a blender set to very high speed and in a complicated start-up phase of the legislature, but with a very proud Parliament and many new parliamentarians: so many new group presidents – many do not even know each other. There is an unprecedented dynamic, often difficult to interpret if one is not inside the parliamentary game. I found myself thrown into the fray. My function is to guarantee and defend Parliament’s prerogatives, but not everyone voted for me. I think a strong European Parliament is necessary for a stronger Europe.

We have talked about the positive aspects of Ms von der Leyen, but there are also some negatives. What are those? After all, she received the approval of the Visegrad countries, which create so many problems for a united Europe.

She will have to present Commissioners who keep to the commitments she has made in Parliament. The Commission also has a political initiative. It is essential that the College is unanimous on the programmatic points on which commitments have been made. If the Commissioners depart from these commitments, the Commission’s initiative would be weaker.

Although at this stage Ms von der Leyen can promise anything, if the proposals do not pass, she can blame the Member States. It happened with the Juncker plan on migrant relocations...

We need a Commission that encourages solidarity between countries. We know that the mechanisms are not only in the hands of the Commission. For example, immigration policy continues to be national; we need to transfer immigration policy to Europe. That is why I referred to the reform of the Dublin Regulation, because it is a way to provide Europe with some operational tools. If you arrive in Italy, you arrive in Europe and therefore the EU must take responsibility. But if this reform does not develop, if transfers of powers from the national level to Europe do not take place, who will take those people in? Only Italy, Greece and Spain would take them in – the countries on the southern border of Europe. The Commission can do a lot, but it cannot do everything. In any case, having a Commission that pushes for greater solidarity is important.

Apart from the content, what impressed you most about Ms von der Leyen’s speech?

The story of her father: a 15year-old boy in Nazi Germany, who then becomes a senior European Community leader. Her father really represents the Germany that understood the lessons of war and Nazism; that is the generation that started it all. It was like that for me too. I find so many similarities. We owe so much to that generation: they experienced the most absolute horror and have been able to give us an important legacy. That is why it is even more necessary to work for the European Union. She was right to make that reference, and to frame the forces that want a stronger Europe as her point of reference.

She has worked a lot in recent days to promote today’s Europeanist result. Did the fact that your name as President of the European Parliament did not come from the package of nominations by the European Council help her (where speculation centred on a socialist from Eastern Europe)?

Many feel that Parliament can be guided from the outside. No. Parliament has shown that it makes its assessments and takes its initiatives. The Parliament did it with a lot of autonomy – choosing a different path from the one imagined by the Council. The publication of this interview was arranged with the assistance of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Malta