One of the most common accusations, repeated quite often in the electoral campaign, was that Europe is too far away, unintelligible, a technocratic construction and that Europe has no soul.

I believe this Parliament, directly elected by the European citizens, is the soul of the European Union.

I fully share the clear position of Jean-Claude Juncker, our EPP top candidate, regarding the refusal to discuss with extremists, xenophobes and nationalists, with all kind of anti-Europeans.

I also fully share the vision about the necessity of constructive dialogue with the socialist group in the EP, not giving up our EPP values, but finding the pro-European compromise.

If it is the political union what we want to build, than we need the cooperation of the two biggest groups in the EP and we need to minimise together all anti-European initiatives.

Regarding Central and Eastern Europe there are three problems in which we need a clear stance of the EPP: freedom of movement – heads of state and governments, disregarding the Schengen agreement, are still delaying Romanian and Bulgarian accession to the Schengen area; the problem of autochthonous national minorities and languages groups is a European problem – “United in Diversity” has to be more than a slogan, has to become reality, that´s why we need an EU framework for national minorities; the Roma issue – we need a revised Roma strategy and a long-term plan for its implementation.

The intervention made by Iuliu Winkler MEP during the debates in the EPP Group which were occasioned by the presence of Jean-Claude Juncker, the top candidate of EPP for the European Commission.