With the 60th anniversary of the Rome treaty marked by a special summit of EU leaders in Rome this weekend, they also turned their thoughts to the future of the EU itself.
The deputies among the packed audience included Hermann Winkler, a German EPP group member, who expressed satisfaction with the recent vote, in Strasbourg, on the issue of conflict minerals, describing it as a “good result.”
He said, “This was a very complicated and highly controversial file and the result gave me great personal satisfaction.”
On Europe’s future, Winkler declared, “I say, long live the EU27. It is very unfortunate that the UK is going to leave and, after Brexit, we cannot say EU28, but what’s done is done.
“What the remaining 27 member states now need is a huge debate on the EU’s future. This, though, should involve not just the EU institutions and civil society, but also ordinary citizens themselves and I hope this will happen.”
Romanian S&D group MEP Emilian Pavel, who won the employment and social affairs award, pointed out that he had inherited committee and delegation memberships from Romania’s current Commissioner when he took up his MEP post in November 2014.
“I didn’t choose them but, even so, I am happy with the work I have done, in particular on the youth guarantee and promoting skills,” he said.
As a new MEP he said it is very difficult to be allocated a parliamentary dossier but he pointed out that, in the current term, he has tabled more amendments to draft legislative proposals than any other Romanian MEP.
“Being part of the temple of social dialogue” is the thing he’s enjoyed most so far - the least is being away from his family - and he remains “very confident” about the EU’s future.
“But,” he said, “it must not be a two, three or four speed EU.”
On Brexit, Austrian EPP group member Paul Rübig, a three-time MEP awards winner, said the most significant political aspect of British withdrawal was that it will depart the “table of decision making”.
He added, “However, it is also a big opportunity to press ahead with reform of the EU. After every crisis in the past, the EU has managed to bounce back with a strong response and I feel certain that will happen again. But we need to make the EU a more attractive democracy and one that respects the division of powers.”
Another MEP, Jan Olbrycht, a Polish EPP group deputy, who has been nominated for an award five times in the past and is a two-time winner, believes the MEP awards are very important because the nominations are made, not by politicians themselves, but by non-political stakeholders.
He said, “This is very important for us MEPs because it shows our work is being recognised by others and that they regard what we are doing as important.”
On the EU’s future, Olbrycht said he was confident adding, “A few months ago the impression was that, after the EU referendum and Dutch elections, everything was frozen. But, paradoxically, Brexit has de-blocked things and there is now a window of opportunity for a serious debate on things such as the commission’s White Paper.
“We have to redefine some things and the EU must reform but, yes, I am relatively optimistic.”
Further comment came from Morten Helveg Petersen, a Danish ALDE group member, who praised the awards as “an opportunity in the midst of lots of doom and scepticism to celebrate our hard work in Parliament.”
He added, “Parliament can have a bit of an image problem and it’s difficult to get across the message to member states of what we do. This sort of occasion is, therefore, a good opportunity to shed light on the work of MEPs and Parliament.”
Looking to the EU’s future, Petersen said he was “more optimistic now than in the recent past”.
He added, “The Dutch result, for the EU, was positive, and whether Angela Merkel or Martin Schulz win in the German elections we will have a pro-EU chancellor in Berlin. So, yes, I do see light at the end of the tunnel for the EU.”
Eduard Kukan, an EPP group member from Slovakia, also paid tribute to The Parliament Magazine for hosting the event, saying, “We MEPs are human beings and we do the best we can so, yes, we do like it when our work is noted in this way. It gives us a positive feeling.”
Turning to the EU itself, Kukan ,a former foreign affairs minister, added, “The EU remains an exciting project and I believe it can find the strength to continue to flourish in the future.
“I am a realist and know there’s been criticism but, in the long run, I feel it can convince the public of its credibility.”
Click here to read some words from this year's winners.