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Martin Schulz is a funny person, no doubt about it. He is hilarious when he is mixing English and German when talking about serious things. And the fact that he dedicated one hour of his activities on the 13th of July to meet the European Parliament’s trainees makes him an even more popular man.
Last time, the President of the European Parliament could only stay for some minutes at the EPSA’s General Assembly. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t afford to miss the match with Germany that evening and he blamed his staff for the wrong scheduling.
Yesterday he started by saying:
„The situation in the UE is dramatic and we have to speak honestly about it.”
He referred to what disaster the Brexit incident created in the EU and made a parallel with Germany before and after the war – imposing the will by force and then trying to rebuild what was damaged.
Here are some other quotes from the Q&A session with the trainees:
„With the EU, things are not perfect, but without it things are less perfect”.
„We can take the case of Goldman Sachs and Barroso to improve the code of conduct of the European Commission”.
„My key message now is to regain the trust of the increasing number of citizens who don’t believe anymore in the EU.”
As he answered a question about fair internships, Schulz expressed his puzzlement about the fact that a lot if trainees in the European Commission and MEP’s interns are not paid.
„It is a scandal that MEPs who receive 23,000 euros every month for staff don’t pay their trainees”.
And he promised to investigate this issue…
President Schulz had some remarks about terrorism, here are some of them:
„We have to admit that the EU is a territory of immigration. But we need a legal system”.
„We need more common actions, not national solutions. Mr. Abdeslam crossed freely a closed border”.
„In the EU, terrorism is a priority. But instead of national solutions, we need more common actions. We need more police forces, not closing the borders between us”.
He left the trainees with a sad-funny statement and the promise of a bright future:
„The liberals and conservatives vote for Europe. My left wing doesn’t. Scheisse, that makes me very… angry.”
„The EU will survive. The 21st century is a century of world regions and you are representing that generation”.
And, by the way, he is not worried about his future after his mandate ends in January 2017, because his mother always said that “with this mouth” of his, he will surely find something.