European Council: Greece should behave as a partner

"The EPP Group wants the Euro to stand firm. We support the financial aid to Greece and we want a strong partnership with Greece. But for this to work, the Greek government should behave as a partner as well and show its readiness to work seriously with us. Mr Tsipras should stop thinking that he is still running an electoral campaign," said Manfred Weber, the Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, during a debate in plenary on the preparation of the European Council summit of 19-20 March 2015.

On the Commission’s decision on France, Manfred Weber stressed that for the EPP Group, "there should be no difference, no double standards,

between larger and smaller Member States".

On the Energy Union, which will be one of the main items on the agenda of the European Council, Manfred Weber underlined the necessity for Europe to be "energy independent".

"We need partnerships with energy producers and also with the United States. The negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are an opportunity for Europe and the US to talk about energy together,” he said.