As the 2024 European elections are just around the corner, the European Newsroom sat down with the Luxembourgish commissioner to talk about his campaign and his outlook for the next months.
Schmit made no secret of his criticism of the European People’s Party led by current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which did not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the extreme right. The EPP is “not anymore a Christian Democratic force”, but has become a conservative party open to cooperation with the extreme right, he told the enr.
Asked about enlargement of the bloc to include countries like Ukraine, Georgia and countries in the Western Balkans, Schmit emphasised the importance of focusing on the process itself, rather than setting specific dates for countries to become members. According to him, this could create unrealistic expectations and potential disappointments.
When asked about the current situation in Israel and Gaza, Schmit called not “to question what happened on October 7 which has been a terrible crime” while acknowledging that the Israeli response is “absolutely disproportionate”.
The interview was conducted by journalists from three news agencies participating in the enr: ANSA (Italy,) EFE (Spain) and STA (Slovenia). Other participating agencies followed the interview online, among them AFP (France), Agerpres (Romania), AMNA (Greece), Europa Press (Spain), HINA (Croatia) and Tanjug (Serbia).
As a result, a number of them covered the interview by publishing news items on their respective wires.
Following the interview, the enr jointly produced a Key Story, based on the news reporting by the respective agencies participating in the enr. You can read that Key Story here.