You have led a country of extremely brave men and women fighting for freedom and democracy. I came to Ukraine not only to confirm our solidarity, not… - Roberta Metsola

Millions of your country women and men have fled this country. Millions more are internally displaced and are expected to make their way to other European countries. We must be ready — but more importantly we are willing to do what is necessary to provide a future without fear for those arriving at our borders. And that willingness will remain steadfast.

We need to re-assess the European Union’s role in this new world. We need to boost our investment in defence and innovative technologies. This is the time for us to take decisive steps to ensure the security of all Europeans. The time to build a real security and defence union and reduce our dependencies on the Kremlin.

The European Union was created to interlink the destinies of the nation states of Europe so that they could no longer engage in the kind of conflict that led, in less than thirty years, to two world wars. The European Union is a project for peace. But even above that, it is a project about freedom. And let me say that Ukraine is Europe.