Interview with Anna Theologou, MP from Cyprus

Last year EU40 launched a three-day ‘Young Members of Parliament Forum‘ in the European Parliament, under the high patronage of the European Parliament and with the direct support of European Parliament President, Martin Schulz. The event was a full success with 50 young Members of Parliament attending from 14 Member States.

Building on last year’s success, we are delighted to have organised the second cross-party Forum between October 11th and 13th 2016, at the European Parliament, in Brussels. President Schulz delivered an inspiring message to attendees on the 11th of October, opening the Forum. Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament Manfred Weber and leader of the S&D Group in the European Parliament Gianni Pittella welcomed the participants on the 11th of October, alongside with European Commissioner for International Trade and Trade Agreements Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska, and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO, Jamie Shea.

The overall theme of this year’s Forum was the EU’s Transatlantic Cooperation, with trade, security & defence, data protection placed at the centre of the discussions. Due to current events we naturally also took time to debate the situation of the EU post Brexit and a renewed relationship between the EU and and the US/Canada without the UK. At the Forum, we drafted and tabled a joint resolution together with the 30 Members of Parliament from all political parties from the 13 MS.