EU’s Metsola hints at good cooperation with future European Council boss Costa

European Council President-elect António Costa is a “strong and effective politician” who will “respect” the European Parliament when he takes office, newly re-elected European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said after meeting him on Tuesday.

“I know him as a strong and effective politician, but above all as someone who will respect the European Parliament and with whom we can do great things together,” Metsola told European journalists, including from Lusa, after meeting Costa.

Speaking on the sidelines of the European Parliament’s first plenary session in the French city of Strasbourg, Metsola, who was re-elected to the post today, added that she was “looking forward to working” with Costa in this new institutional cycle of the European Union (EU) that is now beginning.

“This is a house that loves Costa, it’s a house that Costa knows very well [since] he was a member of this Assembly and also […] we remember the Portuguese presidency as one of the most represented at the highest level, at which we discussed the social pillar, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the rule of law,” Metsola told Lusa and other European news agencies.

Costa, elected by EU leaders at the end of June for a two-and-a-half-year term starting on 1 December 2024, met with Roberta Metsola in Strasbourg on Tuesday afternoon. He then attended a meeting of his EU socialist S&D group.

He is now set to meet with Commission hopeful Ursula von der Leyen as she seeks re-election on Thursday.

(Ana Matos Neves - edited by Cristina Cardoso | Lusa.pt)