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And now we can open the floor to your questions. Yes, please. Hello, can you hear me?

So I will accept Paula Pina's suggestion to talk, in our own language.

We speak in Italian, and António Bertolomeo Peraai,

Mr I wanted to ask why you decided to look into questions of security in the European Union.

Is there any particular reason why you decided in college to tackle this issue and what were the reasons behind the establishment of this Secretariat,

and perhaps you could say something more about digital identity and age checking and a number of the other issues which you outlined. Security colleges we have had before.

It is not the first time that we have discussed the situation in Ukraine and the situation in the eastern border.

There is a dynamics, of course, and that determines how often we reconvene and discuss evolutions,

and it's also a situation where, of course, we are now in July and we want to assess.

Where we stand and it's a question also of preparedness so it's not the first time that incur college we have had this kind of debate,

but it's always new data,

it's always new dimensions that we approach and we have a security college exactly because security security college.

Secretariat exactly because as you will see we have regularly reconvened under this format and we need this type of support and we will continue to have this format because there are security concerns in our continent and the European Commission is absolutely part of the policy choices that we make in that direction.

And the ECI your questions are about European citizens' initiatives. One was admitted.

I would be able to, to share with you.

One was, you know, it was today about the, admissibility, the eligibility check, of the two initiatives.

One of the European citizens' initiative, was, you know, about, conditions through which you can,

you can access the internet, age verification, these are topics that we discussed, extensively. We discussed extensively, in Europe right now.

The petitioners, of course, are aiming towards a, let's say free flexible access to internet,

aiming towards, you know, as little restrictions as possible.

What I can say is it was presented by Commissioner Šefčovič in charge is that this,

this initiative was considered as eligible and will go through the legal process.

On the other side, the European Citizens' Initiative that is related to stopping flows of migration from non-Western countries of origin based on criteria such as race or nationality,

ethnicity was considered as not eligible, so it was not admitted, it will not be register.

By the Commission, it will not go through the process of the European citizens' initiative due to the lack of legal soundness,

lack of legal basis.

So this initiatives journey stops with the checks that was announced today by Commissioner Šefčovič.

This is briefly what was the situation with them. Thank you. Other questions? Yes, please.

Hi, thank you, I'm Anna Ströbele Romero for the German outlet Tages Spiegel.

I have a question on the high-level Experts Group on AI just, wondering.

If you have a timeline for setting it up, who might be part of the group, and,

you know, if the, the result will be a report or some concrete actions that they might recommend. Thank you.

I will not be able to announce a timeline nor rules for the selection of the components.

I would say on a personal note that we were of course also inspired by the expert group,

the panel that supported the president on the safety of minors online.

There are difficult, complex topics, with which we, we, we are faced.

Some can receive, you know, expertise and, and guidance in a shorter amount of time.

Some, and this I think is the situation of the impact of AI and new technologies on the labor markets require.

A good foundation and then, you know, time to really be able to assess and deliver.

But on my side, what I can say is that I want a speedy process.

Already if you see, if you compare how things changed since 2024 when this College of Commissioners started its mandate.

And we were discussing about the future of work. What AI means the world of work.

In 2 years, things have changed and they continue to change in a rhythm that really makes me say to you without having the possibility to announce concrete details that we will be very fast moving in,

in setting up this this structure,

this advisory so that we can start work and they will be of course supported by.

The different, you know, tools that we have, the different structures that have data like the JRC like we set up an AI observatory platforms that already are going to collect information, the Skills Observatory that I announced with the Union of Skills, but we all need,

we need to be able not just to integrate this data but also to have, you know, Support and expertise into different scenarios and different responses to scenarios,

and this is something that is rather a response to a rather unseen or very novel situation with which humanity is overall confronted.

So we are taking each step at a time in setting this up. Thank you.

Now let me take a question online from Maria Psara. Hello Flor Martha Sahagun in newspaper please.

With all due respect, your announcement seems a little bit theoretical, a little bit general, although it's very, very important, and I,

I'm wondering if you could provide us some concrete examples for this intervention,

intervention that you could, could do this on this.

For example, how will you address the affordability and the cost Of living, how, as you said,

you will help, help the persons that are outside of the market to enter again.

Tell me, how would this work with the member states?

Please help me to communicate better with our great creators. Thank you. Indeed, the affordability.

The affordability crisis has so many, you know, nuances, and,

there's one family that has problems in paying their mortgage.

Other families maybe don't have enough income in that household because of, of lack of employment.

In other situations, housing is, is too expensive or the energy bill is going through the roof. So there are different dimensions to.

To how affordable life is in different parts of Europe,

what we do in this communication is to address the situations of tens of millions of Europeans.

That are deprived of an income from a quality job,

and that's why we looked at these 50 million Europeans that are outside of the labor market who are not even looking for a job.

How can you hope to improve the affordability of the life of a person if you cannot first support them through the Member States to get a job,

a decent job with a decent salary, with decent working conditions?

And that's what this initiative for which we launched the consultation today is all about.

The consultation with the social partners is mandatory according to the treaties.

The result could be a directive, the result could be a recommendation,

it could be hard legislation, soft legislation, or just supporting measures.

We will consult the partners and see if and how they think we should act at European level to support our Member States,

but the idea is that we are not delivering efficiently enough in terms of Activation services.

Many times some Member states focus on unemployment benefits or trainings so that certain persons are being prepared to to to fulfill a vacancy in a sector where,

however, they don't have other types of support, like I said,

childcare or like the adaptation of the workplace if the person has a mild disability.

So what we say is we need better,

more efficient services in our member states to activate these persons.

What these services are, they are different and the combination of them might be the response, the personalized combination for a woman with three kids who maybe graduated from high school or maybe from college,

it could be again, the possibility for her to Upskill with AI,

but also a childcare facility at the workplace or in her town.

So it's a complex intervention for a, for a person with a Roma background, it could mean a combination of continuing to receive a certain minimum income benefit if they come from a very vulnerable,

very excluded background with maybe sometimes support to finish mandatory school,

with maybe support for, for.

For childcare and and such a, such, such types of, of combinations or vocational training for those that are,

that are, that are, you know, have a talent for, for that.

So it's this initiative on activation will take the shape of what the social partners also indicate to us. We will consult with them.

It can be legal, it can be soft law, it can be just support, but we We want to bring our Member States in this space where we acknowledge that we need these tens of millions of Europeans to be part of an already suffocated labor market with so many shortages,

to give these people a chance to live in dignity, to quality employment,

to a salary that means contributions, that means a pension, that means for most of those women.

Absolutely concretely, gender equality,

but we cannot for now preempt into saying what exactly this tool will look like.

What's important is that we look at the different problems in terms of activation, who would benefit, what we would need to combine,

and then we will ask our social partners and come back to you after the first phaseed consultation, as it is called, probably sometime in mid autumn.

And see how we continue with this process.

You know, the process, legally speaking, Commission, it takes a bit of time because this is the legal foundation.

If I could announce today, by my own power and by the power of the College,

a direct tool, I would, but we need to be considerate of our legal requirements. So a two-stage approach at this point.

Do we have any more questions on The subject here in the room, it's not the case,

but I do have some questions online, but off the topic,

I understand, so let's give it a try, Vincenzo Genovese.

Good, good morning, good afternoon, yes, as I said, it's off the topic, but thank you for, for taking the question and, Vice President, as you represent the Commission, today,

I would like to know if the Commission has a position or a comment,

on the fact that reportedly US President Donald Trump, wants,

FIFA President Gianni Infantino as the next UN, president. Thank you very much.

The college has not discussed this issue and, and the VP was not aware because as you will understand all the members of the college were in the meeting in the security room without any access whatsoever,

to, outside news, so this is not something that we could have looked into, for now.

Yeah, but football seems to be able to, you know, anchor such a wider, wider debate.

I would take the opportunity to, to remind ourselves that football is about fair play and performance,

and it brings billions of people together and it creates a sense of, you know, shared humanity.

You know, shared passion, shared values, and, it's such a positive thing, so, yeah, beyond that, I'm quite,

amazed myself of the many anchors that football is, is, is, is, is throwing in, in, in different other walks of life.

But I was not aware of this novelty, so I would not be able to comment, and yeah, we did not discuss in any way this topic.

And one final question also off the topic to Gérard Wolf. Hi, hello, thank you, Paula.

No, I was wondering, the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont filed a complaint to the EU Commission for not complying, for not complying with the ruling of the European Court of Justice regarding the amnesty law that was decided last Thursday,

and I wanted to ask if the Commission can confirm that you have received this complaint and what is the answer to Puigdemont's lawyers. Thank you.

Yeah, we were aware of, of this of this claim and what we are now doing is, is to check whether,

whether this complaint was received, received and obviously after this is confirmed,

due process will, will follow.

But for now, checking to see where this complaint was received and the details of, of that.

As soon as we have more information on this, we will get back to you in the course of the afternoon.

And with this, we come to a close of our press conference.

Thank you very much, IVP Mînzatu, and it's also the close of the college season, so to say,

until, the college resumes, end of, of August, if I, if I'm not mistaken.

But we will continue to meet here in the press room, as you know, and well, as soon as tomorrow ready for our midday.

So thank you, EVP, and wish you all a good afternoon.

Take good care of yourselves and your families.

We will see each other in the autumn. Early late summer.