Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said reforms were still needed despite improving economic prospects. “The time to reform is now when the wind is blowing in our favour. We still have around five million unemployed young people in the European Union, so nobody can sit down and relax."

Jean- Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said the economy was improving thanks to dropping oil prices and the euro losing some 30% in exchange rate against the US dollar. "This gives us an enormous boost on the short term economic programme and we very much intend to make the most of this opportunity."

Françoise Grossetête (EPP, France) said member states should invest more in the energy union and stressed the need for structural reforms in order to re-launch economic growth.

Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium) said the strength of the energy union depended on Europe’s global clout: “What we need is a decarbonised economy. There was a time when in Europe we were pioneers when it came to new technologies, renewable energies, energy efficiency … but other areas of the world are overtaking us."

Syed Kamall (ECR, UK) criticised the Council for not discussing Greece at last week’s summit “Show that you have the will to provide solutions. Nothing should be considered a little bit too hot for the Council table."

Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, BE) urged member states to led the Commission take charge on the energy union: "If we don’t have a decision from member states to give a leading role to the Commission in the negotiations about energy agreements and about investments in interconnections, we don’t have a real energy union."

Neoklis Sylikiotis (GUE/NGL, Cyprus) said the financial extortion of Greece should be stopped: " We should only implement the real reforms that can help the real economy and sort out the serious issues of corruption and tax avoidance. "

Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) expressed her support for the energy union: "If it is done properly it could give us the best way to protect climate and bring innovation in the industrial sectors and also guarantee security of supply vis à vis Russia and other countries that we are dependent on at the moment."

Referring to yesterday’s Germanwings crash, Paul Nuttall (EFDD, UK) said: “Today isn’t the day to score political points. Yesterday's tragedy has touched all of us. Our thoughts are with those who lost their lives.”

Harald Vilimsky (NI, Austria) asked why the situation in Greece was not being debated more: “The majority of this house seems to be turning down the opportunity of a debate on the subject: are you not ashamed?”