During the plenary session (7-10 June 2021) in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the preparation of the G7 summit of 11-13 June and the EU - US Summit: Opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Secretary of State for European Affairs of Portugal, Council of the European Union and by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

EU - USA (T)

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

joint debate

DOMBROVSKIS, Valdis (EPP, LV, EC)

G7 Summit (T)

ZACARIAS, Ana Paula (PT)

Preparation of the G7 summit of 11-13 June and the EU - US Summit: opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS for the Council and by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/4066182/I206981Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Roberta METSOLA, EP Vice-President, The Council and Cpmmission statements, preparation of the G7 summit of the relevant to the 13th of June and the EU US summit, I give the floor first to speak on behalf of the Council of the European Union, Secretary of State Ana Paula Zacarias.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, Thank you very much, Madam President, dear commissioners, honourable members, thank you for this opportunity to discuss in a bit more detail these two important upcoming summits to which President Michel and President von der Leyen for already referred to.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, First on the G7 summit, which the UK will host on Cornwall this weekend. As President Charles Michel just underline the overall mission of the EU for the meeting is clear. Support an agenda for global action built on a strong commitment to international cooperation, built on a strong commitment on multilateralism and an open, resilient, rules-based, multi international order.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, And and here there are a couple of elements. First, the covid-19 pandemic needs global cooperation to in order to be overcome. We need solidarity. We need to ensure early access to vaccines and treatments everywhere.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, While vaccination campaigns are making progress around the world, more needs to be done. President von der Leyen and explain clearly what we are doing in terms of exports, in terms of donating vaccines, in terms of supporting the production of vaccines. But more needs to be done. We need a stronger multilateral response. We call for closing the financial gap for the access to covid-19 Tools Accelerator. And we have been the main supporters of Covax, but we cannot be multilateralists alone. An advanced G7 would advance G7 economies should share those US through Covax.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, Secondly, solidarity also remains key in dealing with the economic effects of the pandemic, as we expect uneven recoveries, deepening of inequalities, we need to work together to fight hunger and poverty around the world. And in this respect, a new general allocation of special drawing rights, unprecedented in terms of size, is under preparation by the IMF.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, EU member states have supported this initiative and are discussing how to best channel these resources to the most vulnerable countries. Sadly, we also need to better prepare the world for the next pandemic. A number of initiatives are ongoing with the recent Rome Declaration of Principles released by the Global Health Summit and discussed at WHO, including on an international treaty on pandemics.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, This should not be a missed opportunity. Furthermore, the UK G7 presidency has put forward a very ambitious agenda on climate and biodiversity against the background of the two important events of this year the COP 26 on climate and the COP 15 on biodiversity success at the COP 26 will depend on the level of ambition of all parties the EU has already submitted is ambitious NDC.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, It would be important that the G7 shows an equality and equal stronger level of ambition and leadership with clear commitments. The EU is also committed to working with the G7 partners to adopt new ambitious global targets on biodiversity for the COP 15, our own EU 2030 biodiversity strategy is a testimony to that.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, Finally, another very important topic regards international taxation. We are at a crucial juncture on OECD led negotiations for a broader overhaul of the rules on international taxation of the largest multinational enterprises.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, We welcome the fact that the G7 has reached a consensus on the framework for an overall agreement, and we hope that this agreement at G7 level would indeed form a good basis for further work, both within the G20 and at the level of the OECD.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, Honourable members now turning to the upcoming summit with the United States. I would like to stress the symbolic importance of this event, it will take part, it will take place as a part of President Biden first foreign trip seven years after the previous summit upon an invitation by President Michel, the United States and EU represents 780 million people will share democratic values.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, It is also the largest economic relationship in the world. We have a chance and a responsibility to help people make a living, keep them safe, fight climate change and stand up for democracy and human rights.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, We would like to see this summit to agree with the U.S. on an ambitious cooperation agenda in four key areas, fighting the covid pandemic and driving forward a sustainable global recovery. Second, protecting our planet and fostering green growth. Third, strengthening trade, investment and technological cooperation and force building a more democratic, peaceful and secure world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, We expect that leaders will agree on a very concrete and ambitious set of deliverables in all these four areas. And we believe that this event has the potential to be a key milestone in renewing and reenergizing our partnership.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, A strong transatlantic partnership is vital to ensure and to contribute to our common security, stability and prosperity. A renewed transatlantic agenda is necessary to find joint answers to global challenges and make it deliver for our citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, We hope that the summit will not be a one off event and that regular exchanges between the EU and the United States will resume at different levels. Discussions in preparation of the summit are underway, both with EU member states and on the U.S. side.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and President in office of the Council of the EU, And today's exchange, I'm sure, will provide a timely and important input to into the summit preparations. I am very keen to listen to your views. Thank you very much for your attention.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Roberta METSOLA, EP Vice-President, Thank you very much, Madam Zacarias. I now ask and invite Executive Vice President Dombrovskis to address the statement on behalf of the commission.

Speaker 3 Madam Chair, Madam Minister, honourable members, the transatlantic relationship is a beacon of democracy and prosperity. We share deep historical ties as well as a biggest trade and investment relationship in the world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, On our trade flows reached a value of almost one trillion euros last year. But our partnership goes beyond economics. We have shared values and we are committed to supporting democracy across the world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We share a fundamental belief in a strong global rules and institutions that give every country a fair chance to flourish when the EU and US speak in one voice, we can get things done today after some years of turbulence. The atmosphere has changed for the better.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We are looking for a new avenues of joint leadership on ending the covid-19 pandemic and driving the economic recovery, on building a more democratic, peaceful and secure world on the World Trade Organisation. At a forum on climate and green growth on trade and technology on the level the global global level playing field.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Already last December, the EU reached out to the incoming Biden administration was a proposal for a new renewed transatlantic agenda. The European Commission welcomes the support of the European Parliament for this approach.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We are engaging intensively with our American counterparts to translate our intentions into action. I have had very constructive conversations with the US Trade Representative Ambassador today and Secretary of Commerce Raimondo in this regard. We now have two important occasions to advance our strategy.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, A G7 summit in the UK next week and the EU US summit on 15th of June. Let me start with the G7 summit. The participation of the President Biden and the new US administration, together with a parallel Italian G20 presidency, offers an excellent opportunity to reinvigorate the G7.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, The EU will be calling for a stronger multilateral cooperation, in particular on climate economic recovery and bolstering our common values as open societies and democracies are our key priorities for this year. G7 summit focus on beating the pandemic, recovering from the crisis while building a better future, strengthening the multilateral trading system, working for a successful COP 26 and joining forces for a human centric digital transformation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Let me briefly address each of our priorities. On health while overcoming the covid pandemic is our immediate priority. We should also enhance our preparedness for possible future pandemics. Good progress was made at the G20 Global Health Summit, hosted by the Italian by Italy and European Commission in May. The EU demonstrated its full commitment to global solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We want to build on this progress and agree a G7 health declaration. The EU will push for more ambitious commitments to share vaccines with developing countries and financing the access to to accelerator. We are also fully committed to supporting the development of vaccine manufacturing capacity in developing countries and we are driving this work forward via the for like the WTO on economic recovery.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We have provided unprecedented support to citizens and businesses to mitigate the impact of the pandemic given as a magnitude of covid crisis economic impact. This support has proven very successful as a G7 summit will insist that the economic support should not be abandoned too early this year, but should still be maintained to allow the recovery to gain a proper ground.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, But we will equally insist that in order to build a better future, we should shift from crisis response to promoting a strong, resilient, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth trade that will play a major role.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We all agree that the multilateral trading system needs to be reformed, and I thank the honourable members for their consistent leadership. In this respect, the G7 has a responsibility to lead the reform effort and the EU will be proactively calling for this strong approach when it comes to the digital arena.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Our aim at the G7 summit will be to show unity between Like-Minded Partners. We want to send a clear message that we are ready to cooperate and shape a digital future based on our shared, shared democratic values.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, G7 trade ministers already expressed a strong support for open digital markets and opposition to digital protectionism in line with the EU on approach. We strongly support the creation of new rules for digital trade at the World Trade Organisation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We are committed to advancing that joint state. Initiative on e-commerce leading and environment and climate action is that you use first priority as a G7, we will continue pushing for ambitious COP 26 commitments on climate change and for ambitious COP 15 commitments on biodiversity at the summit of the G7 will show strong leadership by signing up for an unprecedented joint commitment around net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Finally, the G7 summit will provide an opportunity to promote our democratic values and open society in the world, notably by endorsing a joint declaration with Like-Minded Democracies, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia and South Africa. We want to engage with our international partners on geopolitical challenges, including the latest developments in Russia and Belarus. We'll continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Belarussian journalist Roman Protassevich.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Now moving to the next Tuesday EU US summit. We very much welcome the Biden administration's engagement on the global stage and its commitment to reinvigorate the traditional alliance with Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, The summit will be an opportunity to show the world that we are serious about tackling global challenges. Together, we'll commit to upholding democracy and human rights, to ending the pandemic and addressing global health in general.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We will also commit to protecting our planet and supporting an economic recovery that benefits everyone well. We also hope that the summit can deliver a more positive trade agenda, will commit to collectively addressing the challenges stemming from nonmarket economies, and as a trust and confidence building measure, we have to de-escalate and solve EU US trade disputes.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, We want to make a decisive progress to resolve bilateral disputes on aircraft and as that US Section 2.3.2 measures on steel and aluminium. On the letter, we send a clear signal to the US on our willingness to solve this issue in a fair and balanced way by suspending that automatic doubling of our legitimate countermeasures.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, It is now for the US to walk as a talk beyond immediate priorities. The EU and US should move closer when it comes to defining technologies, green and digital economy and societies of the future.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, To that end, the EU has proposed to establish a Trade and Technology Council to deliver transatlantic leadership in the area of trade and digital based on our shared values. Of course, this cooperation should also be open to Like-Minded Partners.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, Last but not least, we also hope to forge an alliance with the US to cooperate on the World Trade Organisation reform. We need to bring that global trade rulebook to the date, helping us to address the many challenges we face finally will engage with us on critical geopolitical challenges, including Russia and China, but also supporting the EU's eastern partners such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, strengthening our joint engagement in Western Balkans and ensuring stability in the Middle East and Africa.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Executive Vice-President of the EC in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, To conclude, honourable Members, the Commission is looking forward to this important summit and we will inform you on the outcomes. Thank you for your continued support.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Roberta METSOLA, EP Vice-President, Thank you very much. Executive Vice President Dombrovskis.