During the plenary session (7-10 June 2021) in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 May 2021: opening statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council and by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

special meeting of the European Council 24-25 May 2021 (T)

Conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 May 2021: opening statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council and Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, The strategy for 2030 that has been adopted as well. And now we pass onto the debate and we begin with the conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on 24th and 25th of May 2021. We will not have blue cards or catch the eye in this particular debate and there will be from far afield as well, interventions from the various EPLO offices. So I would like to invite, first of all, President von der Leyen or rather President of the Council, Charles Michel, to inform us about the conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on 24th and 25th me 2021. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, President of the European Parliament, President of the European Commission, Honourable members, hijacking a plane is piracy with 171 passengers on board is kidnapping. When these acts are carried out by a state, it is hostage taking and state piracy.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, For what? To get hold of a young journalist and his partner, who's free speech is intolerable for Mr. Lukashenko. We had to react quickly. And strongly, and we did we quickly agreed to adopt sanctions against the Belarusian regime commensurate with the gravity of the event, and these include additional individual sanctions, targeted economic measures and a ban on Belarus in airlines.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We also called on European airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace, a recommendation that was immediately followed in the wake of this decision, the UK and the US took similar measures. And I would like to emphasise three clear messages.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The first is for Roman Protassevich and all political prisoners. The EU will not rest until you are released. The second is for Mr Lukashenko. Mr Protassevich must be released immediately until that we hold you responsible for his physical and mental health. And our third message is to the Belarusian people and especially to those fighting for democracy, freedom of expression and media freedom.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The EU stands by you and will continue our direct support for your struggle to choose your destiny. Dear colleagues, as we did last year on China, we had a strategic debate on our relationship with Russia and we were unanimous in condemning Russia's illegal, provocative and disruptive activities.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, But above all, we have given ourselves time for a high quality debate. And I would like to explain the method, the objectives and the first resolutions. First, the method. The relationship between the EU and Russia is complex, and every complex and strategic choice must be must begin with building our collective intelligence. This takes time, but in the long run, it saves time once we share a common analysis. It's easier to take a collective decision. We are then stronger because we are more united.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And during our strategic decision, the leaders share the views and experience with Russia. We thought with a vision. Russia has created a string of conflicts in its neighbourhood and beyond, and facing that we have often reacted rather than acted proactively, rather than reacting to what we do not want. We must first decide what we do want from Russia. We need to better define our strategic objectives and how best to achieve them.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And this must be done in line in accordance with the five guiding principles. We have already agreed they remain as valid as the implementation of the Minsk agreements, strengthen relations with the Eastern partners, strengthen the union's resilience, selective cooperation with Russia on issues of interest to the union and the need for people to people, contacts and support for Russian civil society.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We will continue this work at our next meeting based on the report we have requested from the commission and the high representative. And this report will contain concrete options or scenarios.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, President of the Parliament, President of the Commission. We further had an opportunity to address the health crisis, the pandemic and the feeling around the table. The European Council can be summed up as this cautious optimism.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, On the one hand, we can see that we've managed to increase production of vaccines and vaccine deliveries, which is a step in the right direction. And then, on the other hand, we understand that we must remain prudent and keep a close eye on the situation in particular with regard to the risk of the emergence of new variants and strains.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Progress has been made with regard to the coverage certificate, and we welcome the agreements that have come to fruition with the European Parliament in this regard. So we'll keep working together, ensuring that bit by bit will be able to restore freedom of movement of people in Europe with a particular focus on the economic impact in some countries linked to the tourism industry.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, So cautious optimism is the feeling that's shared in the European Council. There's a further point that was tackled in the course of the summit. It had to do with Europe's commitment to the world in terms of the pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We won't be safe until the whole world is safe in this crisis. And that's why we are fully convinced that the European Union must not feel shame for its choices that were made from the very beginning. Europe's action on the world stage led to mobilising resources for research to ensure that in under a year, vaccines could be produced.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The EU made the choice to maintain vaccine exports and on average, 50 percent of vaccines produced on European soil were exported. And you know that we've at times been criticised by citizens and other sectors who said that we were slow to move on vaccines. But the European Union was in fact at the root of the Covax initiative to ensure that there was financial solidarity for other countries to order vaccines.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And now there is a central issue that we wish to focus on with the European Commission's initiative. It's stepping up vaccine production capacity, stepping up our resilience in the framework of specific partnerships, in particular with the continent of Africa, with some countries on that continent.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And may I underline the importance of working with Latin America, a key region, when it comes to stepping up production capacity in the mid and long term. Now, of course, this includes discussions around intellectual property, but it's also got to do with technology transfer, and we shall continue along our path of being committed on this. It is, after all, a crucial subject.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Furthermore, we addressed the issue of the climate. And you may recall that 18 months ago on climate neutrality in 2015, we've been working on our climate diplomacy to try and convince other partners to show strong ambition when it comes to the climate. That decision was made 18 months ago, and we also made the decision to bolster our ambitions in light of 2030 of Agenda 2030.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And there's a further shared feeling here around how we can achieve our ambitious goals. And that is why the European Council decided to hold an intense discussion on the climate in order to raise awareness in the European Commission with regard to the differing viewpoints, the different starting points and concerns around these ambitious climate targets.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And we very much trust that the European Commission will be putting forward initiatives in the short term that will be dealt with in a legislative framework and at the right time. The European Council will be taking another look at the issue of climate change to keep working on the climate threat. Further, we were able to look at our relationship with the UK for the first time since Brexit in fact, we are able to look at this. So let me just say a few words about the European Council's position in this regard.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We believe deeply in the rule of law pacta servanda. When agreements are reached, they must be implemented in good faith. And this is the expression of serenity and serene strength within the EU. We wish to be a loyal partner. We want a fruitful and cooperative partnership with the UK. That's always been the spirit of the negotiations around the table where we were able to showcase our unity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, But we're also ready to make use of the different tools at our disposal to protect our interests and the integrity of the single market, to ensure that our agreements are respected and upheld, and also to protect the Good Friday Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And we reiterated our solidarity towards Ireland in this regard. And now, if I may, I don't wish to go over my time. Mr President, I know that you are set to hold a debate on the G7 and other international summits taking place. Let me just say a few words about our outlook on these upcoming meetings.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, There is, in my view, a paradox that we've been dealing with over the past few months. On the one hand, the world practically ground to a halt when it came to economics and capacity. But on the other hand, the pandemic has shown the importance of international cooperation in a way that is rarely seen.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And over the past few months, international cooperation has been bolstered, multi lateral engagement, which is at the heart of the European project. And over the next few days and next few weeks, we will be putting that to the fore. And when it comes to the G7 or summit with Canada and with the US there, all of that will be plain to see.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, There are some key points here. Firstly, our fundamental values. This is something that's regularly discussed here in this house. Our liberal societies are under threat. There have been multiple attempts over the past few years to try to show the weakness, the ineffectiveness of liberal democracy, despite the fact that many times throughout history, this model has shown that it provides prosperity, that it provides good quality of life.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And it's not just about having to withstand blows to this model from those such as Russia who do not like this model. It's about strengthening our commitment, being more proactive and strengthening the way that we protect our principles and values. That's an important point.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, But there's a second point that's very important as well. Prosperity. How can we improve living conditions? And this ties into digital, to climate change, to global tax reform. And the EU has been at the forefront of these subjects quite often. In fact, as the European Parliament that placed these subjects at the heart of the international agenda.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, It's about fairness, equity when it comes to trade relations and once again, global tax systems. And we're making progress in this area. That's something that we. See, within the ministerial meeting of the G7 to bring more fairness to tax regimes for companies on the world stage.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Thirdly, safety and security as well as stability. How can we work to prevent conflicts, to reduce existing conflicts, to stop conflicts from escalating? How can we cooperate when there is a clash to try and resolve issues that arise and try and find lasting solutions?

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We can all think of different places around the world where it's in the EU's interest to ensure that there is stability and in our interest to cooperate with our partners in order to achieve good results.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, President of the Parliament of the Commission, Honourable Members. This is what I wanted to share with you here this morning. And of course, I'm very much looking forward to hearing your comments and remarks and ready to respond to any questions you may have. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, Thank you very much. Thank you very much, President Michel. And now the floor goes to President of the Commission, Madam von der Leyen. You have the floor, please, Madam.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Thank you, President Sassoli, President Michel, honourable members yesterday here in the European Parliament, we talked about the next generation EU and how we can build on it to emerge stronger from the crisis in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Today I would like to provide an overview of the next steps to be taken at a global level to leave this crisis behind. I would also like to report on the results. Firstly, the G20 health summit in Rome and then the EU summit a few days later, and I would also like to talk about the initiatives that we plan with our G7 allies in Cornwall at the end of the week.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And then next Tuesday, Charles Michell and I will meet with the US President, Joe Biden, here in Brussels. These meetings underscore the multilateral approach that we held firmly to during the crisis. These meetings also offer a wonderful opportunity to showcase our transatlantic alliance, prove that it is strong and that it is good for people in the US and in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Of course, in all these meetings on beating Covid-19 everywhere and ending the pandemic and of course, rebuilding our economies. And the dominant topic in all these sessions we had together, the meetings and summits, but also those who are ahead of us is vaccines and the equal and fair access to vaccines globally.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, This is why Mario Draghi and I convened the G20 Global Health Summit. It was, on one hand the lessons learnt, but on the other hand, also concrete pledges. And in their own declaration, the leaders gave a very strong signal. They had three main points in the G20 Rome declaration.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, First of all, they are committed to boosting production capacity in low and middle income countries. And I come back to that later. Then, of course, the second topic, tackling those bottlenecks in the supply chains. So if you look at the Rome declaration, you'll see it's a plaidoyer foreseen for vaccines and components.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We know that we are not there yet, but the Rome declaration was the very first time that there was this commitment towards that. And we committed in investing in a global surveillance and early warning system, knowing that we failed on that at the beginning of the pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But as I've said, in the short term, the dominant topic is vaccine supply and low and middle income countries. And there are three strands we follow up. The first one is indeed Covax. It's good that we have Covax, as Charles Michel said, it was the European Union was one of the main founder of Covax.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Up to today, up to three billion euros have been invested in Covax by pledged to Covax by a team Europe so far. But at the moment being an kovács, not so much. The money is the problem. It's more the access to to vaccines, vaccines in kind and therefore on top.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Team Europe pledged to donate at least 100 million doses of vaccines by the end of the year. The second strand is I'm convinced we have to engage the private sector more and that topic. And at the health summit, we worked with our industrial partners and it was good to see that the industrial partners committed publicly that they are willing to deliver one point three billion doses of vaccines till the end of the year to low and middle income countries at non-profit to low income countries and at low costs to middle income countries.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, So it's good to see that public announcement. We can keep track and we can make sure with all the scrutiny that there is one point three billion doses delivered in these circumstances till the end of the year. And indeed, the third pillar is export of vaccines. We cannot just keep the whole production for ourselves. And Europe has proven proven that it is possible, it is possible to vaccinate your own people and to allow for export.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Since January, we have been exporting almost half of our production, and if you transfer that a numbers out of 600 million doses of vaccines produced here in Europe and now around about 300 million doses have been exported to over 90 countries and honourable members.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, If all the other vaccine producers had followed our example, the world would be a different place today. And in the course of this discussion, of course, the question of the TRIPS agreement has been raised recently when the U.S. administration put forward their thoughts, we said we are open for discussions.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Now, just four weeks later, we have put forward a new global trade initiative at the WTO aiming to deliver more equitable access to vaccines and therapeutics. And this initiative has three elements.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The first is we want clear rules to keep supply chains open and to eliminate export restrictions, export restrictions for vaccines, and, of course, also for all the components that are necessary to produce these vaccines. So clear rules in WTO to put disciplines if their exports obstacles.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Secondly, we want to help ramp up production not only in Europe, but also in Africa or elsewhere where needed. And for that, we need to ensure also WTO clear rules to ensure the necessary transfer transfer of technologies and Know-How in emergencies. And here I want to be very clear. I think intellectual property has to be protected because it is the idea behind the breakthrough and it retains the incentives for innovation in research and development.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And of course, voluntary licences are the most effective way to facilitate expanding production. And at the G20 Global Health Summit in Rome, leaders reaffirmed this assessment, however, and that's the big however, in a global emergency like this, like this pandemic, if voluntary licencing fails.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Compulsory licencing has to be and is the legitimate tool to scale up production, and this is why, together with WTO, we want to clarify and simplify the use of compulsory licencing in times of national emergency. And we have discussed this proposal yesterday in the WTO.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Vaccine production requires, of course, a lot of know how we all know that. So these are very complicated biological processes. They require noho that require technology, that requires skilled personnel and, of course, infrastructure. And I think it is not by simply waving intellectual property rights that you get there, it is actually by collaboration and if need be compulsory licencing that you enhance technology transfer.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Because the patent is not telling the whole story, a painting patent is explaining part of the production process and get me right, it should not stand in the way. So there are also provisions for that in our proposal in WTO. But you need to have more when it comes to these kinds of complex products.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And this is why Europe started this initiative and WTO to simplify compulsory licencing. And this is also why Europe committed one billion euro to create with our African partners and our industrial partners. So all three manufacturing hubs in different regions in Africa and at a certain point in time will certainly come back to that discussion.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The G7 meeting will be a good opportunity to confirm our commitments and build on them at the G7. We will talk about the economic repercussions of the covid-19 crisis, in particular for the poorest countries in our world, our recovery should work in the interests of all.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, According to the U.N., over 34 million people are on the brink of starvation. We must bolster global food production systems at the G7. The European Union will commit to providing new humanitarian aid 250 million euros to fight against famine.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We wish to earmark 50 million euro for the Sahel and eastern African regions. These are regions hard hit by the economic consequences of the crisis and climate change. They have been hit by drought, flooding, extreme weather conditions.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We are all familiar with what is at play here. Climate change is happening. There can be no doubt, according to science, no time to be wasted. And so despite the pandemic, Europe has accelerated the pace of the ecological transition by adopting sustainable development plan. Even if we have global warming of around one point five degrees, there will be serious consequences, particularly in the least developed regions in the world

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, must be followed by tangible action across all sectors of our economies and our societies. You know that we are going to present the 50 55 package in mid-July, and I am glad that at the special meeting of the European Council at the end of May, heads of state and government in the first discussion of the overall package showed broad support because Europe wants to lead the way in this transition towards an economy that gives more to the planet than it takes away.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Now we want to broker the same ambition at global level, clear commitments followed by equally clear action, in particular in alignment with the G7 and the United States in the G7 would be very welcome. And it's time to do that now.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And with the US, we will not only grow our common trade and investment relationship in support of the green and the digital transition of our economies. Together, we will also engage with our international partners for shared commitment and joint action to reduce emissions by 2030 and to have tangible goals to become climate neutral economies by 2050.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And in this way, we hope, and we work for achieving the most ambitious possible outcome at COP 26 in Glasgow and at the Biodiversity COP 15 in Kunming.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable Members. This is the ambition we want to bring to the table when we meet with our partners and friends from all over the world. I know that you, the European Parliament, share this ambition because we all want to end this pandemic and we all want to leave a healthy planet to future generations. Long live Europe. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, President, thank you very much. President von der Leyen.