During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (18-21 January 2021), MEPs debate on the inauguration of the new President of the United States and the current political situation. Statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council MEPs welcome the inauguration of Joe Biden as an opportunity for Europe to strengthen EU-US ties and tackle common challenges and threats to the democratic system

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

EU - USA (T)

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

European Parliament

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

CIOLOŞ, Dacian (Renew, RO)

EPPINK, Derk Jan (ECR, NL)

SCHIRDEWAN, Martin (The Left, DE)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Inauguration of the new President of the United States and the current political situation: extracts from the debate

Arrival of Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC and cutaways of Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council ( four shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Today, Joe Biden takes the oath of office as the forty sixth president of the United States. This will be, I hope, a day of peaceful transition and a great day for American democracy like it has been for over two centuries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, On the first day of his mandate, I address a solemn proposal to the new US president. Let's build a new funding pact for a stronger Europe, for a strong America, and for a better world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We should work on five priorities. First, boosting multilateral cooperation. Second, combating covid-19. Third, tackling climate change. Fourth, rebuilding our economies, ensuring fair trade and promoting the digital transformation. And fifth, joining forces on security and peace. This won't be easy, but together we are up to the challenge.

SOUNDBITE (French), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, On this first day of its term in office, I want to invite President Biden to come to Europe to take part in an extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Europe has a friend in the White House and he will be standing next to Kamala Harris, the first woman to be president, vice president of the United Nation of the United States. This is a historical achievement and this also makes this day very special.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We will propose to the United States to step up our work on health prevention, preparedness and response at the G20 Health Summit in Rome in May and delighted that on day one, as they announced the new American administration, the United States will rejoin the Paris agreement. This will be a very strong starting point for our renewed cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We want to deepen our partnership on emission trading and carbon pricing. We want to join forces with the United States to fight the loss of biodiversity and the destruction of nature. We want to develop the technologies that will drive us to climate neutrality.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The Commission put forward a Digital Services Act, a digital market act in December. To put this in simple terms, we want to ban in the online world everything that is already illegal in the physical world. We want there to be transparency behind the algorithms that are used online. It's simply not acceptable that things that have an impact and influence democratic processes are determined by algorithms that no man can understand or see. And we want these big Internet giants to take responsibility for their actions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), More than 70 million people voted still for Donald Trump, around half of the American society. And that is the real challenge, how to win them back for serious for centre based politics. I think it would be wrong to attack them as populistic voters. I think we have to take their concerns serious.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), I think it would be great to have Joe Biden in the council meeting. But the better option for having Joe Biden in Europe to present the ideas for the future of the transatlantic relationship would be to have him with a speech in the European Parliament, probably in Strasbourg, because he's aware about the history of Europe. So that's why that would be a real great place to restart.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), As Social Democrats, we are committed to revitalising a transatlantic relationship and we should do this in the context of the meeting, the Paris objectives and the World Health Organisation, World Trade Organisation Zation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dacian CIOLO&#350; (RE, RO), We Europeans should save Mr Biden's proposal to build an alliance of democratic countries who cherish freedom and respect human rights. And as in the parliament, in the European Parliament, should be a strong partner for this initiative.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), The shocking scenes from Washington have not materialised out of thin air. They were the direct results of Trump egging them on, but also of four years of daily lies, a contempt for facts of relentless attacks on free media and portraying dissenting opinion as evil or conspiracy.