MEPs debate with the Commission and the Slovenian Presidency the 16th December European Council agenda, in particular the coordinated fight against COVID-19. Opening statements by Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and by Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

LOGAR, Anže (SI)

EU's response to covid-19 (T)

European Council meeting 16 December 2021 (T)

Preparation of the European Council and EU's response to the global resurgence of COVID: opening statements by Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and by Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, President, Madam President, honourable members. This week, leaders will meet in Brussels for the December European Council, where they will discuss the ongoing COVID 19 crisis and recent development in Belarus and Ukraine. Leaders will also touch on energy prices, security and defence, the external dimension of migration and other foreign policy issues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Due to the serious epidemiological situation, this European Council will last only one day. It will take place tomorrow, Thursday, and it will be preceded by the Eastern Partnership Summit, which takes place today and will be followed by Euro Summit still on Thursday. European Council meeting will start with the usual exchange with President Sassoli.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, First, let me focus on the recent resurgence of the COVID 19 pandemic. Leaders will have a working session in which they will discuss the ongoing fight against the COVID 19 pandemic in response to rising numbers and the emergence of new variant Omicron.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, As member states step up measures, continuous coordination remains vital to ensure that new restrictions are targeted and proportionate, do not undermine the functioning of the single market, nor unnecessarily hamper free movement. Our best tool is, in fighting this pandemic, our vaccines, including booster shots. If our efforts are to be successful, we need to overcome vaccine hesitancy and fight disinformation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leaders will also discuss global vaccine sharing efforts where the EU plays a major role, having donated 118 million vaccine doses to 60 countries so far. The EU and its member states will step up vaccines sharing through COVAX and bilateral donation by committing to reach 700 million doses by mid-2022. Efforts are being made to help develop local manufacturing capacity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, This pandemic has also taught us that we need to be better prepared for future crises. Leaders are expected to discuss crisis management and resilience on the basis of the Council conclusions agreed in November on this subject.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable members, now turning to the other subjects of tomorrow's meeting. Following up on the October, European Council leaders will return to the topic of high and volatile energy prices following the publication of the preliminary report by Acer and Esma. They are expected to invite the Commission to further examine the functioning of the electricity market and trading on the EU ETS market and to follow up appropriately.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leaders are also expected to call for the swift examination of the proposals to revise the third energy package during their working lunch. Leaders will discuss both the deteriorating fundamental rights situation in Belarus, as well as the humanitarian crisis at its borders caused by the Belarus and regime's ongoing instrumentalized of immigration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, They will also exchange views on the worrying security threat at Ukraine's border and see how to react to this. In the afternoon walking session, leaders will assess the implementation of the June and October European Council conclusions on the external dimension of migration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Recent action plans for countries of origin and transit should be made operational and implemented without further delay in cooperation with partner countries, and adequate financing must be mobilised for migration related action on all routes. In the area of security and defence leaders are expected to give guidance on ambitious strategic compass and call for a strengthened strategic partnership with NATO through a new joint declaration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leaders are expected to come back to security and defence again in March 2022, when they will endorse the strategic compass. Relations between the European Union and the African Union are on the agenda as leaders will discuss the preparations for the EU African Union summit foreseen for February next year.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, At the end of their meeting on Thursday in the margins of the European Council, leader will be joined by president of the ECB and the Eurogroup for a Eurosummit in inclusive format. Thank you very much for your attention.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, President Sassoli, Minister Logar. Ladies and gentlemen, members. For the last time this year, we'll be meeting in plenary today and I'm speaking to you with a mixture of concern and confidence. Now, firstly, obviously the reason for that is the pandemic. And I think, like many of you, I'm sad that once again, this Christmas will be shadowed by the overshadowed by the pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, But on the other hand, I have confidence because we have the strength and the means to overcome the pandemic in the long term. We've worked extremely hard to ensure that these means are available and above all, to build new structures in order to conquer the pandemic. Now we face a double challenge.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Firstly, we're seeing that COVID 19 cases have massively increased in Europe. There are some member states who have the highest new infection rates that they've ever had. And we're seeing an increasing number of people falling ill, a greater burden on hospitals and unfortunately, an increase in the numbers of deaths.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, It's very important to be aware that this large increase in the number of infections is due almost exclusively to the Delta variant. And what I'm concerned about is that we're now seeing the new variant Omicron on the horizon, which is apparently even more infectious. If you look at the time it takes for new cases to double in number, it seems to be doubling every two or three days, and that's massive.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, We're told that by mid-January, we should expect Omicron to be the new dominant variant in Europe. But over the last year, we've worked hard and we've achieved a great deal. And that is why Europe is in a better position now to fight the virus, and there are various reasons for that. Firstly, we have enough vaccine doses for every European now.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, One billion doses have so far been injected and 66.6 % of the European population has now received two doses of the vaccine, so they are fully vaccinated. That's over 300 million people. And 62 million people have received the booster jab. And science tells us that initial data from Omicron shows us that this triple jab is the best protection against the new variant.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Now, obviously, there's a lot of research that still needs to be done on Omicron, but health services have now set up a wide network of scientists and labs, which give us new knowledge on the new variant and the danger thereof on a daily basis. Secondly, our situation is better because we're now in a position to produce 300 million doses of the vaccine per month here in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, We have contracts that ensure that will receive vaccines once they're adapted to the new variant as soon as possible, and we're told that it'll take around 100 days to adapt the vaccines we have. We're also working with the European Medicines Agency, the EMA, to ensure that the approvals procedure runs in parallel to the adjustment of the vaccines so that we can have the vaccines available as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, So we have vaccines, we've done our planning and this puts us in a good position. The most important thing now is to increase the numbers of people who are vaccinated in Europe as quickly as possible amongst all age groups, including children. We need to reach people, we need to provide appointments for vaccines, and we particularly need to help those member states that are behind on vaccination.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In some member states the Commission has now begun to run targeted campaigns on social media to ensure that people in these member states have the information that they need on the effectiveness of vaccines. So we're going to do everything possible to ensure that vaccine scepticism is overcome. Because the price that will pay if people aren't vaccinated continues to increase.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, People pay economies, our businesses, our societies. It's also a problem for elderly citizens who once again this Christmas can't see their grandchildren. And it's also a problem for those children who once again can't go to school. What kind of a life is that? We all owe it to these people to get vaccinated and to ensure that we fight the pandemic with all our strength.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In addition, Europe has delivered vaccine doses to the rest of the world in an unprecedented manner if we look across the world. 44 percent of the global population are fully vaccinated. Europe has a large share of those people. We have delivered 1.4 billion doses of the vaccine to 150 different countries.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And in addition, we are the largest donor of vaccines in the world. We have donated 377 million doses to countries outside Europe. 50 million were bilaterally donated to Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries. So that's one thing, but millions of people in the world still haven't received their first dose.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, The continent that is furthest behind is Africa. Only around seven percent of the African population is vaccinated, so we're working hard on a package for Africa, also with a view to the EU African Union Summit. We want to provide them with vaccines, yes, but we also want to work on their infrastructure as well.

SOUNDBITE (German), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Medical education, more vaccines, more infrastructure so that people can get vaccinated medical equipment. All of that needs to be worked hard on. In addition, as Team Europe, we're working with our partners in Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa and together with the private sector as well to extend production capacities of MRNA vaccines. Ladies and gentlemen, the pandemic is unprecedented, unprecedented, but so is our response.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Besides the pandemic, we will also discuss at the European Council other important issues. From energy prices and the overall economic situation, indeed to the Russian regime's hybrid attack against our member states, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, The autocratic regimes attempt to destabilise our member states has completely failed because our Union reacted robustly and with great solidarity and unity. We mobilised humanitarian assistance. We introduced a tailored shop set of sanctions. We supported voluntary returns and as a result, within just a month now, more than 3500 migrants have been returned safely from Belarus to Iraq.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, However, ladies and gentlemen, honourable members, the situation at our border with Belarus should be seen in the wider context, mainly the deliberate attempt to destabilise the security of our democracies and those of our neighbours. And I want to focus on that now. We all have seen the reports of Russia's massive build-up of military aid along Ukraine's eastern border and also the attempt to destabilise Ukraine from within.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, I want to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future. We also see the blatant attempt to intimidate Moldova's reformist government by squeezing them on gas supplies at a time of high energy prices and honourable members, we must protect our societies and our democracies from this kind of cynical geopolitical play.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Of course, we want good relations with Russia. But whether this is possible depends first and foremost on Russia's behaviour. And at this point in time, Russia's choosing aggressive posture vis-a-vis its neighbours. And as the European Union and its G7 partners have made very clear. Further, aggressive acts against Ukraine will have massive costs for Russia.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In June, the European Council has tasked us to come up with options. And since then. We have been working on this in close cooperation with the United States and other partners. We are prepared. There's a whole set of economic sanctions in place targeting the financial and energy sector dual-use goods and defence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Our response to any further aggression may take the form of a robust scaling up and expansion of these existing sanctions. And of course, we are ready to take additional unprecedented measures with serious consequences for Russia. But above all, I call on Russia to de-escalate, to pursue diplomatic channels and to abide by its international commitments. Conflicts must be solved peacefully.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Dear Members. Our joint response to external threats, our European vaccination campaign: these things show on a daily basis that our union and our democracy keeps its promises. Today, I would particularly like to thank the Slovenian presidency. They have done so much to move our work forward in terms of coordination on COVID 19 files that are important for our digital and sustainable transition.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, The French presidency is coming up now. It's looking very ambitious in terms of the fight against climate change and the digital revolution, and also the fight against global inequalities and boosting our democracies. I look forward to working with the French presidency and count on the French to continue to move forward with the important tasks we're doing.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Dear Members, we have been through a turbulent year. Thank you for all your support. Thank you. I know that like me, you're looking forward to spending a bit of time with your families and your friends. So happy Christmas. Merry Christmas, thank you.