Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, addresses to MEPs during a formal sitting in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

EU - USA (T)

BUZEK, Jerzy (EPP, PL)

formal sitting

BIDEN, Joe

Formal sitting: address by Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of the United States

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Dear Vice president. Excellences. Dear colleagues, dear friends. It is a great privilege for me to welcome to the European Parliament, Mr. Joseph Biden. The 47th Vice president of the United States.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Vice President Biden has been a key figure in American politics. And friends to colleagues in this chamber for many years. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, serving as the one of the youngest senators in his country's history, he was re-elected six times before becoming Vice president of the United States on November 2008.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, A former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's known to speak his mind. Sometimes to defend causes which are far from popular at the time.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, He leads opinion, he does not follow opinion. So it is a reason your speech today, Mr. Vice President, in the European Parliament is so important, so crucial for all of us. And let me thank you once again. For very warm invitation and very constructive and fruitful discussions last week, Wednesday in Washington.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Dear colleagues, in today's multilateral multipolar world, Europe and America can and should work together in a partnership for global stability and enlightened values we believe in. Vice President Biden's visit to the European Union today demonstrates this commitment.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Without a strong and effective trans-Atlantic partnership as equal partners., the United States and the European Union., we cannot find lasting solutions. Too many challenges we face, climate change, energy security crisis. Still hitting all of us. Terrorism or promoting human rights, defending free trade and improving global governance.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Colleagues, 25 years ago, almost to the day, President Ronald Reagan addressed this parliament on the 8th of May, 1985. This was the last and so far the only time that a US president has spoken to the democratically elected representatives of the people of Europe. Your presence in this chamber today, Mr. Vice President, is a symbol of the renewal of the dialogue at the highest level between our two continents.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, It is in Europe, We have a new Traeaty, so important for the European Union giving us in the European Parliament's new strength and possibility to act and the four whole European Union is so important in America after one year under President Obama's leadership. There is new hope for the world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, The timing of your address, Mr. Vice President, could not be better. Mr. Vice President Biden, it's a great pleasure to welcome you here this afternoon to Europe's parliament. The floor is yours.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Mr. President, thank you for that welcome. It was a delight to have you in Washington and at the White House, and it's a great honour and I might add a privilege to be able to address such an esteemed body. I served in a parliament that only had 435 members total.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, This is even a greater honour. When President Reagan I remember President Reagan's speech here in 1985, and to quote an Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, speaking of his Ireland in a poem called Easter Sunday, 1916, he said all's changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty has been born. Much has changed since 1985. Much has changed and a terrible beauty has been born.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, As you already know, ladies and gentlemen, not only am I pleased to be back here in Brussels for the second time as Vice president. As you probably know, some American politicians and American journalists refer to Washington, D.C. as the capital of the free world. But it seems to me that in this great city, which boasts one thousand years of history and which serves as the capital of Belgium, the home of the European Union and the headquarters for NATO, this city has its own legitimate claim to that title.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, As a lawmaker for more than 36 years in our parliament, I feel particularly honoured to address the European Parliament. President Obama and I were the first running mates in the last 50 years in America to make it to the White House from our legislative bodies. So we both come to our executive jobs with a deep appreciation for the work you do here in the bastion of European democracy.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Together with my former colleagues in the United States Congress, you and I represent more than 800 million people. Stop and think about that for a moment to elected bodies that shape the laws for almost one eighth of the planet's population. That's truly remarkable. And now under the Lisbon Treaty, you've taken on more powers and a broader responsibility that comes with that increased influence. And we welcome it.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, We welcome that because we, the United States, need strong allies, strong allies and alliances to help us tackle the problems of the 21st century, many of which are the same, but so many are different than the last century. Let me state it as plainly as I can. The Obama Biden administration has no doubt about the need for and strongly supports a vibrant European Union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, We believe it's absolutely essential to American prosperity and long term security. So I have no doubt about that. When I chaired the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee for all those years, I had the opportunity to meet many European lawmakers from the national legislative bodies, including some of you who are in this room today. So I appreciate after all those years, I appreciate what a consequential step it has been to build the only multi parliament in the world elected by universal suffrage.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, So much has changed. And I'm pleased that through the through the transatlantic legislators dialogue, you're building a strong relationship with the United States Congress. And I hope that the office you opened in Washington last month is going to enhance those ties. Folks, 65 years ago this week, less than 200 kilometres south of here, Nazi leaders signed an unconditional surrender that brought an end to the Second World War in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The next day, celebrations erupted in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus, cheering crowds danced along the Champs Elysées and the town squares throughout the allied world. And here in Brussels, a Thanksgiving service at a Thanksgiving service. Churchgoers sang the national anthems of Britain, Belgium and the United States.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, On that joyous day, May 8th, 1945, this continent lay in ruins, ravaged twice by total wars in less than 30 years. At that moment., a peaceful, united Europe, a European Parliament must have seemed like a fantasy to anyone alive, and yet through the will of your fellow citizens and statesmen like Paul-Henri Spaak, for whom this great hall is named, and Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, and the visions that gave birth to a parliament and earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Here we are assembled in this hall. Here you are. What began as a simple pact amongst a half a dozen nations to create a common market for coal and steel grew into an economic and political powerhouse, a community dedicated to free thought, free movement and free enterprise. A Europe that one historian is called not so much a place, but an idea. And I'm here to reaffirm that President Obama and I believe in this idea.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And in a better world and better Europe, it is already helped to bring about. A Europe were all member states benefit by negotiating trade agreements and fighting environmental degradation with one unified voice, a Europe that bolsters the cultural and political values that my country shares with all of you, a Europe that is whole, a Europe that is free and a Europe that is at peace.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, As President Obama said in Prague a little more than a year ago, a strong Europe makes a stronger partner for the United States and we need strong partners. And that is why we will do everything we can to support this great endeavour of yours. Because the past 65 years have shown that when Americans and Europeans devote their energies to common purpose.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, There's almost nothing we are unable to accomplish. Together through the Marshall Plan, we rebuilt Europe and made perhaps the greatest investment in human history. Together, we built the world's most enduring security alliance, NATO, and a military and political force that tied America and Europe together and brought us even closer in the ensuing decades.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Together, we established the greatest commercial relationship in the world's history, comprising about 40 percent of global trade and helping usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation. And together, we provided relief and hope for those suffering humanitarian catastrophes in more places than I can mention, from the Western Balkans to the Congo to our ongoing work in Haiti today.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, To those sceptics who, in spite of all these accomplishments, continue to question the state of transatlantic relationships or my country's attitude toward a united Europe, my answer is this. Even if the United States and the nations all of you represent, we're not united by shared values and common heritage of many millions of our citizens, myself included, our global interests alone would inexorably bind us together.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The relationship between my country in Europe is today as strong and as important as all of us, to all of us as it has ever been, this century has unleashed new challenges, no less dangerous than those that came before in the 20th century. Together, together, we're taking them on one by one. They are difficult. There will be disagreement, but we are taking them on jointly.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Climate change, one of the greatest threats our planet faces. The United States and Europe are working to ensure that all countries, and especially the major economies, are contributing to a global solution. We all look we all look to and we did take a major step forward in Copenhagen. Now we have to carry out those emission cuts, the financing and the transparency call for in that accord.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And we must help the most vulnerable nations from the Arctic nort to the Pacific islands that are the harbingers of this looming crisis. Across the troubled landscape of Afghanistan and Pakistan, we're working together to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban fighters and to train an Afghan army and police force so that their government can eventually protect its own people and not be a threat to its neighbours.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, In order to build Afghanistan's governing capacity, the United States, the European Union and its member nations are deploying significant financial resources and civilian resources as well. While sustaining these important missions has not always been popular. You all know, as I do, it's required as leaders we have an obligation to make the case to our populations that this is necessary for our collective security.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Although, believe me, as a politician who has stood for office for the last 38 years, I understand it is not easy. I assure you it is no more popular in my country than it is in any one of yours. That is also why the United States and Europe are standing side by side to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a development that would endanger the citizens and menace its neighbours, including some of our closest allies.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Together, together, we embarked on an unprecedented path of engagement with the Iranian leaders. And ladies and gentlemen. Despite what some sceptics thought, the president meant, what he said, that we will reach out our hand to any party that will unclench their fist. At the outset of this administration, President Obama stated that we're prepared to deal with Iran on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, With our allies, we made clear to Iran's leaders how they could begin to rebuild confidence within the international community, including by granting access to their previously undeclared enrichment facilities and exchanging low enriched uranium for fuel to power a research reactor. But as the world has now watched and seen, Iranian leaders spurned our collective good faith efforts and continue to take actions that threaten regional stability.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Let me state it flatly. Iran's nuclear programme violates its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Proliferation Treaty and risk sparking a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Wouldn't it be ironic? Wouldn't it be ironic as the Iron Curtain fell? And the mutual threats.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Of mutual assured destruction diminished. Amongst the superpowers that a new arms race would emerge in some of the most unstable parts of the world, that we would be an irony that our children and our grandchildren and great grandchildren would not forgive us, in my view, for allowing to come to pass.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, In addition, the Iranian leadership supports terrorist organisations and that support continues unabated and it continues unconscionably to persecute those of its citizens who peacefully take to the streets in the quest for justice, a betrayal of the duty of all governments. In terms of what they owe their citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Teheran faces a stark choice, abide by international rules and rejoin the community of responsible nations, which we hope for or face further consequences and increasing isolation in the face of the threat Iran poses. We are committed to the security of our all of our allies. That is why we deployed the Phased Adaptive Missile Defence programme to deter and defend against missile attacks on this continent, on this continent.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Ladies and gentlemen. We're also working together inside NATO to prepare for a range of future security threats, including energy security and cyber security, and we continue to support close security cooperation between NATO and the EU. Last year, the United States and Europe acted quickly and decisively when the world was reeling from a financial crisis more dire than any since the Great Depression.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And in doing so, collectively, we help we help prevent what people were predicting a total collapse of the world economy. Today, President Obama and I are closely following the economic and financial crisis in Greece and the European Union's efforts to deal with it. We welcome the support package that Europe is considering in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And we will be supportive both directly and through the IMF of your efforts as you rescue Greece, these examples of many other I could have mentioned show why Europe continues not just to be America's largest trading partner, but our most important ally.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Ladies and gentlemen, our predecessors came together more than six decades ago this week to begin to build institutions designed to ensure that the 21st century's darkest chapters would not be repeated in the remainder of that century or in the 21st century. Those institutions, this institution, have been a great success, but now we have to set our sights on the challenges of this new century I referenced in the beginning.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The world has changed. It has changed utterly. But terrible beauty has been born. Perhaps the most complex threat we face today is that posed by to our own citizens, by non-state actors and violent extremists, particularly if, God forbid, those violent extremists were able to get their hands on any weapons of mass destruction.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The scourge has no respect for borders, none, no single nation, no matter how strong or how wealthy, how organised or capable can meet this threat alone, it can only be successfully contained if we make common cause. And that's precisely what we must do. The new powers granted this parliament in the Lisbon Treaty gave you a greater role in that struggle and a greater imperative to govern responsibly.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The US government and this parliament have struggled over how best to protect citizens without yielding the foundational rights on which all of our societies are built. I am absolutely confident that we must and can. Both protect our citizens and preserve our liberties. Since taking office last year, President Obama and I have been guided by our constitutions and our Constitution is imperative to seek a more perfect union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Toward that end, one of our first official actions was to end the interrogation practises that produced few results and that we could not in good conscience continue. We ordered the closure of the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, which had become a symbol of injustice and a rallying cry for terrorists, and we appreciate.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And we appreciate the support, difficult it has been for you to take so many of you have provided in this effort, we did these things because, like you, President Obama and I reject the false choice between safety and our ideals. We believe that upholding our principles only makes us stronger and that compromise in them then actually undermines our effort in the broader struggle against violent extremism for what is their purpose?

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Their purpose is to change what we value, change how we conduct ourselves. Eight days after the September 11th attack, I told a group of thousands of university students in my country that they cannot allow the tragedy of 9/11 to end our way of life because that's exactly what the terrorists saw. I also told that America cannot prevail in this new struggle by acting alone.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Those words not have not only fit, not only fit the tenor of that time, but I think they've proven to be true and they're are no less true today. I don't need to tell this audience about Europe's proud tradition of protecting citizens from government invasion of their privacy, a commitment grounded in respect for the inherent dignity of all people. We call them inalienable rights. We wrote them into our Constitution.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And America's commitment to privacy is also profound, as profound as yours. Our Constitution's 4th Amendment protects individuals against unreasonable search and seizures by the state. Which is one of our most famous jurists, which one of our most famous jurist once dubbed, quote, the right to be, let alone.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, The Supreme Court of the United States has made clear, that privacy is a constitutionally protected and fundamental right, and like the EU, the Supreme Court has characterised this right as a matter of personal dignity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, On a personal level. I have for 36 years of my career defended privacy rights. In the United States Senate, every year, there's organisations that rate those most committed to civil liberties, and every year I and later President Obama were characterised as one of those four people picked. The reason I bother to tell you this is not about me, but about the commitment of our administration to individual rights.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, To change now would make a lie of everything I have said I stood for in my country for the past thirty seven years. When I led the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for confirming the president's judicial nominees. As I said, I was consistently ranked amongst the staunchest advocates of civil liberties, and I made it a priority to determine perspective judge's views on privacy before deciding whether or not they could go on the court.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, President Obama and I also believe the government's primary and most fundamental, most solemn duty is to protect its citizens, the citizens it serves. As well as the rights they hold. President Obama has said that keeping our country safe is the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he thinks about before he goes to bed at night.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, I suspect that's how every world leader looks at their role. Indeed, no less than privacy, physical safety is also an inalienable right. Physical safety is also an inalienable right and a government that abdicates its duty to ensure the safety of its citizens violates their rights no less than a government that silences dissidents or imprisons accused criminals without trial.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, And so folks even, even as we gather here today, our enemies are employing every tool they can muster to conduct new and devastating attacks like the ones that struck New York, London, Madrid and many other places around the globe to stop them. We must use every legitimate tool available law enforcement, military intelligence technology that's consistent with our principles, our laws and our values.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, We're fighting on many fronts from the brave men and women serving abroad in our militaries. To the patient and tireless law enforcement professionals investigating complex and suspicious financial networks. Just this week, our Customs and Border Protection, using passenger information data, apprehended a suspect in the attempted bombing of New York's Times Square as he sought to flee the country.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, It is vital that we maintain every capacity we have under the law to stop such attacks, and for that reason we believe that the terrorist finance tracking programme is essential to our security as well as the yours presumptive of me to say it has provided critical leads to counterterrorism investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, disrupting plots and ultimately saving lives. It is built it has built in redundancies that ensure personal information is respected and used only for counterterrorism purposes.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, But I don't blame you for questioning it. We understand your concerns. As a consequence, we're working together to address that. And I'm absolutely confident that we can succeed to both use the tool and guarantee privacy. It's important that we do so, and it's important that we do so as quickly as possible. As a former United States senator, I also know how hard it can be to make the hard choices required by global challenges while staying true to local values.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, All of you are going through that every time you vote in this parliament, I suspect the longer we are without an agreement on the terrorist financing tracking programme, the greater the risk of a terrorist attack that could have been prevented. As leaders, we share responsibility to do everything we can within the law to protect the eight hundred million people we collectively serve.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, We disagree before will surely disagree again, but I'm equally convinced that the United States and Europe can meet the challenges of the 21st century as we did in the 20th century. If we talk and listen to one another, if we are honest with one another. Ladies and gentlemen, courage Winston Churchill taught us. Is what it takes to stand up and to speak.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. All this afternoon, I have done all the speaking. Be assured that I my government, my president. That we are back in the business of listening, listening to our allies. Ladies and gentlemen, it's no accident that Europe was my first overseas destination as vice president and also the president.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, It is no accident that we've already returned several times since then. The United States needs Europe. And I respectfully submit Europe needs the United States, we need each other more now than we have in ever. So I view this week's anniversary as providing a welcome opportunity to reaffirm the bond our peoples forged long ago in the fires of adversity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, Now, as then, in the pursuit of ideals in the search of partners, Europeans and Americans look to each other before they look to anyone else. Now, as then, we are honoured and grateful to be by your side in the struggle is yet to come. So, again, I'm here to state unequivocally President Obama and Joe Biden strongly support a united, a free and open Europe. We strongly support what you are about here.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Joseph BIDEN, Vice-President of United States, We wish you Godspeed and may God bless you all and may God protect all of our troops. Thank you very, very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. It was a great basis for future cooperation. Our future talks, as you said, listen and talk to each other, very important, and I would like to thank you for repeating the same the most important words from the last week.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Europe needs America. We remember 20th century, First World War, Second World War, Iron Curtain, we were fighting side to side, having victory together, democracies. And you added, as today, America needs Europe, we will remember that it is a good beginning of our partnership and cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, Thank you very much once again, Mr. Vice President.