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. Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, and Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, makes the opening statements. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

EU - USA (T)

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Inauguration of the new President of the United States and the current political situation: opening statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, and Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, President of the European Parliament, Madam President of the Commission, high representative, members of the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The White House in the four corners of Lafayette Square stands statues of European heroes of the US Revolutionary War, French generals Lafayette and Rochambeau, Polish general Kosciuszko and German General von Steuben.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, They and many other Europeans spared no effort and spilt their blood to help build freedom and democracy in America. And hundreds of thousands of Americans spilt their blood twice last century to protect freedom and democracy in Europe. Ever since, the United States has been our closest ally in defending democracy and rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, American democracy has stood strong and often served as an example for advocates freedom around the world. And this is why the events at the US Capitol shocked us so much. But the darkness of violence will never dim the light of democracy. Law, order and democracy have prevailed over this disgraceful attempt to overturn the election.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, American democracy has proven its strength and resilience. And today Joe Biden takes the oath of office as the 46th 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 (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Dear members of the Parliament today is more than a transition, today is an opportunity to rejuvenate our transatlantic relationship, which has greatly suffered in the last four years. In these years, the world has grown more complex, less stable and less predictable. This requires more than even before that we Europeans take our faith firmly into our own hands to defend our interests and promote our values.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, A Europe that plays a stabilising and constructive role on the global scene in line with our two weight in the world, a stronger Europe to contribute to a better, fairer and greener world, a stronger European defence, and in preserving peace and security. And to do this, we need strong and reliable partners.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, And that is why the European Council reaffirms the strategic importance of our partnership with the United States as the world's foremost and closest relationship. We share values, common interests, cultural and historical ties and a geopolitical reality.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Together, we must stand as the bedrock of the rules based international order working for peace, security, prosperity, freedom, human rights and gender equality. Values heartedly challenged in the world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Dear members of the Parliament, on the first day of his mandate, I address a solemn proposal to the new US President. Let's build a new founding pact for a stronger Europe, for a stronger America, and for a better world. I wanted to solemnly state today as Joe Biden is inaugurated. We need to create a new founding pact for a stronger U.S. and for a better world.

SOUNDBITE (Original), 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 a digital transformation and fifth, joining forces on security and peace. This won't be easy, but together we are up to the challenge.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Dear members of the parliament, the EU and US, we have our differences and they will not magically disappear. America seems to have changed, and how it's perceived in Europe and to the rest of the world has also changed. Likewise, the way the United States views the European Union also have to change.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, The EU chooses its course and does not wait for permission to take its own decision. Still, what unites us is so much greater than what divides us. And the events of January 6th have revealed that we share one particular challenge in common protecting democracy and rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, January 6th was a lesson to us all, a wake up call that even in our well established democracies, we too often take democracy and the rule of law for granted. Protecting democracy requires constant vigilance and constant work to foster cohesion of our societies. This is true in America and it's true right here in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues. This new agenda for Europe and for the United States that we want to put on the table is an ambitious agenda. And that's why 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 (Original), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Maybe in parallel with the NATO summit, you see, we already we want to be united and mobilised so that we could work together with the United States to build a newstronger Europe, for a stronger US and for a better world. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, President Sassoli, President Michel, Honourable members, "In all beginning dwells a magic force", "Und jede Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne", I cannot help but think of this famous line of the poet Hermann Hesse when looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden in a few hours from now.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Joe Biden's oath will be a message of healing for a deeply divided nation. And it will be a message of hope for a world that is waiting for the US to be back in the circle of like minded states. This time honoured ceremony on the steps of the US Capitol will be a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And the resounding prove that once again, after four long years, 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 States. This is a historic achievement and this also makes this day very special.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, This new dawn in America is the moment we've been waiting for so long. Europe is ready for a new start with our oldest and most trusted partner. And this is why the Commission recently has adopted a new forward looking trans-Atlantic agenda. And it focuses on where we can together join forces to push for global change based on our common values, interests and global influence.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, From climate change to health, from digitalisation to democracy, these are global challenges that need renewed and improved global cooperation, and the European Union and the United States must lead from the front and bring an alliance of like minded partners with us.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, There is, of course, no greater need for global cooperation in the short term. Then in tackling the pandemic, which has been so devastating on both sides of the Atlantic. As you know, the European Union has been leading the global response since day one, and it was so encouraging that so many US organisations and foundations have helped build and design the Covax facility, our global alliance, to bring vaccine to the low and middle income countries.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Now, I am looking forward that the US government will join our common effort. This will be a strong message. And beyond this, 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.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And I'm 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. And, of course, way more is to come. We want to deepen our partnership on emission trading and carbon pricing.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, 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. It is with this new green tech alliance that we will look forward at everything from offshore to climate change, from hydrogen that is clean to sustainable batteries and to circular economies that we have to build up to fight this climate change. We will be ready to engage from day one on .

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable members, this sense of relief that we and many others are experiencing now should not lead us to making any illusions. Trump may be consigned to history in a few hours, but his followers remain. Millions of American citizens voted for President Trump in the US election, and just a few days ago, many of them stormed the Capito.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We were all shocked by the images we saw on television. And this really is what it looks like when words are put into deeds, when hate speech and fake news become a real danger to democracy. The images that we saw coming from the United States should serve as a warning that we must heed, despite established democracy being embedded here. We cannot assume that we are immune to these phenomena and they have been with us for a long time.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Some time ago, far right activists were seeking to storm the Reichstag in Berlin, and it was only because of concerted police operations that this was prevented. We all remember Jo Cox, the UK Labour MP, who in those heated days in the run up to the referendum, was murdered by a far right extremist, something that still leaves us speechless to this day.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Now, we know that there are extremists involved in this storming of the capital, but we know that there are many people who are frustrated, who are angry in our societies, who see the ideas reflected in strange and confused ideologies and, ideas that they are reading on the Internet. And they are spreading these ideas.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable members, of course, we must be able to listen to the fears and concerns of ordinary citizens. These fears are perfectly justified in this time of pandemic. And we must do this and will do this with the multi billion next generation EU recovery plan. At the end of the day, we must accept that it may not be possible for us to completely eliminate any of these dark forces from our societies.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, One thing that we must, however, do as politicians is this. We must ensure that these messages of hatred and fake news cannot circulate without obstacles. This political power, unbridled power held by the big Internet giants must be reined in. In a world of polarisation and the one with the strongest voice having the last word is something that we cannot tolerate and can lead to people losing their lives as police officers in the capital did.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Now, let's be very clear. We, in Europe want innovation. We appreciate new technology and are open to new ideas. Without new ideas, without new technology and progress, we cannot look to tomorrow and we won't be able to retain everything that is dear to us and dear to our hearts. But new technologies cannot lead us to a place where others determine and decide how we live our lives.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And as you will know, 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.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And we want these big Internet giants to take responsibility for their actions. This is very close to my heart. It's now it's significant that Donald Trump's account was suspended five minutes after the drastic, devastating events. That is significant. But the kind of decision of this kind must be taken in accordance with laws and rules that are laid down, not by an arbitrary decision in the power of a Silicon Valley CEO.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable members, when it comes to digital technology, we have a great deal to offer the new administration in Washington, here in Europe. When it comes to our regulations, we hope to set global standards in this field. And as a first step, what I can imagine is a common technology council being set up.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And together we can put together a rule book that will be valid globally, going all the way from privacy rules to security of critical digital infrastructure. Now, this architecture is based on human rights, inclusion and the principle of protecting privacy.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable members, this day brings good news. The United States are back and Europe stands ready to reconnect with an old and trusted partner to breathe new life and our cherished alliance. Thank you,.