00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:30Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
01:00EU editor. Good morning, Maria. Bring us up to speed on this story. There's a lot to digest this morning.
01:04Well, there's a lot. And the EU really caught up in this vortex over the weekend, which, as you say, really started on the Friday morning when the U.S. put out and Europeans found out about this national security strategy in this document.
01:18The U.S. does say Europe is a natural ally, but they also argue in unusual language, to some extent we could question whether or not it's diplomatic, that Europe has to go back to its former greatness.
01:30It also argues that illegal, uncontrolled migration, bad economic policies, too much regulation, all of this put together could end the European civilization as we know it.
01:41The document presented by the U.S. also welcomes European patriotic parties who, they argue, are resisting this trajectory.
01:48And the U.S., they add, should help contribute to change this trajectory.
01:54Obviously, this is unusual language. It's not shocking. It's not really surprising because it builds up, really, on the speech that the U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference.
02:05The only difference, of course, is that it is now in writing.
02:08I should note, however, over the weekend, I spoke with European officials who told me, look, this document has little to do with national security and a lot about what they perceive is political interference.
02:19Now, the second part to this has to do with Elon Musk, the commission fined X, 120 million euros for breaching transparency rules in the European Union.
02:30The fine, the amount, I should note, it's quite small compared to other penalties on U.S. big tech.
02:35Nonetheless, it triggered a big response from Elon Musk, who's been tweeting about the European Union all over the weekend.
02:42He started, and hopefully we can put it up on the screen, saying the EU is not a democracy.
02:47It has become a bureaucracy. It should be dismantled, abolished.
02:51The EU, quite strong language. The commission is still defending this fine, saying it is appropriate.
02:57They believe they have a strong legal case, and if he disagrees, he can take it to court in a court of justice, of course.
03:03And Maria, how has the EU been responding to the unprecedented language from the other side of the pond, from, in theory, their biggest ally?
03:08Yes. And, you know, when we look at the EU as an institution, very timidly, no word from the head of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, no word from the head of the European Council either.
03:19But we did speak with Kaya Callas, the foreign office chief policy from the EU.
03:24She told us the way to look at this is that domestic issues have to be dealt by the EU on external matters and conflicts.
03:32We should still work together with the United States. Let's take a look.
03:35Let's focus on the things that we can do together. I mean, what we can take from that security strategy is that we are still, you know, allies with America.
03:47We don't always see eye to eye on everything, but it's our internal matters. We can handle ourselves.
03:53Let's focus on the global challenges that we actually have, which are, you know, economic cursive practices from China that we are both, you know, faced with,
04:02which is the threat that comes from malign actors like Russia, like China, like Iran.
04:09So so we definitely need to focus on what we can do together and and, you know, domestic issues.
04:16Let us let them be our domestic issues.
04:18And that was Kaya Callas speaking to your news note, how she said three times these are domestic issues.
04:25That's for the EU, the capitals, much stronger language.
04:28The French foreign minister saying the commission is right.
04:30And this is just a start. The Polish foreign minister, much stronger language.
04:34He tweeted directly at Elon Musk saying, go to Mars.
04:38There is no censorship for Nazi salutes there.
04:40Obviously, that's a reference to another controversy as to whether or not Elon Musk had made a Nazi salute at a rally at the start of this year.
04:47But maybe what we're seeing, of course, is a lot of cacophony because there is no single strategy in terms of how to deal with the United States at this point.
04:56For the EU, the institution, I repeat, it has been so far about de-escalation, hoping to stabilize the relationship.
05:02Although that's not really been the case. The tariffs went ahead, 8 to 5 percent on Ukraine.
05:06Very difficult situation. But for the time being, the strategy continues to be, don't engage publicly.
05:11Indeed, a very tricky time for the transatlantic tie. Thank you so much, Maria Tadeo, your news's EU editor for that.
05:17And if you're listening to Maria's analysis there about Elon Musk and thinking you have seen this movie before, you're right.
05:23It is not the first time the EU and Elon Musk find themselves in the online boxing ring.
05:28Our reporter, Jakob Janis, has this refresher.
05:32Over the weekend, there was yet another battle between the EU and Elon Musk, who claims the European Union should be dismantled.
05:41It sounds extreme, but if you look at the timetable, the bells have been ringing for some time already.
05:48Let's go back to July 2024.
05:51Musk claimed Brussels offered him a secret illegal deal to censor speech.
05:57Fact check.
05:58It was a standard compliance procedure offered to every platform, but Musk used it to frame himself as a victim.
06:07Then was August 2024.
06:09The European Commission sent a formal warning letter to follow EU law.
06:14In response, Musk tweeted a very non-diplomatic meme from the movie Tropic Thunder.
06:19In late 2024, he told German voters to back the far-right alternative for Deutschland.
06:27And then he attacked Italian judges on migration, claiming they need to go.
06:33And his current battle is against the 120 million euro fine for his social media platform, X.
06:39However, the fine is not about supposed censorship, but about consumer fraud.
06:46It means selling verification to anyone, including bots, actively blocking researchers from seeing public data,
06:54and hiding who actually pays for the ads you see.
06:58Given that the penalty is well below the maximum possible fine, we need to ask one question.
07:08Is the game you play, Elon, actually about business?
07:12Or maybe it's about something else?
07:14Jakob Yanis there.
07:20Well, coming up, we'll be joined by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya,
07:23the exiled opposition leader of the Belarusian democratic movement,
07:27who emerged after challenging Belarus' authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko,
07:32in the 2020 presidential election.
07:34Forced to flee her home country, she now dedicates her time to advocating for democratic Belarus
07:39and resisting the regime's role in Russia's war against Ukraine.
07:42Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, great to have you with us here on Europe Today.
07:46Good morning.
07:47Welcome to Brussels.
07:48First, how is your husband, Sergei, doing?
07:51He was released this summer after many years behind bars in Belarus.
07:54He's gone through the process of rehabilitation
07:57because all the political prisoners are really exhausted physically,
08:00but he's not broken mentally and gave a boost of energy to our movement.
08:05And of course, it was thanks to the Americans that helped orchestrate his release.
08:09We saw Keith Kellogg there engaging in dialogue with Lukashenko.
08:12Do you trust them now to help end the war in Ukraine?
08:16Look, we all want peace.
08:18And of course, I'm so grateful to President Trump personally and his team
08:21for releasing political prisoners from Belarus.
08:25But of course, the future of our country depends on the outcome of the war in Ukraine.
08:29And of course, we all want just and long-lasting peace,
08:33not just, you know, temporary relief to give opportunity to Russia to regroup
08:38and start attacking again.
08:39But also, what is important for us is that during these negotiations,
08:44Belarus aspect is also included.
08:46That Belarus is not giving as consolation prize to Putin,
08:49that Belarus will not lose our independency.
08:52And that's why we need a strong Europe as a player in these negotiations
08:57that will be the voice of Belarusian people.
09:00Because a bad deal for Ukraine would be detrimental, I imagine, for Belarus.
09:04Absolutely, yes.
09:04We understand that if Ukraine loses this war,
09:09hopefully it will not happen and we'll keep strong alliance around Ukraine.
09:13It will mean a status quo for Belarus for rages
09:17and Russia will continue to subjugate our country.
09:20But how would you describe the current talks taking place?
09:22We saw three days of talks in Florida this weekend.
09:24There was no breakthrough.
09:25Are they really peace talks or are they more surrender talks?
09:29It depends on the strong position of Europe, first of all.
09:33Of course, you know, President Trump, he might want fast peace in Ukraine.
09:40But for us, it's more about security architecture.
09:42It's about region.
09:44It's more than about only Ukraine.
09:45It's about all European neighborhoods, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, so on, so forth.
09:51So that's why here Europe has to remain with its strong, bold and firm position
09:58and defending and protecting all our region.
10:02Do you think Europe has been too weak so far in these talks?
10:07I think that Europe is much stronger than it might seem,
10:12it might think about itself.
10:14But we maybe need more unity, more boldness,
10:19because any hesitation or undecisiveness is percepted as weakness by dictators.
10:26And now we see that Russia, together with the other regimes and Lukashenko,
10:31they are testing the borders of Europe.
10:35Well, we can see that.
10:37I mean, the EU has been furious as well with these balloon incursions coming into Lithuania.
10:41Lithuania declaring a state of emergency.
10:42The Belarusian appointee here in Brussels has been summoned by the Commission.
10:46What's going on and what's behind this?
10:48Now, all these metal balloons and drones,
10:52it's part of hybrid attacks on Europe,
10:57the same as migration crisis and hijacking of airplanes, so on, so forth.
11:01So, we see how dictators are trying to blackmail, constantly blackmail Europe,
11:09just to see how far they can go without a strong response.
11:13And in our case, I think that it's a very effective tool to close the borders for trade,
11:20for goods, but not for people.
11:22Just be tough on the regimes, but be very open for the societies.
11:26And Belarus, Lukashenko, he's also been weaponizing migration.
11:30We've seen a lot.
11:31Yeah, you know, it's last many years already, and these migration attacks are continuing.
11:37It's also one more, you know, tool in the data's hands,
11:42how to weaken or test or blackmail our Western neighbors.
11:46And finally, President Zelensky will travel to London today.
11:50He'll be sitting down with Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor,
11:52President Macron of France.
11:54Any expectations for those talks today?
11:57I hope that it will be unity around Ukraine, about our region,
12:02that Ukraine will be given everything they need to win this war.
12:07We don't have to follow President Trump's path,
12:11because his approach is more transactional,
12:14but we have to think more strategically about security architecture for years ahead.
12:21Okay, Tvetlana Tekanovskaia, thank you so much for coming into us today here
12:24and speaking to us on Europe Today.
12:26Well, meanwhile, this Monday in Brussels,
12:28EU justice ministers from all across the bloc
12:31will be gathering for talks on the implementation of the EU Migration Pact.
12:35Their gathering takes place after reports came from Crete this weekend
12:39that 18 people lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
12:43Ida Sanchez reports.
12:47Migration management in the EU takes a big step this Monday.
12:51For the first time ever, four EU countries will receive direct help.
12:57Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain will benefit from a so-called solidarity pool,
13:03set up to better manage migration flows.
13:06From relocations to cash injections, countries should be able to rely on this support.
13:14But until ministers make a decision today in Brussels,
13:17the proposal made by the Commission is just an idea.
13:23Ask how much and who will pay is still the big question on the table.
13:28One thing is clear, under the new Migration and Asylum Pact,
13:33no country will be forced to accept relocations.
13:37This was one of the most controversial points of the proposal.
13:41Countries like Poland and Hungary completely opposed the idea.
13:45Last month, the European Commission presented their first annual report
13:49on migration flows in its country.
13:53They identified who they thought needed support.
13:59The so-called solidarity mechanism,
14:02one of the most controversial parts of the Migration Pact,
14:05will be applied from June 2026.
14:07And for more on the outcome of those talks in Brussels today,
14:19keep an eye on Euronews.com.
14:21But that brings this Monday's edition of Europe Today to an end.
14:25Thank you so much for tuning in and for being with us.
14:27We'll be back, of course, tomorrow morning again with another episode.
14:30See you then and take care.
14:37We'll be back, of course, tomorrow morning again with another episode.
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