WEF 2026: Belgium’s PM Bart De Wever on Europe’s Future | APT - video Dailymotion

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Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLEtz3H0jSfEneSdf1YKnw/join   Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever spoke on Europe’s future during a panel at the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos. He shared insights on European cooperation, economic growth, and the challenges facing the EU amid global political and economic shifts. The discussion highlighted the importance of collaboration among European nations to ensure stability and prosperity.   #BartDeWever #Belgium #WEF #Davos #WorldEconomicForum #Europe #EU #EuropeanLeaders #GlobalEconomy #InternationalNews #APT

Transcript

00:00Well, very sobering. Thank you very much for that introductory thought.

00:05Prime Minister Deweyver, of course, Europe's under pressure from two sides.

00:08Russia, but also we have Donald Trump arriving tomorrow demanding Greenland, part of a European Union country.

00:15I noticed.

00:15Yeah.

00:16So the question, people keep asking me in the corridors, do you think Europe will stay united?

00:24A lot of people saying, you know, Europe's going to fold in the end, that's what they do.

00:28Europe won't be able to push back.

00:31How confident are you that Europe can, as von der Leyen said, stay united, proportional and respond?

00:37It's a very good question, actually.

00:39I wonder about this myself.

00:40We're under a lot of pressure.

00:41We're 27 countries.

00:43And if you're under pressure, two things can happen.

00:45If you have outside pressure, you can come together or you can explode in any possible direction.

00:52And I think Europe is at a crossroads where it has to decide.

00:54Until now, we tried to appease the new president in the White House.

01:01We were very lenient, also with the tariffs.

01:03We were lenient, hoping to get his support for the Ukraine war.

01:07We are in a very bad position at the moment.

01:09We're dependent on the United States.

01:11So we chose to be lenient.

01:13But now, so many red lines are being crossed that you have the choice between your self-respect.

01:21Being a happy vassal is one thing.

01:23Being a miserable slave is something else.

01:25If you back down now, you're going to lose your dignity.

01:30And that's probably the most precious thing you can have in a democracy.

01:33It's your dignity.

01:34So we should unite and we should say to Donald Trump, I'm going to meet him tomorrow.

01:40The meeting was fixed before the Greenland issue.

01:42Looking forward to it?

01:43Oh, yeah.

01:44Yeah, I'm looking forward.

01:45The king will accompany me on the...

01:48I'm looking at the queen who's sitting in the front row.

01:51Our king will accompany me at the meeting.

01:53But it will have a different character than we had planned.

01:57It will probably be the message that we have to send.

01:59You're crossing red lines here.

02:01We either stand together or we will stand divided.

02:04And if we are divided, there is the end of an era of 80 years of Atlantism is really drawing to a close.

02:12And, you know, as Gramsci said, if the old is dying and the new is not yet born, you live in a time of monsters.

02:18And it's up to him to decide if he wants to be a monster, yes or no.

02:23Very good.

02:24Before I move on to Prime Minister Plenkovich, I just wanted to ask you about the aftermath of the whole EuroClear argument,

02:30which you were absolutely in the center of.

02:33And I think you must have been reasonably happy, if not with the argument, with the outcome.

02:36But some people will say, well, that whole episode just told you about Europe's problems.

02:43Here's Europe.

02:44We say we're going to do this big thing.

02:46And then we all sit around arguing.

02:48And then we do a little thing.

02:49And everybody says, oh, look, they can't get it together.

02:52I'm going to try to be a little bit optimistic.

02:56Otherwise, it's going to be a very depressing session here.

02:59At the end of the day, we decided to aid Ukraine with 90 billion euros.

03:04And that was the thing we had to do, keep Ukraine in the fight.

03:07Because the United States is no longer supporting them.

03:10They're on their own.

03:11It's not looking good.

03:12Was Europe able to say, we're going to do whatever it takes to keep you in the fight?

03:16And at the end, we did.

03:18The way in which we did it, the discussions we had, maybe, are not an example of the best

03:25governance you can imagine.

03:26But at the end of the day, there was a result.

03:28But of course, we are in a bad position.

03:30We didn't do our homework.

03:32We stayed believing in the United West.

03:35But the writing was already on the wall when Obama said, I'm the first Pacific president.

03:41The burden shift from the United States towards China.

03:43We chose to ignore it and to keep enjoying the peace dividends.

03:47We didn't rearm.

03:48We didn't strengthen ourselves.

03:49Now we're in a weak position.

03:51But I think, having said that, that we made the choice to support Ukraine.

03:57Only we learned a lesson the hard way with the Euroclear and the reparation loan debate that

04:03there is no such thing as free money.

04:05There's nothing like the Alibaba cave that opens and you can simply take the gold and get

04:10away with it.

04:10That was an illusion that existed for a few months at the European table.

04:15But I think we managed to put an end to it for the moment.

04:20Okay.

04:20Prime Minister Plenkovich, I'm interested in your take.

04:24Again, to quote the president of the commission, she said, Europe's response will be unflinching,

04:29united and proportional.

04:32There's a European Council meeting on Thursday night.

04:34What kinds of things will Croatia be arguing for, that Europe should respond to, from these

04:40twin challenges, Russia and the United States now?

04:43Yes.

04:44First of all, thank you for being here again for the 10th season in a row as the Prime Minister

04:49of Croatia.

04:50My first point is regarding what we were discussing in December in Brussels.

04:56I think whatever the outcome was, pending option A, option B, using the Russian Central Bank frozen

05:05assets or the loan, the good outcome that we have found 90 billion euros to finance Ukraine

05:11for 26 and 27, both functioning of the state, the entire, I would say, blood flow of the

05:18financial system and also helping Ukraine to defend itself.

05:23This was the key political objective.

05:25How we got objective, how we got to it was basically a technique.

05:29I think the outcome which came out was a little bit more secure when it comes to the legal

05:35certainty and therefore Bart has managed to convince the majority of us that his arguments

05:41were fine.

05:42When it comes to the two pressures, one coming from Russia with a brutal violation of international

05:48law and the aggression against Ukraine after other episodes in the part of Europe, which

05:54was formerly a neighborhood, now it's more into the enlargement basket, I mean here, Moldova

06:00and Georgia, which do have basically frozen territories, I think that the key aspect is to remain vigorously

06:08on the side of the Ukrainians and on the side of freedom, democracy and international law.

06:13This is what we stand for.

06:15This is why we have supported so strongly Ukraine over the past four years.

06:19I think many of us will be heading to Kyiv on the 24th of February to extend further support.

06:26And I think we should a little bit revisit what we discussed a few days ago and that is the peace plan.

06:33Now the Greenland has taken us the entire debate into a different direction, a bit odd, unexpected,

06:39but these are the realities of a change in global order.

06:43We are, as we have seen recently, in the situation where the international organizations, international law, global governance,

06:52as we knew it is changing so rapidly that we need to position ourselves.

06:56So I think the only safe way for the European Union to remain an actor is to try to be as united as possible.

07:02Not necessarily all the governments are singing the same tune.

07:08And if that is visible from someone who would like to see a little bit more divisions on the EU side,

07:15then that will be exactly the weak spot and the weak link which will be emphasized.

07:19So I guess that this meeting on Thursday night is supposed to strengthen our position on supporting Denmark, obviously.

07:27That is a very logical way to do it, but also maintaining sensible, reasonable, expected, good transatlantic ties with the United States.

07:37I mean, for all of us, despite all the, let's say, noise in the communications channel,

07:42I mean, the United States is an ally and a friend.

07:44I don't know anybody among 27 who has altered that position.

07:48So we need to talk to each other more, maybe be less abrupt in being faced with fait accompli propositions,

07:55but more talking to each other and finding solutions for the global order.

07:59This is our position and this is a line of Croatia that has been very clear for the last 10 years.

08:06Thank you very much.

08:07Marguerite, you run a big European bank.

08:12And both things, I guess, are important to you.

08:15You're European, you're also a banker.

08:17How do you navigate these geopolitical waters?

08:21I was quite struck that the European Business Roundtable issued a statement saying,

08:26you know, OK, it's enough with America, we need to get tough,

08:28which is not the normal thing that you expect business people to say.

08:33So how do you see it?

08:36You're right.

08:37As my accent probably betrays me, I'm French.

08:40And at the same time, you know, I live in Amsterdam, running, you know, a Dutch bank.

08:45So I would define myself as passionately European.

08:50And when I try to think about what, you know, what are all European values,

08:56I would say that, you know, this is about, you know, the rule of law.

08:59This is about human dignity.

09:01This is about democracy.

09:02This is about also reason, reason and truth.

09:05And all these values of cooperation have serviced well in the past decades,

09:14you know, and helped us build a Europe-free war.

09:19Right now, we feel challenges from all fronts outside of Europe,

09:26you know, with wars, with authoritarian regimes,

09:31and also, in fairness, within Europe,

09:34with, I would say, added polarization,

09:39sometimes the erosion of truth in our internal debate,

09:43and sometimes also political instability and fragmentation.

09:48And right now, looking at Europe, we sometimes feel,

09:53hey, are we a herbivore in a world of carnivores?

WEF 2026: Belgium’s PM Bart De Wever on Europe’s Future | APT

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