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European leaders take the floor in Davos - All you need to know about day one  Our correspondents on the ground bring you all the highlights from the heart of the World Economic Forum in Davos.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/01/21/european-leaders-take-the-floor-in-davos-all-you-need-to-know-about-day-one  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00welcome to davos after hours on euronews this week we are live from the world economic forum

00:14i'm maria tadeo and i'm sasha vaculina and today of course the focus very much on the european

00:20reaction to that threat from the u.s president to slap a 10 tariff on a group of eight countries

00:26including denmark germany and france over greenland the danish prime minister emerita frederickson

00:32said she can talk about anything except for sovereignty and here in davos two important

00:37european voices the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen and the french

00:43president emmanuel macron when it comes to the head of the commission she said today that if the eu is

00:50menaced there will be a quote united and unflinching response from the bloc let's take a look

00:56plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to

01:05keeping out of the strategic landscape so our response will be unflinching united and proportional

01:14we are choosing fair trade over tariffs partnership over isolation sustainability

01:24over exploitation europe wants to do business with the gross centers of today and the economic

01:32powerhouses of this century europe will always choose the world and the world is ready to choose

01:41europe and that was the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen she was the first

01:46european to speak here in davos but not the only one because emmanuel macron also took to the stage

01:53and he said the european union is not scared to bring out the big guns when it comes to trade let's take a

01:59look trade wars protectionist escalation races towards overproduction will only produce losers

02:05the first approach would be to i would say to passively accept the law of the strongest

02:11leading to vassalization and block politics i think accepting a sort of new colonial approach

02:22doesn't make sense the second would be to adopt a purely moral posture limiting ourselves to commentary

02:28that pass would condemn us to marginalization and powerlessness and for me the two answers are on

02:37one side more sovereignty and more autonomy for the europeans on the other side and efficient

02:45multilateralism to deliver results through cooperation and that was of course the french president who by

02:53the way had an injuring his eye that's why he was uh with the sunglasses uh looking a bit like tom cruise

02:59in top gun that's the look he was going for uh but beyond the looks of course uh sasha the news flow

03:06is very intense you've been in davos many many times how is this addition different because it seems

03:11the europeans today came in with a big message they don't want to enter a trade war but they're also not

03:16afraid of escalation this this davos is really different if i can compare it for example to last year

03:22the year before there is so much more people here and that is of course with the anticipation of

03:26donald trump coming to town on wednesday we're going to cover that so stay tuned for that coverage

03:31and you know trump did already say that he's indeed bringing the largest ever u.s delegation to davos and

03:38you can see there are not just one but two u.s houses at the prime location with a fully packed

03:44program and you can see the u.s delegation and the representatives around town and there is this

03:49feeling of anticipation right which is absolutely palpable around davos and of course there's a lot

03:54of anticipation because the u.s president has put on the table very firmly and this is also uh

03:59create on the side guys the idea of tariffs if denmark does not agree to sell greenland and that

04:06is unprecedented and that puts the european union in an uncomfortable position your biggest ally

04:11is now saying either you give me a part of a territory of a sovereign member state of the european

04:16union or there will be tariffs is that just trump being trumped because to me it looks like he's

04:21serious he wants to sail well he does definitely sound serious and that is the question regarding

04:26how serious the europeans are regarding over their retaliation how far they're going to go and this

04:31is something that you know when we talk to the european leaders here around davos it's a different

04:35take yes you know we spoke to many of them right around around the world economic forum annual

04:39gathering here and you do hear that they are indeed very determined and they are willing to go as far

04:44as they need to go then it's we'll have to see what exactly is this fine the definition of how far

04:51they would go exactly because the other point that to me is new this time around is that the europeans

04:57are saying we mean business we will retaliate there are many forms of retaliation as you say but also

05:03we should be very clear if president trump does go ahead with the tariffs over greenland that's february

05:10first the europeans could also go ahead and put countermeasures and at that point sasha it's going

05:16back to the past a year ago it's another trade war at the worst time because of course the war in

05:21ukraine is still ongoing absolutely and vladimir zelensky was announced as a participant of this year's

05:28gathering at davos of the world economic forum annual meeting he is still on the list and then you know

05:33there were speculations today that he might have canceled he true no uh zelensky was announced indeed as

05:38one of over 60 heads of state and government who are coming to town but he was never officially put

05:44on the agenda and actually i did clarify today also with the presidential office and there was this

05:48uh the famous presidential whatsapp group which was quite on fire today with the journalists of course

05:56like us asking you know we asked when is he coming there are some speculations that he would be

06:01speaking today with the europeans of course that was not the case vladimir zelensky did not deliver a

06:07speech and then he actually said in that whatsapp group with the reporters that he decided for the

06:13moment to stay in kiev for two reasons and first of them being of course the fact that overnight russia

06:18yet again attacked kiev and thousands of households in ukraine don't have any electricity they do not

06:25have any water and don't have a heating and the temperatures they're going down to minus 14 degrees and

06:31if you're staying there for many consecutive days without heating this is tough just to give an example

06:36we're sitting right here now with minus one i'm absolutely freezing exactly so that's the whole

06:41difference so zelensky did explain this and the other reason he said that if there are any energy

06:45packages or even a meeting and decisions and additional air defense of course i will go but for

06:51now i have a challenge in ukraine so he did state that he is willing to be here if there are any

06:58concrete steps because you remember the rumors and the speculations are of course that donald trump

07:03will actually formalize and sign some sort of the u.s security guarantees for ukraine and of course

07:08that takes us to the additional complication and we go back to the start of this show which is the

07:12fact that now the u.s and the eu are clashing so hard over greenland and denmark so obviously this

07:18complicates things for ukraine too because at this point can you really imagine and to me this is

07:24really the question where on the one hand on day one today the europeans say if you do that and we get

07:29punished for saying greenland we're not going to sell it the tariffs go ahead a trade war kicks in

07:35and then the next day tomorrow on a wednesday they sign a package for ukraine for the reconstruction to

07:40me it seems as duality is becoming a problem but is there a way to fix it and again as you say we

07:46still don't know whether uh zelensky is going to show up tomorrow well yeah that depends on what

07:50exactly he can get and you know vladimir zelensky has been rather consistent when there is a meeting if

07:55there is a meeting there must be something signed so he's not coming for nothing he's not coming for

07:59nothing and this that's not only the case for for davos this was the case every time when you look at

08:03all of the meetings that he's having and the visits that he's doing they're all ending up with some

08:08agreements being signed on paper black and white it's very concrete in those cases but you know there

08:14is this of course uh the concern ukraine house is again operating in davos and i went today for the

08:19opening of ukraine house and there is this uh concern about for ukrainians on whether the

08:26europeans are actually taking seriously the threats coming from russia and also because

08:31the understanding of how quickly things can change and how quickly things can go very very wrong

08:37and in order to illustrate that there is this um immersive experience in the ukraine house uh with the

08:43video imitating the bombardments of davos of the venue where we are this idyllic beautiful when you're

08:53covered with the snow being bombarded with the shahed drones bombarded with the uh with the missiles

08:58and then you're going to also see in that video brussels being hit you can see the european parliament

09:03being hit multiple times and this is the video and this is the experience that the ukraine house in davos

09:09is trying to give to the europeans first and foremost about how quickly things can go very wrong

09:16and how dangerous that could be of course and you know uh for me and you mentioned the drones

09:21iranian drones that's also we should note our four viewers that the iranian foreign minister is no

09:25longer coming uh to davos so beyond ukraine now what it seems to me and again um i'm curious to see

09:32what you think is there's now a sequence in which this was supposed to be a davos not a woke davos

09:38because again that was one of the conditions that the u.s administration put forward it's got to be

09:43focused on business we don't want to talk about themes that are deemed uh woke what that means

09:48depends who you ask what is woke and i don't want to get into this at this point one at a time

09:52but uh there is a sequence which to me looks like the europeans have already said there's a question

09:58on trade that we have to deal with tomorrow perhaps the ukraine president then president trump

10:03what can we uh wait or expect from that uh speech because if we look at the munich security conference

10:09remember a year ago that was a shocker the u.s vice president at the time basically told the

10:14europeans to their faces you are weak and you have a problem you your biggest enemy comes from within

10:19what do you think trump is going to say tomorrow oh that uh that's a billion dollar question isn't it

10:26but you know i've covered escalate or de-escalate i don't think we're in for de-escalation on any front

10:31at this at this stage but you know i've covered davos for so many years and every time we come

10:37there's always this push and this intent to go more business oriented more economy and business

10:42oriented and every time we go into politics and geopolitics this is the reality and you know it

10:47it illustrates today i moderated the official web session where for the first time we had the

10:52presidents of azerbaijan and armenia at the same time on stage this was an unimaginable setting for

11:00decades given the decades of tragedy and conflict between the countries and we tried also to go

11:07into business and see how the you know how to define and re-define the economy of eurasia and guess

11:13what we actually spent all the 45 minutes of the session discussing the peace deal and discussing the

11:19efforts coming from the both countries to restore the relations and also to normalize that and this

11:24is actually somehow illustrates davos what you said we tried to go business but we end up with

11:29politics and geopolitics as always and also you spoke to alexander vollege who told you there's

11:32no reason to be optimistic at this point so that is it for day one here at the uh show davos after

11:39hours on euronews and now we leave you with jane witherspoon she is at the euronews hub

11:44thank you ladies i'm jane witherspoon and coming to you this evening from the euronews hub here in davos

11:55and what a day it's been now sasha wasn't the only euronews correspondent that got to interview

12:01president aliev this morning i hosted the inaugural azerbaijan davos breakfast and i got to ask him

12:09how he reacts to the constant criticism of azerbaijan from the european parliament but of course it's so

12:16obvious that this bias situation to azerbaijan is generated by special lobbying groups by special

12:25forces which cannot digest azerbaijan's independent policy so we actually for many years already stopped

12:35any cooperation with european parliament and also with the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe

12:43we cooperate with european commission and for us it is enough but i think european parliament puts itself

12:51in a very awkward situation accusing us of what we have never done including uh so-called uh our aggressive

13:00position towards armenia while armenia itself appreciates the relationship with azerbaijan and

13:08last august the peace deal between armenia and azerbaijan was initialed in white house so i hope that

13:16members of european parliament will find the courage to reconsider their unfair policy towards azerbaijan

13:24then it was a quick trip to davos congress center where i interviewed the saudi minister of tourism and

13:32we discussed how saudi tourism's strategy fits in with the davos spirit of dialogue tourism is a symbol of

13:40connecting nations when you travel to any destination you meet people you you learn about their culture

13:47uh during davos we are uh meeting with different uh uh officials and private sector to uh continue the dialogue

13:57and and make sure that tourism will continue to uh prosper and grow uh at a global level when tourism grow

14:06economy uh economies prosper i also hosted a moderation session at the qatar pavilion with four ceos from the major

14:16banks banks there and rounded off the day finally with an interview with the moroccan finance minister

14:21and the director general of amdi that's all we've got time for this evening but please do join us again

14:27tomorrow we'll see you then

14:28you

14:40you

14:42you

14:44you

14:46you

14:50you

14:52you

14:54Bye.

European leaders take the floor in Davos - All you need to know about day one

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