00:30For more on whether this summit was worth the trip to Brussels, we can bring in Shona Murray, who was there till the very early hours of the morning in the summit and is back on the red carpet for us this morning.
00:53Shona, what was the mood last night at this summit and was Donald Trump the elephant in that room?
01:00I think Shona's having difficulties there listening to us. Shona Murray, can you hear us?
01:19We're having some difficulties there. We're having a couple of difficulties, but not to worry because, of course, the EU leaders debated deep into the night on all the challenges facing the Union.
01:29And in fact, coming up to find out exactly what was discussed in the room, we'll be joined by one of them.
01:34The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mithotakis in Paris since 2019.
01:39He's also the president of the centre-right New Democracy Party since January 2016.
01:44Affiliated with the European People's Party since coming into office, he's been focusing on economic forms and attracting FDI.
01:49Good morning.
01:50Good morning. I'm happy to take Shona's place.
01:52Absolutely. I mean, it's wonderful to have you because as our viewers are probably wondering what goes on at those EU summits, what do you talk about until the early hours of the morning?
02:01And last night was rather tense. We see EU leaders visibly exhausted, Prime Minister. Is this because of their workload or is this because of Donald Trump?
02:09Well, first of all, I can tell you that these summits are complicated.
02:14You know, 27 of us, and if you also include the High Commissioner, the President of the Commission, the President of the Council, it takes a lot of time to go around the table.
02:20But I think yesterday was a very good discussion.
02:24There is, in spite of the sense of restlessness, a real sense of purpose about Europe getting its act together.
02:32The transatlantic relationship is becoming more complicated. It needs to be managed in a different way.
02:38And was Donald Trump the elephant in the room?
02:40Well, Europe needs to stand up for its own interests. Of course, the U.S. President was mentioned.
02:46I think it is good that he made comments to clearly indicate that he wants to de-escalate the situation in Greenland.
02:52I think it is very positive that Europe stood up with one voice, maybe with one exception, to defend Denmark and Greenland.
03:00Tell us about the exception.
03:01And, well, the exception is Hungary. This has been the case over the past year, so this should come as no surprise.
03:08But I think we've found a way to work around this problem.
03:12And what about the other exception? I mean, I watched that video clip from FITZO, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, who I believe was sitting right beside you.
03:19He was criticising the summit, saying it was a waste of time. He was very critical of EU leadership as well. What did you say to him?
03:25Well, we can look at the glass half empty or we can look at the glass half full.
03:28What I can tell you is that the whole strategic autonomy debate is picking up steam.
03:33I was one of the first proponents that we need to invest more in our common defence and we need to sort out our competitiveness issues.
03:39But what did you say to him? What do you say to disruptive leaders who sit with you in that room for five hours?
03:44Well, I think we all have to be cordial and respectful. And this is also true when it comes to the, I would say, to the US-European relationship.
03:51It was also reflected in the statements made by Antoine Acosta. I think we're all very frank in these discussions.
03:56You know, people need to understand we're by ourselves. There are no advisers.
04:00No phones.
04:00No phones. In this case, also no conclusions, which makes it easier to be very open and occasionally quite blunt in expressing our views.
04:08And did you discuss Donald Trump's Board of Peace? We know that Hungary has joined. Bulgaria also joined. What was the consensus on it last night?
04:15I think the consensus is that what has been announced by Donald Trump goes way beyond the UN Security Council mandate.
04:22I think it is important that the US is involved in the reconstruction of Gaza.
04:26I don't think that we would have had a choice without the involvement of Donald Trump.
04:31But I think we also need to recognise that moving forward, what has been established is something in which most European countries cannot join.
04:39However, we would like to be part of an arrangement to address the Gaza issue.
04:45So if there's a way where we can work with the US, but only for Gaza and only for a limited amount of time,
04:53Greece certainly would be very, very happy to take a lead in finding a consensus to do that.
04:59But you don't want to join up?
05:00I don't think we can join what has been currently presented.
05:03But we need to work towards ensuring that there is a European presence when it comes to the future of Gaza.
05:09What about Mercosur? Of course, the Greek farmers are thrilled this week because of that vote in the European Parliament
05:14to send it to the Court of Justice. What is your view there?
05:17My view is very clear. I mean, there are more benefits than drawbacks when it comes to these big international trade agreements.
05:27The Commission President and the President of the Council are going to India.
05:30I'll be going to India in a couple of weeks.
05:33We need to establish trading relationships with other countries or other groups of countries.
05:40We are a medium-sized, open economy. We're the leaders in global shipping.
05:44We have every interest in ensuring a rules-based international order that favours free trade.
05:51I wanted to ask you also about Ukraine, of course, and President Zelensky's speech in Davos being very critical.
05:56But we will have to leave it there. Thank you so much, Prime Minister, for being with us here live on Euronews on Europe Today.
06:01Do come back very soon. I believe we can now try and head back to the EU summit there and bring in our Shona Murray,
06:07who we were having a little bit of technical difficulties earlier catching Shona Murray.
06:11Good morning, Shona. Lovely to have you with us.
06:13Just tell us, bring us up to speed on the mood from the journalist's perspective, of course,
06:17because the press spent the night on a packed floor trying to report on what exactly was going on inside the room.
06:22What was the mood?
06:26Well, Maeve, you know, I've been covering EU summit for a long time,
06:28even throughout the challenging moments of the Eurozone debt crisis.
06:31And I can say overall the mood, not really with journalists necessarily, but also with politicians,
06:36was one that was particularly despondent.
06:38Now, we know, obviously, that the issue of tariffs had been averted at the last minute,
06:44but the damage to the EU-US relationship has really been very long lasting.
06:48Trust has been very much eroded.
06:50If you look at the language throughout the week,
06:52Bart Deweyver, the Belgian Prime Minister, using language saying that if Europe doesn't unify,
06:57it'll be a happy slave of Donald Trump.
06:59We also heard from Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, a NATO ally,
07:03saying that the world order is fading
07:05and that the might on right of the strongest is basically playing out and the weak must suffer.
07:12So it's within that context that we heard about how Europe really needs to move away,
07:16diversify away from the United States, become more independent.
07:19We heard from the Prime Minister there talking about strategic autonomy.
07:23And Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission,
07:26really made this point in her press conference.
07:28It was very clear in the discussion that we were successful in withstanding by being firm,
07:36but non-escalatory, and most importantly, very united.
07:41But there was also a discussion on the clarity with which we know that we have to work more and more
07:50for an independent Europe.
07:52This is not something which happened overnight.
07:55This is hard work.
07:56Commission President there, Ursula von der Leyen.
07:58And Shona, just what else did leaders there discuss and decide?
08:05Well, it was all very intertwined, Maeve,
08:07because really the idea of this summit was an extraordinary summit
08:10based on the actions and the language of Donald Trump.
08:12So the strategic autonomy piece was important.
08:15And then linking onto that was, of course, Mercosur,
08:17because we heard from the European Parliament during the week
08:19that they had sent the legalities of Mercosur to the European Court of Justice,
08:23which will, of course, delay its implementation.
08:26So European leaders decided to implement this in a provisional basis to get it going,
08:31saying that really the trade agreements now of, I mean, Mercosur has 700 million people,
08:36that needs to be in place if Europe has any chance of being independent from the United States.
08:40And, of course, there was also a strong discussion on this board of peace that you mentioned there
08:44with the Greek Prime Minister.
08:46The EU has real concerns about the level of this
08:49and whether or not it's in contravention at the United Nations Charter.
08:52Maeve?
08:52OK, Shona Murray, thank you so much for that live update there from the red carpet there at the EU Council.
08:58Well, Ukraine was also discussed last night at that EU summit
09:01after President Zelensky's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.
09:07The Ukrainian president also held talks with Donald Trump.
09:10For more, we can cross over now to Euronews' correspondent, Sasha Vakilina,
09:13who's been reporting from Switzerland for us all week long.
09:17Good morning, Sasha.
09:18Just bring us up to speed, please, on Zelensky's speech in Davos.
09:22He was very critical of European allies.
09:24I say this is the first time we hear from Ukraine's president this kind of such a harsh criticism for Europe.
09:34This is something that Brussels is rather more used to hear from Washington,
09:37but not from Zelensky, also the country who wants to be the member of the European Union.
09:41He went on about how Europe is not ready to defend itself, first of all,
09:45and this is when he gave the example of Greenland.
09:47Zelensky also found a term for that, calling it the Greenland mode,
09:51and he said this is what Europe has to stop, it has to get out of the Greenland mode,
09:55when Europe, as he said, is waiting for somebody to do something one day.
10:00Let's take a listen.
10:02Europe needs to know how to defend itself.
10:07And if you send 40 or 40 soldiers to Greenland, what is that for?
10:17What message does it send?
10:19What's the message to Putin, to China?
10:25President Zelensky there comparing as well the EU to Groundhog Day,
10:28saying nothing had been done in a year.
10:30But meanwhile, Sasha, American, Ukrainian and Russian delegations
10:34will be heading to Abu Dhabi today for their first ever trilateral talks since the war began.
10:39What should we expect?
10:40This is indeed in itself a sign of a progress, May.
10:47We also know that Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, he was already in Moscow, is in Moscow,
10:53and he met with Putin.
10:55Now, these meetings took place while President Trump was meeting President Zelensky here at Davos.
11:00So this is the next step for those trilateral talks that are starting today.
11:05The tricky part is that after these talks between Putin and Witkoff,
11:11the Kremlin said that the problem remains for them,
11:15and the main obstacle is the territorial concessions.
11:17And this, of course, will be the hardest point for the teams to negotiate
11:22and to find some sort of an agreement.
11:24Indeed. Well, we'll keep a very, very close eye on that, Sasha Vakalina.
11:28Thank you so much for that live update on the last day of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
11:33As I said, for more of Sasha's reporting on that meeting as well later on today,
11:36do visit euronews.com or download our app.
11:39But another man who took the main stage in Davos this week was the billionaire Elon Musk.
11:45The Tesla and ex-owner spent, though, most of his week trolling Ryanair
11:48and threatening to buy Europe's most successful airline.
11:51Yeah, I could be honest, takes it closer.
11:54Come fly with me. Let's fly away.
11:57Michael O'Leary, the Ryanair boss, could have quoted Sinatra
12:01in response to Elon Musk calling him an utter idiot on X.
12:06The reason for this sudden affection?
12:08A fight over Musk's stalling Wi-Fi on board.
12:12In response, Ryanair boss launched a big idiot seat sale
12:16with cheap flights for Elon and all the other, quote, idiots, end quote.
12:21But away from the noise.
12:23How actually do their business models impact us?
12:27First, the environment.
12:29Ryanair's fleet of more than 600 planes emitted over 60 million tons of CO2 last year.
12:35Then again, data centers for X and Grok.ai are parts of an industry that consumes so many resources
12:42that in Ireland and the Netherlands they are threatening drinking supplies and triggering blackout alerts.
12:49So neither of them is exactly winning the Greta Thunberg Award.
12:53Then there are taxes and both X and Ryanair have Irish head offices.
12:58Ryanair hires 26,000 people and paid over 170 million euros in taxes last year.
13:05And X?
13:06After the recent layoffs, they have just over 100 staff left in Dublin.
13:11And thanks to reporting a massive loss, their tax bill was near zero.
13:17Finally, Ryanair claims they have a score of 90% satisfied customers.
13:22And to be fair, X users are also very satisfied.
13:27Or at least that will be Russian bots, tell me.
13:29And yes, both are ruthless, but one is an American eccentric billionaire.
13:35And the other is, well, ours?
13:38And honestly, I just can't imagine flying to Mars for $16.99.
13:44So for that one, I'm voting with my legs.
13:47Even if there is never any space for them on board.
13:50Yeah, I could be honest there with a dose of humour to help you digest what has been a very intense news cycle.
14:01But we've covered it all for you on euronews.com.
14:03So for more analysis and context on that EU summit that took place here in Brussels last night,
14:09or, of course, on the World Economic Forum that closes today in Davos,
14:13do visit euronews.com or download, of course, our app.
14:16Thank you so much, though, for tuning in to Europe Today
14:18and to our interview with the Greek Prime Minister.
14:21For more as well, you can check out our social media.
14:23We've lots of clips as well that we share with you there.
14:26But for now, thank you so much for watching.
14:28Stay with us here, though, on Euronews.
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