Europe Today: Greek PM joins to debrief on emergency EU Summit

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00:00Good morning, it is Friday the 23rd of January. I'm Maeve MacMahon and this is Europe Today.

00:21Your daily dose of European news and analysis live here on Euronews.

00:26Coming up today, EU leaders gathered in Brussels last night for a five-hour dinner.

00:32Intense talks about, among other things, tricky transatlantic ties.

00:36Despite the tasty food, the mood seemed to be grim as they discussed Greenland, Ukraine,

00:41Morkasur and the Trump Peace Board.

00:44For more on whether this summit was worth the trip to Brussels, we can bring in Shona Murray,

00:48who 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?

01:02We're having some difficulties there.

01:04We're having a couple of difficulties, but not to worry because, of course,

01:08the EU leaders debated deep into the night on all the challenges facing the Union.

01:12And in fact, coming up to find out exactly what was discussed in the room, we'll be joined by one of them.

01:17The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paris since 2019.

01:22He's also the president of the centre-right New Democracy Party since January 2016.

01:27Affiliated with the European People's Party since coming into office, he's been focusing on economic forms and attracting FDI.

01:33Good morning.

01:33Good morning. I'm happy to take Shona's place.

01:36Absolutely. I mean, it's wonderful to have you because as our viewers are probably wondering what goes on at those EU summits,

01:41what do you talk about until the early hours of the morning?

01:44And last night was rather tense.

01:46We see EU leaders visibly exhausted, Prime Minister.

01:49Is this because of their workload or is this because of Donald Trump?

01:53Well, first of all, I can tell you that these summits are complicated.

01:57You know, 27 of us, and if you also include the High Commissioner, the President of the Commission,

02:00the President of the Council, it takes a lot of time to go around the table.

02:03But I think yesterday was a very good discussion.

02:07There is, in spite of the sense of restlessness, a real sense of purpose about Europe getting its act together.

02:15The transatlantic relationship is becoming more complicated.

02:19It needs to be managed in a different way.

02:22And was Donald Trump the elephant in the room?

02:23Europe needs to stand up for its own interests.

02:26Of course, the US President was mentioned.

02:29I think it is good that he made comments to clearly indicate that he wants to de-escalate the situation in Greenland.

02:35I think it is very positive that Europe stood up with one voice, maybe with one exception, to defend Denmark and Greenland.

02:43Tell us about the exception.

02:45Well, the exception is Hungary.

02:46This has been the case over the past year, so this should come as no surprise.

02:51But I think we found a way to work around this problem.

02:55What about the other exception?

02:56I mean, I watched that video clip from FITZO, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, who I believe was sitting right beside you.

03:02He was criticising the summit, saying it was a waste of time.

03:05He was very critical of EU leadership as well.

03:07What did you say to him?

03:08Well, we can look at the glass half empty or we can look at the glass half full.

03:11What I can tell you is that the whole strategic autonomy debate is picking up steam.

03:16I 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.

03:22But what did you say to him?

03:23What do you say to disruptive leaders who sit with you in that room for five hours?

03:27Well, I think we all have to be cordial and respectful.

03:30And this is also true when it comes to the, I would say, to the US-European relationship.

03:35It was also reflected in the statements made by Antonia Costa.

03:37I think we're all very frank in these discussions.

03:40People need to understand we're by ourselves.

03:42There are no advisers.

03:43No funds.

03:44No funds.

03:44In this case, also no conclusions, which makes it easier to be very open and occasionally quite blunt in expressing our views.

03:52And did you discuss Donald Trump's Board of Peace?

03:54We know that Hungary has joined.

03:55Bulgaria also joined.

03:57What was the consensus on it last night?

03:58Well, I think the consensus is that what has been announced by Donald Trump goes way beyond the UN Security Council mandate.

04:05I think it is important that the US is involved in the reconstruction of Gaza.

04:09I don't think that we would have had a choice without the involvement of Donald Trump.

04:13But I think we also need to recognize that moving forward, what has been established is something in which most European countries cannot join.

04:23However, we would like to be part of an arrangement to address the Gaza issue.

04:28So if there's a way where we can work with the US, but only for Gaza and only for a limited amount of time,

04:36Greece certainly would be very, very happy to take a lead in finding a consensus to do that.

04:42But you don't want to join up?

04:43I don't think we can join what has been currently presented.

04:46But we need to work towards ensuring that there is a European presence when it comes to the future of Gaza.

04:52What about Mercosur?

04:53Of course, the Greek farmers are thrilled this week because of that vote in the European Parliament to send it to the Court of Justice.

04:59What is your view there?

05:00My view is very clear.

05:02I mean, there are more benefits than drawbacks when it comes to these big international trade agreements.

05:10The Commission President and the President of the Council are going to India.

05:13I'll be going to India in a couple of weeks.

05:16We need to establish trading relationships with other countries or other groups of countries.

05:23We are a medium-sized, open economy.

05:26We're the leaders in global shipping.

05:28We have every interest in ensuring a rules-based international order that favours free trade.

05:35I wanted to ask you also about Ukraine, of course, and President Zelensky's speech in Davos being very critical.

05:39But we will have to leave it there.

05:40Thank you so much, Prime Minister, for being with us here live on Euronews on Europe Today.

05:44Do come back very soon.

05:45I believe we can now try and head back to the EU summit there and bring in our Shona Murray,

05:50who we were having a little bit of technical difficulties earlier catching Shona Murray.

05:54Good morning, Shona.

05:55Lovely to have you with us.

05:56Just tell us, bring us up to speed on the mood from the journalist's perspective, of course,

06:00because the press spent the night on a packed floor trying to report on what exactly was going on inside the room.

06:05What was the mood?

06:06Well, Maeve, you know, I've been covering EU summit for a long time,

06:11even throughout the challenging moments of the Eurozone debt crisis.

06:14And I can say overall the mood, not really with journalists necessarily,

06:18but also with politicians, was one that was particularly despondent.

06:21Now, we know, obviously, that the issue of tariffs had been averted at the last minute.

06:26But the damage to the EU-US relationship has really been very long-lasting.

06:32Trust has been very much eroded.

06:33If you look at the language throughout the week, Bart de Weyver, the Belgian prime minister,

06:37using language saying that if Europe doesn't unify, it'll be a happy slave of Donald Trump.

06:42We also heard from Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, a NATO ally,

06:46saying that the world order is fading and that the might on right of the strongest is basically playing out

06:53and the weak must suffer.

06:55So it's within that context that we heard about how Europe really needs to move away,

06:59diversify away from the United States, become more independent.

07:02We heard from the prime minister there talking about strategic autonomy.

07:06And Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, really made this point in her press conference.

07:11It was very clear in the discussion that we were successful in withstanding by being firm,

07:18but non-escalatory and most importantly, very united.

07:23But there was also a discussion on the clarity with which we know that we have to work more and more for an independent Europe.

07:35This is not something which happened overnight.

07:38This is hard work.

07:39Commission President there, Ursula von der Leyen.

07:41And Shona, just what else did leaders there discuss and decide?

07:45Well, it was all very intertwined, Maeve, because really the idea of this summit was an extraordinary summit

07:53based on the actions and the language of Donald Trump.

07:56So the strategic autonomy piece was important.

07:58And then linking onto that was, of course, Mercosur,

08:00because we heard from the European Parliament during the week that they had sent the legalities of Mercosur

08:05to the European Court of Justice, which will, of course, delay its implementation.

08:08So European leaders decided to implement this in a provisional basis to get it going,

08:14saying that really the trade agreements now of, I mean, Mercosur has 700 million people,

08:19that needs to be in place if Europe has any chance of being independent from the United States.

08:23And, of course, there was also a strong discussion on this Board of Peace that you mentioned there with the Greek Prime Minister.

08:29The EU has real concerns about the level of this and whether or not it's in contravention at the United Nations Charter.

08:35Maeve?

08:35OK, Shona Murray, thank you so much for that live update there from the red carpet there at the EU Council.

08:41Well, Ukraine was also discussed last night at that EU summit

08:44after President Zelensky's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.

08:50The Ukrainian president also held talks with Donald Trump.

08:53For more, we can cross over now to Euronews' correspondent, Sasha Vakilina,

08:57who's been reporting from Switzerland for us all week long.

09:00Good morning, Sasha.

09:01Just bring us up to speed, please, on Zelensky's speech in Davos.

09:04He was very critical of European allies.

09:07I say this is the first time we hear from Ukraine's president this kind of such a harsh criticism for Europe.

09:17This is something that Brussels is rather more used to hear from Washington,

09:21but not from Zelensky, also the country who wants to be the member of the European Union.

09:24He went on about how Europe is not ready to defend itself, first of all,

09:28and this is when he gave the example of Greenland.

09:30Zelensky also found a term for that, calling it the Greenland mode,

09:34and he said this is what Europe has to stop.

09:36It has to get out of the Greenland mode,

09:38when Europe, as he said, is waiting for somebody to do something one day.

09:43Let's take a listen.

09:44President Zelensky there comparing as well the EU to Groundhog Day,

10:11saying nothing had been done in a year.

10:13But meanwhile, Sasha, American, Ukrainian and Russian delegations will be heading to Abu Dhabi today

10:18for their first ever trilateral talks since the war began.

10:22What should we expect?

10:23This is indeed in itself a sign of a progress, May.

10:30We also know that Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, he was already in Moscow, is in Moscow,

10:36and he met with Putin.

10:38Now, these meetings took place while President Trump was meeting President Zelensky here at Davos.

10:44So this is the next step for those trilateral talks that are starting today.

10:48The tricky part is that after these talks between Putin and Witkoff,

10:54the Kremlin said that the problem remains for them,

10:58and the main obstacle is the territorial concessions.

11:00And this, of course, will be the hardest point for the teams to negotiate

11:05and to find some sort of an agreement.

11:07Indeed. Well, we'll keep a very, very close eye on that, Sasha Vakilina.

11:11Thank you so much for that live update on the last day of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

11:16As I said, for more of Sasha's reporting on that meeting as well later on today,

11:19do visit Euronews.com or download our app.

11:22But another man who took the main stage in Davos this week was the billionaire Elon Musk.

11:28The Tesla and X owner spent, though, most of his week trolling Ryanair

11:31and threatening to buy Europe's most successful airline.

11:34Jakob Janis takes it close.

11:37Come fly with me. Let's fly away.

11:40Michael O'Leary, the Ryanair boss, could have quoted Sinatra

11:44in response to Elon Musk calling him an utter idiot on X.

11:49The reason for this sudden affection?

11:51A fight over Musk's stalling Wi-Fi on board.

11:55In response, Ryanair boss launched a big idiot seat sale

11:59with cheap flights for Elon and all the other, quote, idiots, end quote.

12:04But away from the noise.

12:06How actually do their business models impact us?

12:10First, the environment.

12:12Ryanair's fleet of more than 600 planes

12:15emitted over 60 million tons of CO2 last year.

12:19Then again, data centers for X and Grok.ai are parts of an industry

12:23that consumes so many resources

12:25that in Ireland and the Netherlands

12:27they are threatening drinking supplies

12:29and triggering blackout alerts.

12:32So neither of them is exactly winning the Greta Thunberg Award.

12:36Then, there are taxes,

12:37and both X and Ryanair have Irish head offices.

12:41Ryanair hires 26,000 people

12:44and paid over 170 million euros in taxes last year.

12:48And X?

12:49After the recent layoffs,

12:51they have just over 100 staff left in Dublin.

12:54And thanks to reporting a massive loss,

12:57their tax bill was near zero.

12:59Finally, Ryanair claims they have a score of 90% satisfied customers.

13:06And to be fair, X users are also very satisfied.

13:10Or at least, that's what the Russian bots tell me.

13:13And yes, both are ruthless,

13:15but one is an American eccentric billionaire.

13:18And the other is, well, ours?

13:21And honestly, I just can't imagine flying to Mars for 16.99.

13:27So for that one, I'm voting with my legs,

13:30even if there is never any space for them on board.

13:38Yeah, Kopianis there with a dose of humour

13:40to help you digest what has been a very intense news cycle.

13:44But we've covered it all for you on euronews.com.

13:46So for more analysis and context on that EU summit

13:49that took place here in Brussels last night,

13:52or, of course, on the World Economic Forum

13:54that closes today in Davos,

13:56do visit euronews.com or download, of course, our app.

13:59Thank you so much, though, for tuning in to Europe Today

14:01and to our interview with the Greek Prime Minister.

14:04For more as well, you can check out our social media.

14:06We've lots of clips as well that we share with you there.

14:09But for now, thank you so much for watching.

14:11Stay with us here, though, on Euronews.

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