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Europe Today: EU Commission Executive Vice-President reacts to EU-India trade deal
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Tune in to Euronews' new flagship morning programme, Europe Today, at 8 am Brussels time. In just 15 minutes, we bring you up to speed on the biggest news of the day.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/01/27/europe-today-exclusive-interview-with-eu-commission-executive-vice-president-henna-virkkun
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. It is Tuesday the 27th of January. I'm Maeve McMahan and this is Europe Today.
00:21Your daily dose of European news and analysis live here on Euronews.
00:26Coming up, some breaking news. A historic EU-India free trade deal has just been signed in New Delhi after years of taking one step forward and two steps back.
00:36As the EU looks to counter tariff threats from the current US administration and manage an influx of cheap goods from China,
00:43European leaders and business reps are marking the moment today at a landmark EU-India summit.
00:49Under the deal, India is expected to ease market access for European products from cars to wine.
00:54And in return, it will be easier for India to export textiles and pharmaceuticals.
01:00For more, we can cross now straight to New Delhi, where Euronews' EU editor Maria Tadeo is standing by for us.
01:05Good morning, Maria. Great to have you with us. Just tell us, the deal is just being signed there in front of your eyes. Tell us more.
01:10Well, yes, absolutely. And this is a deal now announced by the European Union and, of course, India.
01:17It's being described as the mother of all deals.
01:19And Maeve, in just a few moments, you'll see right behind me the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
01:24but also the Indian Prime Minister Modi and the head of the European Council will walk in and take questions from the press.
01:31Obviously, this wraps now a two-day summit in India.
01:34The two sides also suggest that this is now a new chapter for strategic relations when it comes to the two blocks.
01:40And, of course, we have to look at the details of this trade deal, which will cut tariffs on more than 90 percent of European products.
01:48European sources also telling us in the run-up to the announcement that this will open up a market that,
01:53until now, has been very heavily protected by the Indians.
01:56Because, obviously, this could be good for European carmakers, for chemicals, for wine, spirits, olive oils.
02:02In some of these sectors, tariffs could go all the way down to zero.
02:05And, of course, we've got to remember that this is a country that's not just one of the fastest-growing markets in the world,
02:10but it's also a country of more than 1.4 billion people.
02:14I should also note, and this is very important just before we have to leave, that the timing is interesting
02:19because both India and the European Union, of course, have come under pressure from tariffs from President Trump,
02:24this country, operating under a 50 percent tariff regime.
02:27They both say they want to diversify and open up to new markets.
02:31OK, Maria Tadeo, our EU news editor there, reporting from Delhi on that major announcement breaking today.
02:36Thank you so much for that.
02:37The final deal, of course, will have to get the green light from the European Parliament.
02:41But you can read more about Maria's reporting on Euronews.com.
02:44But now, back in Brussels, Mark Rutte, the NATO Secretary-General, was in the European Parliament yesterday
02:50with a very stark message for MEPs.
02:52Take a look.
02:54President Trump is doing a lot of good stuff, I believe.
02:56The 2 percent reached by all NATO countries now at the end of 2025 would never, ever, ever have happened without Trump.
03:05And do you really think that in The Hague we would have come to the 5 percent commitment without President Trump?
03:10No way.
03:10And if anyone thinks here, again, that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S.,
03:17keep on dreaming.
03:18Keep on dreaming.
03:18That's the NATO chief there telling European nations that they would need to increase defence spending to 10 percent if they, quote, really want to do it alone.
03:27He added they would also need to build up their own nuclear capability and that would cost billions of euros.
03:32Euronews' Stefan Krobey was following the speech for us and joins us now here in the studio.
03:37Good morning, Stefan.
03:38Good morning, Maeve.
03:38Tell us, what more did Mark Rutte have to say and how is it received by MEPs?
03:42Well, first of all, these hearings at the European Parliament tend to be very casual affairs, like the European version of a fireside chat.
03:51And people expected some muscular statement from Mark Rutte, but it wasn't the way they thought.
04:00He was quite fiery, as you've seen, saying that, you know, Europe cannot defend itself alone without the Americans.
04:07And he praised Donald Trump and said, I say something that you don't like.
04:11I will defend Donald Trump, saying that the increase of defence spending is largely due to the U.S. president.
04:18So that left many of the members of parliament with a little bit of frustration.
04:22That's not what they wanted to hear, really.
04:25Also important, what Mark Rutte didn't speak about, and that was the Greenland deal.
04:29It was very short on details.
04:31We still don't know.
04:32Almost a week after Davos, what's in this deal?
04:35Is this a deal at all?
04:36But sure, Mark Rutte then has not a mandate to negotiate on behalf of all the member states.
04:42And some people a bit concerned about the fact that he's a little bit like teacher's pet here to the U.S. administration.
04:47Well, absolutely.
04:48And, you know, some EU leaders, the former and present, reacted to this.
04:54And Charles Michel, the former Belgian prime minister and EU council president, said,
04:59You're wrong, dear Mark Rutte.
05:01Europe will defend itself.
05:03And Donald Trump is not my daddy.
05:05That's a potshot at Mark Rutte.
05:07Of course, Europe's future requires vision, courage and leadership, not resignation, submission and fatalism.
05:13So there you have it.
05:14Others follow the French prime minister, for example, saying the same thing.
05:20Europe can or should, you know, work to be able to defend itself in the future.
05:25And we have to put some distance between us and the Americans.
05:28Now, I believe that this is somewhat of an academic discussion here because of things that have been going on in the United States itself.
05:36So in December 2023, Joe Biden was the president.
05:39Congress passed overwhelmingly a bill that barred any president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO.
05:48So that would require approval from the Senate or an act of Congress.
05:53So they were, if you remember, during Trump's first term, he already toyed with the idea of America leaving NATO.
06:00And here you have a Congress bipartisan bill, by the way, orchestrated by Mark Rubio, the secretary of state today.
06:08So it's Trump cannot just walk away like this.
06:12OK, Stefan Kobe, thank you so much for all those details.
06:16We'd love to hear your view as well on that.
06:17Write to us here at Europe Today at yournews.com.
06:20But now, moving on, you might have noticed the French president has soared in popularity lately, quite simply for his fashionable shades in Davos.
06:29Emmanuel Macron is also using this moment in the limelight to push through a social media ban for minors that has also been approved by the French assembly.
06:37Jacob Janos tells us more.
06:42France is officially at war with social media and the battle cries are echoing all over Europe.
06:48According to a French health watchdog, half of teens spend between two to five hours a day on their smartphones.
06:56President Macron says our children's brains are not for sale and wants a social media ban for under-15s by September.
07:06But your reporter went for a dinner with some tech lobbyists.
07:09And it's clear now, this ban sounds like a nightmare.
07:12Let's investigate.
07:13Supporters say it would protect kids from harmful content.
07:19Over a half of European teens have seen online pornography.
07:24The average age of first exposure?
07:26Just 11.
07:28And in the era of Elon Musk's Grok AI, they don't even need to search for it.
07:33They can generate it.
07:35So let's cheer for the AI revolution.
07:37And Australia, which was first to ban social media for teens, claims the ban helps kids focus.
07:45Like children actually need focus to study.
07:48Personally, I think algebra is much easier when you are interrupted every 12 seconds.
07:54Finally, the ban would hurt profits of the big American and Chinese apps.
07:59And my legal team advised me not to name them, so here instead is a video of a sad puppy.
08:06Just look at his sad eyes.
08:09Look, if your child doesn't recognize your face anymore because it isn't vertical, don't worry.
08:15Just send him a message with a funny cat video.
08:19With the social media ban, you can't.
08:22So case closed.
08:23And I just hope my new friends who work as lobbyists liked my explainer.
08:29My job is done here.
08:31Now let's go back to doomscrolling.
08:38Jakob Janus there.
08:39But now coming up, we'll be joined by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission,
08:44Hene Verkunen, the Finnish politician and former MEP and Government Minister,
08:48is currently in charge of tech sovereignty, security and democracy.
08:52Good morning, Commissioner.
08:53Good morning.
08:54Great to have you with us.
08:55Yeah, thank you.
08:56Look, the big news, of course, breaking this morning is happening in New Delhi.
09:00Tell us more about how this EU trade deal with India will impact our viewers.
09:04Of course, it's a very important deal from the European Union perspective,
09:09because together, European Union and India, we are two biggest democracies in the world.
09:13And I think this is great news for everybody.
09:16So more business opportunities for our SMEs, for our industries, also for our service providers.
09:21And of course, also for the Indians, especially when it comes to technologies.
09:26We are working also together with India.
09:28We have our technology partnership also with India.
09:32And especially when we are looking at the talent part,
09:36we know that India is having very much ICT experts and talents.
09:40We are really lacking workforce in Europe.
09:42So this is now certainly a field where we are working together with India,
09:46also to attract more talented ICT experts from India to work in Europe.
09:50OK, see if your work got out for you there.
09:53And now just talk to us about the investigation that you've launched this week
09:56against Elon Musk's controversial AI chat box, Grok.
10:00Tell us more about your findings here.
10:02We opened also formal investigation yesterday on this topic,
10:07especially now to investigate that how X has been assessing and mitigating the risks.
10:12So it's an obligation under DSA that always the service providers,
10:17they have to assess and mitigate the systematic risks that they are posing.
10:21And now we see that Grok is now included more and more to X services.
10:25So really look at how the risks are taken care of there.
10:30And also we saw also that there was certain illegal content that Grok was pushing.
10:36We know that now the future has been changed, but we are also now analysing about the other risks really related to Grok.
10:45And we saw that Grok AI generated about 3 million sexualised images in just two weeks.
10:51That's according to research.
10:53Can you keep up with this, though?
10:54It came very late.
10:56We have very clear obligations for the online service providers that they have to all the time
11:02mitigate the risks, what they are posing, especially now when more and more AI is also integrated to online services.
11:10More and more AI is also running the recommender system of the online services.
11:15So this is certain obligation now for the online platforms to really look that they are having practices in place
11:21and illegal content, for example, is not spread online.
11:25And has X responded?
11:26Because we all know how Elon Musk feels about the European Union.
11:29Yes, they have been in dialogue with the commission services.
11:32We already sent it earlier for them, requests for information about this topic,
11:36that how they have been assessing the risks.
11:39And also we made before Christmas already the decisions that they have to now retain all the documents related to Grok and X.
11:46And now we opened also to formal proceedings.
11:49So they have been in dialogue with our services all these months.
11:53And how are you making sure that we can get it right here in the EU,
11:57that we can make sure that we have smart regulation when it comes to AI, but that we can also thrive?
12:01That is exactly what we are seeking in our regulation, that we want to have right balance.
12:07They're boosting innovations, but at the same time, it's also important to be aware of risks.
12:12And when it comes to new technologies, also like to AI.
12:15So it's very important also that the developers, that they are also taking care of their responsibility here.
12:20And we have already AI Act, which is covering also the generative AI part.
12:27And the 26 AI developers, they were also signing code of practice together with us.
12:32So it means that they have to take care of the security, safety of the systems.
12:37And also they have to be transparent.
12:39They have to respect copyrights.
12:40So I see that we have a good balance in the European Union when it comes to digital regulation.
12:45And how are you handling the pressure, though, coming from the US administration,
12:49trying to back you in a corner, trying to get you to kill the regulation?
12:52We know that these digital rules are very important for the Europeans,
12:56because we want to make sure that our citizens can trust the technologies.
13:00We want to be sure that our digital environment is fair, transparent, democratic and safe.
13:08But you're seen as a rulemaker. You were just in Davos last week.
13:11Everyone looking at you as the regulator, not the innovator.
13:14But there was good news on the 28th regime, right, to make it easier for startups here in the EU.
13:18In the same time, when we have certain digital rules,
13:22we want to make Europe faster and easier for the businesses.
13:26And we are doing that.
13:27So we are simplifying the processes and rules.
13:29We are creating better single market.
13:32We are boosting the capital markets to have also access to finance for the startups.
13:36So we are working on that.
13:38And we see that Europe is having everything that is needed to be competitive.
13:41Okay.
13:42Heine Verkunen, Vice President of the European Commission,
13:44thank you so much for coming in to us here at Europe Today and being our guest.
13:48And thank you so much for tuning in.
13:50This does bring this edition of Europe Today to an end.
13:53But tune in again tomorrow.
13:54We'll be live from the European Space Conference
13:57with an exclusive interview with the head of the European Space Agency.
14:00See you soon on Euronews.
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