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Europe Today: EU-Spitzen treffen sich in Brüssel zu entscheidendem Krisengipfel
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NewsTranskript
00:14Good morning, it is Thursday 19 March.
00:17I'm Maeve McMahan and you're watching Europe Today.
00:21Your daily dose of European news and analysis live here on Euronews.
00:26Coming up, EU leaders are gathering in Brussels today for their regular spring summit.
00:32On the agenda, not one but two wars and they may be more connected than you think.
00:37As the conflict involving Iran spills across the Middle East with dangerous escalations on all sides,
00:44the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, will also join leaders to reflect on the mounting humanitarian crisis.
00:50The message from the summit, though, is clear.
00:53This is not Europe's war, but it is affecting us, whether we like it or not.
00:59From rising energy prices to the risk of food shortages all across Africa, the global impact is already being felt.
01:06Plus, EU leaders won't be forgetting Ukraine.
01:09Now, in its fifth year of war, the country is still waiting for a billion euro loan.
01:14President Zelensky will join the talks remotely.
01:16For more, we can cross straight over to the arrival floor of the EU summit,
01:20where Euronews' correspondent Shona Murray is standing by for us this morning.
01:24Good morning, Shona.
01:25So, we're hearing the EU saying it's not getting involved in the US-Israel war on Iran.
01:30But will leaders discuss any potential support today to allow the Strait of Hormuz to return to normality?
01:38Well, good morning, Maeve.
01:39And we are shaping up for a very rancorous, a very difficult EU summit today.
01:44EU leaders will about to start trickling down the red carpet here over the next sort of half an hour
01:48or so
01:48for what will be a very late summit, which will probably drag in well into the early hours of the
01:53night.
01:53And as you mentioned there, two major items on the agenda.
01:57First of all, of course, the Iran war and the impact it's having on Europe.
02:00Now, EU leaders over the past few days have started roundly rejecting the premise of this war,
02:06saying that they weren't consulted, they're not party to the conflict,
02:09and therefore, why should they get involved?
02:11Why should they send their vessels, their sailors, to help the Strait of Hormuz and the Americans and the Israelis?
02:16Take a listen to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaking to the Bundestag yesterday.
02:23We have also made it clear that we still have many questions about this war.
02:28To date, there is no convincing concept of how this operation could succeed.
02:33Washington did not consult us and did not declare European aid necessary.
02:39Ladies and gentlemen, we would have advised against following this path, which is being currently taken.
02:49So that's Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, obviously making the point that they don't understand the objectives of this war.
02:56They weren't consulted and they would have advised against it.
02:58And that's very interesting, May, because you might recall a couple of weeks ago,
03:01there was a lukewarm endorsement from a lot of Western countries,
03:05countries, particularly some of the most senior countries in the European Union, aside from Spain,
03:09that said, look, let's not lecture our allies.
03:12This is a very important thing to do, potentially to rid the world of the regime in Tehran.
03:18But now they're also looking at the impact.
03:20The impact for European economies on this war is massive.
03:24We've seen oil prices skyrocket.
03:26The impact on the cost of living crisis is huge.
03:28But the key question is, will Europe do anything to save the Americans and the Iranians and the Israelis right
03:34now?
03:34Will they send their vessels, their sailors, to the Strait of Hormuz?
03:38We've heard over the past few days that this is a non-starter.
03:40There was even a discussion by the EU foreign policy chief, Kaya Callas,
03:43as to whether she could maybe do a negotiation with the Iranians to try to get European vessels through the
03:49Strait of Hormuz.
03:49And that, again, is a non-starter.
03:51But we've seen this war escalate over the past few days.
03:54In particular, the world's largest gas field being hit by strikes yesterday.
03:59So EU leaders will definitely discuss the economic impact of this war.
04:03And just briefly, Shona, Ukraine also very much on the agenda.
04:09Of course, yes.
04:10It's a major issue that will keep the EU leaders up at night.
04:13Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has reneged on an agreement that was set before Christmas
04:18that he would endorse a €90 billion loan for Ukraine.
04:21He's now saying he won't do that because the Ukrainians are refusing, as he says,
04:25to fix the Druzhba pipeline, which is a pipeline that gets oil from Russia through Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary.
04:32So that's going to be a major problem because Ukraine needs this money by June.
04:35Indeed.
04:36Shona Murray, thank you so much for that live update there from the EU summit.
04:40From an EU summit that once again could potentially be dominated by a veto by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime
04:45minister.
04:46For more, your news is Hungarian correspondent, Shandor Zeros, is with me here on set.
04:50Good to see you, Shandor.
04:52Thank you so much for being here.
04:53And we understand the EU and Ukraine have sent a team of experts to this pipeline.
04:57Could this resolve now this issue of the veto at the EU summit?
05:01Good morning, Maeve.
05:02Indeed, earlier this week, the European Commission decided to take action and try to resolve this issue.
05:08The group of experts are currently on the ground and they are expected to file a report pretty soon
05:15in order to see what does it cost and how much time it will take to repair this pipeline.
05:22But I guess this is not going to resolve the issue right now at this European summit
05:27because Prime Minister Viktor Orban clearly said two days ago that in order to lift his veto
05:32and in order to finance Ukraine, he needs to get the oil flowing.
05:37And this, according to Ukraine, could take up to one month.
05:41So I expect a really tough summit for Viktor Orban, a lot of fighting,
05:46but I don't think there will be a solution for this loan of Ukraine.
05:51And there is not a plan B, so they cannot simply bypass Hungary on this.
05:56And it's tricky, isn't it, for the EU?
05:57Because, of course, Hungary is a member state, Ukraine an aspiring member state.
06:01And also, very interestingly, we have to remind our viewers,
06:03there's elections coming up on the 12th of April in Hungary.
06:07How is this issue of this kind of spat between Hungary and Ukraine playing out in the campaign, Sander?
06:13That's right.
06:14This is one of the main issues in the campaign debated right now.
06:18Because, you know, this is related to energy security.
06:21This is related to the price of the petrol, the price of the heating, cost of the living.
06:26So this is huge.
06:28And again, Prime Minister Orban is portraying himself as somebody who is fighting with Brussels, in Brussels, for Hungary.
06:36And he's fighting also with Ukraine in order to secure cheap oil from Russia.
06:42This is a big issue.
06:44And according to experts that I spoke to, this could eventually help Orban boosting his support.
06:50And another thing is, since people are talking about Ukraine,
06:53they are not talking about the talking points of the opposition,
06:57which is, you know, hospitals, schools, inflation, etc.
07:01And one final thing to remind, the elections are still open.
07:06Orban could win, but he could also lose.
07:09And if he's losing, this is his last European summit and possibly his last European veto as well.
07:15As you said, Shanda, it will be a very tough summit.
07:18We'll keep a very close eye on it.
07:19Thank you so much for that update.
07:21And now, of course, although all eyes here in Brussels are focused on the politics coming out of that EU
07:27summit today,
07:28the eyes of the world are on the Middle East.
07:30In Lebanon, hundreds are reported killed and more than one million people displaced.
07:34And strikes are starting to hit energy infrastructure from Iran to Qatar.
07:38This, as President Trump warned Iran not to attack Qatar again,
07:42or the US would, quote, massively blow up the entirety of an Iranian gas field.
07:47We can go to Dubai now, where our regional correspondent, Jane Witherspoon, is standing by for us.
07:51Good morning, Jane.
07:52So it's getting very ugly here and dangerous with energy sites being struck on all sides.
07:57Tell us more.
07:59That's right.
08:00Iran has ramped up its attacks on energy sites across the Middle East.
08:04It comes as the Revolutionary Guard has said this is a new era of war.
08:09Now, here in the UAE, our Habshan gas facility was closed overnight due to strikes there.
08:15We're hearing similar reports across the region in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia.
08:20And, of course, this morning we learned that several sites in Qatar, Doha, had been attacked, leading to extensive damage.
08:28Now, all three countries have come out and condemned these attacks, saying it could lead to global security issues.
08:34And, of course, these do come off the back of Israel attacking that south par in Iran, their largest gas
08:42field there.
08:43However, overnight as well, President Trump has come out and said he had no idea that these attacks were going
08:49to take place.
08:50He's condemned further attacks also on Iranian infrastructure.
08:54And, meanwhile, Jane, Iran's security chief, Ali Larajani, has been killed in an Israeli strike.
09:00He was actually one of the most influential figures of the regime.
09:03Tell us more about that and what it could mean.
09:06Yes.
09:06Now, a lot of the top brass from that Iranian regime have been killed over the past few days.
09:11There's a statement out in the media in Iran today, supposedly from the Supreme Leader, Mott Jabbar Khamenei,
09:18saying that he condemns these killings.
09:20And as you say, his top security chief was just the latest to be taken out.
09:25So he's very angry about that.
09:27Now, amidst these strikes, which are consistent through the day and night across the region,
09:32we are hearing that the Iranian people are against the regime there.
09:37And they're now taking to the streets in protest and they're coming up against security forces there.
09:42OK, Jane Witherspoon, of course, we have our Farsi desk all over that.
09:46Thank you so much for that live update there from the United Arab Emirates.
09:50Now, back here in Brussels at the EU summit, EU leaders are looking at ways to soften the blow from
09:56the war in the Middle East
09:57and also manage the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine, now entering its fifth year.
10:02Our Jakob Janis takes a look at how both wars are very connected.
10:08Today, 27 EU leaders meet in Brussels for the European Council.
10:12The official agenda highlights competitiveness and migration.
10:15But war overshadows it all.
10:18And your reporter doesn't yet know exactly what they will be saying.
10:22But we can certainly guess what keeps them up at night.
10:25Especially as Russia's war in Ukraine and the US-Israeli war in Iran have become deeply interlinked.
10:32Let's take a look together.
10:34With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, energy and petrol costs are soaring.
10:38And because that vital waterway handles a massive share of global fertilizer shipments,
10:44it also means higher grocery prices for everyone.
10:47To ease that pressure, Trump announced last week that he is lifting some sanctions on Russian oil.
10:52The US Treasury issued a temporary permit allowing countries to purchase Russian crude currently stranded at sea.
11:00And Washington insists this only applies to already loaded cargo,
11:05strictly ruling out new trades or major financial benefits for Russia.
11:09But European leaders are strongly pushing back.
11:13German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the move wrong,
11:17while Council President Antonio Costa argued it directly undermines European security by letting Moscow cash in.
11:24But here is the bitter irony.
11:27Since Trump's decision, oil prices have not drastically fallen.
11:31But European security has.
11:34This sanctions relief could hand the Kremlin a staggering $150 million a day.
11:40That single day of revenue buys up to 7,000 Iranian-designed Shahid drones.
11:46Or could fund sign-up bonuses for 5,000 new Russian soldiers.
11:51Every single day.
11:53And after bashing traditional diplomacy, Trump is disappointed Europe is not rushing to help secure the Middle East.
12:01But as EU leaders gathering Brussels just days after the Ides of March,
12:06one could say they know a political backstabbing when they see one.
12:15Jakob Jan is reporting for us there.
12:18Now, although only 27 EU leaders are in that summit physically today,
12:22some others are hoping to one day sit in there too.
12:25Like Iceland, who planned to hold a referendum on EU membership.
12:29For more, your news is Shona Murray sent down with the foreign minister of Iceland
12:33and started by asking her if this would be a very difficult referendum to get through.
12:38Everyone knows about Brexit and all the lies that were put on the table in that process.
12:46So, yes, it will not be an easy walk.
12:51But in the end, you know, you have to trust the nation and believe in her.
12:57And it's rather positive now.
12:59The outcome could be positive now, today, if we would vote.
13:04But on the other hand, you know, it's just a simple question, you know.
13:14Should we continue the negotiation talks, yes or no?
13:17And from my point of view, if you say no, you are closing a lot of doors.
13:22Instead of saying yes, should we not continue, see what kind of negotiation and agreement we will get.
13:29If you say no, then I'm afraid that Iceland will be pretty much alone.
13:34Not quite alone, but of course we are still a member of NATO and we have the EAA agreement we
13:40have after.
13:40But I think our position will be not so strong as being a member of the European Union.
13:48And there, again, I come to the values we share.
13:52What do you make of the changing nature of the transatlantic relationship?
13:55If I could now criticize the European Union is that they should be with more self-esteem, you know.
14:04The European Union is a superpower, you know.
14:07And they should act like a superpower, if I could say so.
14:11And you just, if you watch and recall the Greenlands agenda from the US part,
14:19it was quite clear that the European Union was a backbone for Denmark and Greenland when these statements were made
14:29on the US behalf.
14:31And I think that was beneficial for Denmark.
14:34But it was also useful for us in Iceland to see, OK, European Union and most of the countries,
14:42they can stand with other nations when they are, in a way, attacked and their sovereignty.
14:50Was that very worrying from an Icelandic point of view, what happened with Greenland?
14:54Because you're talking about two islands and, I mean, he actually, Donald Trump kept on saying Iceland instead of Greenland
15:00in his speech in Davos.
15:01Yeah, but he meant Greenland.
15:02I know, I know.
15:03But still, I mean, Iceland at the back of his head somewhere.
15:07Somewhere, yeah, somewhere, yes.
15:08But actually, just to underline, Iceland has an excellent relationship with the US.
15:14Until it doesn't.
15:16Yes, but, you know, when it comes to defensive security, I just have to underline our cooperation in that field
15:23has been increasing and has been not just encouraging, you know,
15:28it has been very useful for Iceland and I know as well for the US.
15:32So whatever people say, you know, in that field, defensive security, it's fine.
15:38And it's one of the most important pillars of our new defense and security policy.
15:45But when it comes to trade, sadly, no, their friendship is not so good as it was, you know, because
15:52we got first 15 and then now 10 after the decision from the Supreme Court.
15:58So I think in Iceland we are and we still will be advocating for a good transatlantic relationship.
16:07Of course, everybody is.
16:08You know, yeah, but we also have to work for it, you know, but we cannot be naive.
16:14Yeah.
16:14And that's why I say it's important for Iceland to increase the pillars under the defense and security policy.
16:26Like I mentioned, there are two main pillars under our defense and security policy, being a member of NATO.
16:31And the other pillars is the defense agreement with the US since 1951.
16:38But of course, we are having bilateral agreements with countries like Finland and Germany.
16:47And we are updating our memory of understanding and defense with Canada.
16:53And of course, we are debating our collaboration with other countries.
16:59We have to do it because in this world, in this volatile world, you see what Finland and Sweden did.
17:05They joined NATO and they say those two pillars, EU and NATO, they are the backbone of their security.
17:13And I, of course, we in Iceland, we have to do something more that we have been doing.
17:18And that's why I, for example, I signed this security and defense partnership with the EU today.
17:25When you say the EU should be acting like a superpower, you should recognize the leverage that it has.
17:32I mean, if you look at what's happening in Australia.
17:33It has humongous leverage, you know.
17:34What would you say Ursula von der Leyen should have done maybe around the issue of tariffs?
17:39Should Ireland, should the EU have played a tariff game with Trump or accepted 15 percent?
17:44I will not tell them what to do.
17:47You know, it's a difficult situation.
17:48What I only ask for is, in various areas, show your superpower because together, Europe is a strong alliance.
17:58As opposed to the example of Greenland.
18:01Yeah, exactly.
18:02For the example of Greenland, there some nations said, OK, if you're going to put tariffs on us because we
18:08are standing with Greenland and Denmark,
18:11then we are going to put tariffs on you.
18:13And of course, it affected the markets in the US.
18:16And that's why one of the reasons that I think the US administration responded to.
18:26Euronews' Shona Murray there is speaking to the Foreign Minister of Iceland.
18:30Now, here on Euronews, our EU summit coverage is just getting started.
18:34Our reporters will be on the ground all day.
18:36We'll have a live blog all day and night.
18:38And tonight at seven, we'll be bringing you a very special live show from the summit floor hosted by our
18:44Maria today.
18:45Also, don't miss that.
18:45But for more on how the actual summit will unfold today, we can bring in briefly again our Shona Murray,
18:50who's on the arrivals floor for us.
18:53Anyone arrived yet, Shona?
18:54And how will the day proceed?
18:57No, no one arrived yet.
18:59As you can see, it's gotten much, much busier.
19:01EU leaders will start giving their statements to their press.
19:03They'll probably obviously highlight the Iran war, their concerns about the spillover.
19:07Key on the agenda for all of them will be to get the message across that they will try to
19:11do something about spiraling energy prices.
19:13The problem is that EU member states are not agreed about how the EU should proceed in this regard.
19:18Also, we'll have President Zelensky of Ukraine on video call.
19:22He will be putting his point across in relation to the 90 billion euros, but also how Ukraine can help
19:27support the West in tackling Shahid drones.
19:30So it's going to be a long day.
19:31It's going to be rancorous.
19:32It's going to be difficult.
19:32And I'll probably see you here first thing in the morning in the same clothes like before.
19:36You will indeed.
19:37And actually, Shona, this summit was meant to be about competitiveness, but interesting how things have changed.
19:41As I said, stay glued to Euronews.com and Euronews TV for more coverage of that summit.
19:46Thanks for watching.
19:47Take care and see you soon.
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