08:22Is this a necessity or is this a real friendship?
08:25No, I think first of all it's always been a real friendship.
08:27We're not just discovering it now.
08:28Secondly, it's an addition.
08:31We're not talking that this is against anyone or any country in particular.
08:34But when friends come to us and say, let's do more,
08:37then we will be the first ones to fling open the door.
08:39Just a final point.
08:40You say this is not against anyone.
08:42Nonetheless, there is a concern that the president of the U.S.
08:45could look at this and say, guys, you're teaming up against me.
08:48Do you fear that backlash?
08:49No, we have different trade relationship with different countries.
08:53We have a trade relationship and an agreement with the United States,
08:57and we will intensify our trade relationship with Canada.
08:59No reason for retaliation.
09:00You don't see any reason for retaliation?
09:02No, no, no.
09:03We are equal partners.
09:04We want to deal with each other with equality, with dignity and respect.
09:08Well, President, thank you very much.
09:09Thank you.
09:13And as you can see there, Strasbourg is a hive of activity this week,
09:16with all eyes on both Mark Carney's presence
09:18and, of course, Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union speech yesterday.
09:22The commission president used her moment in the spotlight
09:24to pitch the case for a stronger, more independent Europe
09:27and even called for a new security form for the European Union.
09:31For more on the exact contents of these ideas,
09:33our Maria de Deo spoke to European commissioners responsible for the economy,
09:37trade, climate and defence.
09:39We are already two years in the new European commission's mandate,
09:44and if anything, the urgency of strengthening our security and defence has increased.
09:49As regards NATO, we have been emphasising from the very beginning
09:53that once we started to work on this area of security and defence at the EU level,
09:59which is relatively new, because, obviously, the EU was not doing this,
10:02that we are doing this to complement NATO,
10:05not to compete with NATO, or not to contradict NATO.
10:08There is lots of capacities we need to build up,
10:10because we see the war in Ukraine has been turned into a drone war,
10:16and also Russia is producing, like, millions of drones per year,
10:22so we certainly need to strengthen our drone defence capabilities.
10:27It's clearly underlying of the argumentation we are using
10:32with our Chinese partners.
10:34From the tonality of the speech of the president von der Leyen
10:37is clear then that it will be a big disappointment,
10:40and then the political interest would be to look for the solution through other instruments.
10:47We will fight tooth and nail for every job, for every workplace,
10:51for every company, for every factory,
10:53because we know that the industry is a fabric of European society,
10:59and we know that all the revenue which is generated by our highly competitive industry
11:04is a contribution to the European way of life, to the European social model,
11:11and, therefore, my message to my Chinese partners was that this scope will be on trade.
11:17The fact that Canada and the European Union both feel compelled to take such an extraordinary step,
11:24I think, is a sign of the times we live in.
11:27The world is in turmoil, that many of the rules that we thought were holy and were to be respected,
11:35you know, no longer do, and, therefore, you have to look for allies who share the same values,
11:41have the same outlook, have the same interests in geopolitics, in climate, in the economy, in trade.
11:48The CAC is a plan how to make NATO stronger, because what this, you know, is an European defence architecture.
11:57What it will take care about is how to make Europe much stronger in defence,
12:02and this is what our Transatlantic partners are asking with their concept of NATO 3.0,
12:10where they are asking us, as Europeans, to take primary responsibility.
12:14Peace through strength means that Ukraine needs to be stronger,
12:19and Ukraine can be stronger if we shall increase even that support which we are providing now.
12:26Very successfully, we are implementing so-called to paying support loans, 60 billion,
12:30but it looks like that it's not enough.
12:35And now we can get some more analysis on that State of the Union speech,
12:39and hear what was said and what was not.
12:41For that, I'm joined by our political correspondent, Jorge Librarero, who followed it very closely and blogged it live.
12:47Now, Jorge, yesterday we talked about whether or not Ursula von der Leyen was any good at reading The Room.
12:52How did she do? And will the speech move the needle? Will it make any difference at all?
12:57Can I be honest, or is it too early in the morning?
13:00Be honest.
13:00Okay, I'll be honest. I don't think this speech in particular will move the political needle in a considerable way.
13:07Yes, she continued the topic of European independence that she introduced last year,
13:12but she didn't bring forward any elements that could tangibly push the idea towards a new step.
13:19We also saw headline-making announcements, the associate membership with Canada.
13:25We don't know what it means. It's a legal concept that she basically invented on stage.
13:29And we also saw this idea of the European Security Council and also a coordinating mechanism for hybrid attacks that
13:37immediately raise the risk of duplication with NATO.
13:41So I think her commission needs to answer a lot of questions before we can really judge these ideas.
13:47And what about support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia?
13:50We were expecting some announcements there, but we didn't get them.
13:52Indeed, this caught my attention because the situation inside Ukraine is very dire now with the new wave of escalation
14:00that Russia is launching non-stop drone attacks and also the blockade in the Black Sea.
14:05And she didn't say anything about new sanctions on Russia.
14:09In fact, she said that what we don't necessarily need is new sanctions, but the enforcement of the existing sanctions,
14:16which makes me think that her commission might be running out of fresh ideas or might be afraid of proposing
14:23new sanctions that then the member states might reject.
14:25And then regarding support for Ukraine, we know that Ukraine is facing very important budget deficit.
14:33And this is a problem that Europeans sooner or later will have to address.
14:37And of course, there was no mention about the Russian assets, but this I was expecting.
14:41So what is next now for Ursula von der Leyen?
14:44The speech marks the start of the legislative cycle, right?
14:47So it means that it's time to move beyond the hype and get to work.
14:51Ursula von der Leyen now faces an emergency situation in the energy markets.
14:56We've seen the latest numbers.
14:57Oil and gas are drastically rising because of the latest developments in the Middle East.
15:03European citizens are increasingly feeling the pain and European leaders are increasingly concerned about it.
15:09So I think they're going to be look at Brussels for new solutions.
15:12So keep an eye out on that.
15:14And then, of course, we have the fight over the EU budget.
15:16Von der Leyen needs to convince the leaders to keep the ambition high.
15:20And this is going to be a big task for her.
15:22That's going to be the real fight, Jorge Loredo.
15:24Thank you so much for your analysis.
15:26And now we can actually head back to Strasbourg to our Maria Tadeo, who's speaking to MEPs,
15:30who are reacting, of course, to that speech yesterday and anticipating Mark Carney's speech this morning.
15:35Maria.
15:37Yes, Maeve, we continue with those reactions from the European Parliament.
15:41And now we are joined by David McAllister, who is a German MEP of the European People's Party,
15:45but also the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
15:50You are, in some ways, the voice of this Parliament's foreign policy.
15:54So I want to ask you, to that extent, why do this now?
15:58What's an associate membership?
15:59Do you know what that means?
16:00I'm not entirely sure myself.
16:02Well, I think what an associate membership means still needs to be concretely defined.
16:08But I do understand that the Commission President yesterday wanted to underline that our relationship with Canada is very unique.
16:15Canada is the probably, quote, most European, unquote, country in the world outside Europe.
16:23And we have the trade agreement seat on the one hand.
16:26We have our security and defense partnership on the other hand.
16:29So we have a solid ground.
16:30And now the Commission President wants to take our relationship to the next level with Canada.
16:34So, in your view, is that going to mean a political partnership?
16:39Is this you take the CETA trade agreement and you add on?
16:42Is this something entirely unique?
16:44Mark Carney keeps saying this will be a unique partnership.
16:48When it comes to trade, we have the CETA agreement from the year 2017.
16:51And CETA has delivered concrete results, positive results for Canadian businesses and also for European businesses.
16:58I would like to call on the ten member states in the European Union who still haven't ratified the CETA
17:03agreement,
17:04that they finally now make this step because until now, CETA is only applied provisionally.
17:12And when it comes to security and defense partnership, well, I also need to see room for further cooperation.
17:20For instance, how to have continued support to Ukraine, but also what can we do together to guarantee the security
17:26of the high north in the Arctic?
17:27So there are many fields from raw materials of a cybersecurity to a corporation in the Arctic where Canada and
17:33the European Union can still move closer together.
17:35And you call for the ratification of CETA.
17:38Yeah. And that was my next question, because we see the big difficulties to approve just a part of a
17:42trade deal.
17:43How does the head of the commission, your party, the APP, and the Canadians think they can get this partnership
17:48going?
17:48Because it seems to me they will have many hurdles.
17:51We're trying to understand, is this just politics?
17:54Is this just about creating a moment here because you have to create one because this is politics?
17:59Or ultimately, is this going to manifest in a real partnership? When? By when? What's the timeline?
18:05The CETA agreement is a so-called mixed agreement, which means that you need support ratification of the national parliaments.
18:11And this obviously is taking too long. I'm very open here. It's taking far too long.
18:16I do not understand why some of our member states still haven't ratified CETA.
18:21But 99% of all the CETA rules are being applied anyhow, but they're being applied provisionally.
18:26But the final ratification of the CETA agreement would be a symbolic gesture towards Canada.
18:31That is for one point. But now we want to have, after we have CETA, I would say we need
18:36a kind of a CETA 2.0.
18:38Let's take our economic partnership to the next level. And hopefully this will happen much quicker than until now.
18:45Okay, I have two questions. We're running out of time, but I have to ask you, do you fear retaliation
18:50from the US?
18:51The President of the United States of America said overnight, if this becomes hostile, there will be tariffs on the
18:57EU.
18:58I think if the President of the United States had listened carefully to Ursula von der Leyen's speech,
19:02she would have understood that this is about strengthening the partnership between the European Union and Canada.
19:08It's not against any third country.
19:09And for the UK, is there a way forward to, just briefly, is this now a model for the UK,
19:14Canadian associate membership?
19:16Well, first of all, we need to define what associate membership actually means.
19:20But apart from that, every cooperation format with a third country will always be tailor-made.
19:24Every third country has different interests and also different constitutional obligations to respect.
19:29Well, sir, thank you so much for joining us on Euronews.
19:33Maeve, we continue our coverage looking down to that speech at 11.30 today.
19:36We do indeed. You'll be live from Strasbourg then with your special report.
19:39But that brings this edition of Europe Today to an end.
19:41Thanks for tuning in. See you soon.
19:54We'll see you soon.
20:13Bye.
20:25Bye.
20:44Bye.
20:45Bye.
21:13Bye.
21:22Bye.
21:34Bye.
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