MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2020) The European Union is following the democratic process in the United States and, given lessons learned from COVID-19, counts on friendship and cooperation regardless of who ends up in power after the presidential election, European Parliament President David Sassoli said on Friday.
Sassoli spoke at a Special European Council in Brussels, where the EU leaders gathered in person for a two-day summit to discuss economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic and the bloc's long-term budget for the next seven years.
"We always look with great friendship to our relationship with the United States. It doesn't distract from our point of view, which is to develop multilateralism. And of course, we would want to have all the more opportunities for friendship and cooperation with the United States. But at this time I believe that the European Union, our governments and our institutions, must be clear about the function they are given," Sassoli said.
According to Sassoli, this stage of the pandemic elevated the "sense of recovery and cooperation" in fields where the positions of Brussels and Washington previously went apart. He specifically cited the Green Deal and the fight against climate change, adding that Europe and the US "can say a lot more together."
"Of course, that is within everyone's individual freedom to do and it is up to what the current administration and the future administration will do. We are, of course, watching the democratic process in the United States, but we are convinced that the lesson of COVID is that the more cooperation is developed, the more citizens will be protected," Sassoli said.
The European Parliament head also referenced the Second World War to recall how Europe had to borrow money from abroad, including from the US, to be able to advance post-war economic recovery. He said Europe must now use European money to recover the economy after the pandemic.
Last November, the US, one of the biggest economies and the country responsible for nearly 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officially informed the United Nations of its plans to exit the Paris Agreement on climate change. The withdrawal is expected to take effect on November 4, the next day after the US presidential election.
The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 with the ambitious aim to make all nations join efforts toward a common cause of combating climate change. Its most well-known premise is to try to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to ideally pursue an even lower limit of 1.5 degrees. The treaty has no compliance mechanism.
