The world needs the US to lead the global fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said, urging President-elect Joe Biden to take on the role after the Donald Trump administration faced acute criticism over its handling of the pandemic.
“This is the first global crisis in which the American leadership has been missing and the world needs American leadership,” Borrell told Reuters in an interview published on Tuesday, citing that the challenges the world faces will require “a lot of cooperation and quite a lot of resources.”
The bloc’s foreign policy chief also stressed the need of rebuilding transatlantic ties after the “Trump era,” a call that was echoed by the Commission’s chief, Ursula von der Leyen during a debate at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Brussels.
Addressing MEPs on Wednesday, hours before Biden was to be sworn in as the next US President, von der Leyen said that the EU is ready for a fresh start with its “oldest and most trusted” partner.
“This new dawn in America is the moment we have been waiting for so long,” the President of the EU Executive said, as she laid out the new “forward-looking” transatlantic agenda of the EU.
“From climate to health, from digitalisation to democracy, these are global challenges that need renewed and improved global cooperation. And the European Union and the United States must lead from the front and bring an alliance of like-minded partners with us,” von der Leyen added.