- 4 minutes ago
Europe Today: Ρούμπιο καλεί την Ευρώπη να ξυπνήσει, κρίσιμη αποστολή ΕΕ στην Κίνα
Οι σχέσεις της Ευρώπης με Κίνα, ΗΠΑ και Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο δοκιμάζονται. Σέφκοβιτς στο Πεκίνο για το εμπόριο, Ρούμπιο ζητά από την Ευρώπη να ξυπνήσει, Λονδίνο εξετάζει επιστροφή στην ΕΕ. Στη Γαλλία, οι φοιτητές επιστρέφουν σήμερα στους δρόμους.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ : http://gr.euronews.com/2026/10/08/europe-today-rubio-urges-europe-to-wake-up-as-eu-trade-chief-begins-key-china-trip
Γίνε συνδρομητής! ! Το euronews είναι διαθέσιμο σε 12 γλώσσες
Οι σχέσεις της Ευρώπης με Κίνα, ΗΠΑ και Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο δοκιμάζονται. Σέφκοβιτς στο Πεκίνο για το εμπόριο, Ρούμπιο ζητά από την Ευρώπη να ξυπνήσει, Λονδίνο εξετάζει επιστροφή στην ΕΕ. Στη Γαλλία, οι φοιτητές επιστρέφουν σήμερα στους δρόμους.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ : http://gr.euronews.com/2026/10/08/europe-today-rubio-urges-europe-to-wake-up-as-eu-trade-chief-begins-key-china-trip
Γίνε συνδρομητής! ! Το euronews είναι διαθέσιμο σε 12 γλώσσες
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NewsTranscript
00:14Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:31Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:30Meanwhile, Brexit is back.
01:31Just a few weeks into the job, the new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham
01:35has launched the idea of a return to the European Union.
01:38We speak exclusively to the UK Minister for European Relations,
01:42Hamish Falconer, who finds himself in Strasbourg this week.
01:46But first to Beijing, where the EU Trade Commissioner,
01:49Maris Setkovic, has arrived for a crucial two-day visit,
01:53seeking to rebalance EU-China relations,
01:55which have become rather lopsided in the past decade.
01:58To understand the high stakes of this trip that comes just days before the EU's October Summit,
02:04we're joined by our political correspondent, Jorge Liberadero.
02:07Jorge, just remind us why the Commissioner for Trade is in China right now.
02:11Look, Maeve, if I were to draw the history of EU-China relations,
02:16I would not draw a straight line.
02:18I would draw a circle, because that's what we've been running around for these past 10 years.
02:24Maris Setkovic now wants to break this circle, and what's inside of it?
02:27We know the issues.
02:29Dumping, state subsidies, market restrictions,
02:32for technological transfer, supply chain dependencies, and currency manipulation.
02:37These are issues that have been unaddressed for years,
02:40and that now have resulted in a €1 billion deficit per day.
02:46€1 billion per day, I have to say that.
02:48Brussels considers the situation unsustainable.
02:52And it's a situation that actually threatens the survival of our industry and our prosperity,
02:57so something needs to change.
02:59This is why Maris Setkovic has engaged in these negotiations with China,
03:04and has imposed a deadline for this month to obtain the first tangible results.
03:09But now he's in Beijing to find out if these results will appear.
03:13And that's the question.
03:14Will he bring back these tangible results?
03:16He could succeed, he could fail.
03:17What happens when he gets back?
03:19There's a sequence of events, right?
03:21So Maris Setkovic is now in Beijing.
03:23He's going to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao.
03:26Then he's coming back to Brussels.
03:27He's going to meet his boss, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
03:31Then on Sunday, there's an extraordinary meeting of ambassadors.
03:34The Commission is going to brief them.
03:36Then ambassadors will brief their own capitals.
03:39And then next week, here in Brussels, EU leaders will meet,
03:42and they will have to decide if these results brought back by Setkovic
03:46are enough to continue the dialogue, or if it's time to take action.
03:51And you mentioned EU leaders, of course, meeting next week in Brussels.
03:53They've been becoming rather hawkish when it comes to China.
03:56We've seen a letter by Friedrich Merz, and also by Emmanuel Macron.
04:00Could we be on the brink of a trade war, Jorge?
04:02This letter, which I have here, by the way, is simply remarkable, I have to say, for at least
04:08two reasons.
04:09The first one is that one of the main factors that have held back the Commission's policy
04:14on China is Germany, particularly the German industry, who have been very afraid of retaliation
04:20from Beijing.
04:21Now Berlin has concluded that the damage inflicted by China is greater than the commercial
04:27opportunities presented by China.
04:29And then the second reason is the fact that this letter proposes to create a new instrument
04:36that could immediately cut off China from the European market if the situation continues
04:41to be unsustainable, as it is now.
04:43So the very fact that this radical option is put on paper and is signed by the President
04:49of France and the Chancellor of Germany shows you the exasperation and the desperation that
04:55Europeans have reached.
04:56The stakes couldn't be higher.
04:58Couldn't be higher.
04:58Exactly.
04:59We'll read all your reporting on yournews.com.
05:01Thank you so much for that.
05:02But now, moving on, students in France are bracing for another major day of protests after
05:08trade unions joined them in demonstrations that saw around 250,000 people from all across
05:14the country on Tuesday.
05:15For the latest, we can head over to Paris and bring in our correspondent, Estelle Nilsen-Julien,
05:20who's standing in front of a very rowdy school this morning.
05:23And we can see school goers back on the streets today, just two days after that major demonstration.
05:29They're clearly still not satisfied, Estelle.
05:33Yes, so students and unions will be back on the streets today in Paris and across the country
05:39because they say the government is not listening to them.
05:42As you can see, I'm outside a secondary school in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
05:47And students got here very early.
05:49I've been in the streets since half six and I've seen students drag bins, barriers,
05:54many of them wearing face masks to cover their faces.
05:58And in terms of what the unions and teaching unions are calling for, they are urging the
06:03government to reverse some of its budget proposals, including things like pay freezes for public
06:10sector workers.
06:11And how has the government reacted?
06:14Have they made any concessions?
06:17Well, yesterday, Luc Arnoux, the French prime minister, addressed the nation.
06:21And he made a point of saying that police officers and law enforcement officers had not been
06:28instructed to attack or have any acts of violence towards children.
06:34This comes amid intense scrutiny of police methods.
06:37And we've seen some shocking cases where children were hurt in instances of police brutality.
06:45But the government has also launched a mass online consultation this week, which has already
06:50gathered 40,000 signatures.
06:53And the prime minister said that the findings of this consultation would be used to inform
06:58any possible policy changes.
07:01And Estelle, how long could these protests go on for?
07:06How long?
07:07I can't tell you exactly, but I was just speaking to some students a few minutes ago who told
07:11me they would be on the streets for as long as it takes.
07:15They told me they were here because they felt their school days were too long and that they
07:19wanted more time outside of school for their personal life.
07:23Experts I spoke to, though, have told me that these kinds of social movements tend to dissipate
07:28in school holidays and France has a half term coming up in the coming weeks.
07:34So that could be a factor which could make things slow down a little bit.
07:38OK, Estelle, Nyssel, Julianne, thank you so much for your live broadcast there from the
07:42capital of France, from Paris.
07:44But now we can head to Athens, where the Secretary of State from the US, Marco Rubio, has arrived
07:49for the sixth round of the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue.
07:52Up for discussion, security, defence and energy.
07:55And speaking just last night in Athens, Marco Rubio said Europe needs to, quote, wake
08:00up from its long slumber.
08:01For more, we can head over to Athens and bring in our correspondent, Faye de Clary.
08:06Good morning, Faye.
08:07So quite an America first speech last night with quite a dig at Europeans to spend more
08:12on defence.
08:13Tell us more.
08:16Good morning, Maeve.
08:17Marco Rubio is calling again on European countries to take on a greater responsibility
08:22for defending their own defence.
08:25And he singled out Greece as an example.
08:27Speaking yesterday, alongside the Greek foreign minister, Yorgo Supergiara-Petritis, he praised
08:33Greece because the country is about to spend 5% of its GDP this year on defence with 3.5
08:42%
08:42solely on core defence.
08:45Speaking under the Parthenon in the afternoon, Rubio linked the war in Ukraine, the situation
08:52in the Middle East, the situation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz with a greater
08:58need of Europe to start defending more the continent and spending more on defence.
09:04and he warned Europe, as you said, to wake from its long slumber and strengthen both
09:11its defence and industrial base.
09:14And Faye, the trip comes during quite a scandalous controversy, if you like, over the US ambassador
09:19to Greece.
09:19Tell us more about that.
09:22Yes, that was one of the highlights of the visit, I would say.
09:26Today, an American colleague asked you in the Prince Conference, Marco Rubio, about the
09:32Wall Street Journal report concerning the American ambassador, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
09:38According to the Wall Street Journal, some weeks ago, in March, during a dinner with Greek
09:44and American officials, Kimberly Guilfoyle referred to the fall of Romania's government, saying allegedly
09:52that the United States had something implying better, that the United States had something
09:58to do with it, and saying, allegedly again, that the United States can do that with all
10:03the governments, even in Greece.
10:05As you can understand, this caused quite a noise here in Athens and, of course, in Bucharest
10:11for some days.
10:13And some analysts even linked the timing of the visit to this situation.
10:18But Marco Rubio, yesterday, rejected all these allegations.
10:24He said that they were false.
10:26And he gave full support to the American ambassador in Greece, saying that she's doing her job
10:33great.
10:34OK, Fado Clary, thank you so much for that live broadcast there from Athens this morning.
10:39And moving on now, Brexit is back on the political agenda after the UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham,
10:45who's actually in Berlin today, said he would weigh a range of options for the future relationship
10:50with the European Union, including the possibility of rejoining.
10:54Intense talks on resettling the relationship between both sides continue ahead of a summit
10:59expected to take place here in Brussels next month.
11:02Euronews' Marit Gwynn spoke to the UK Minister for European Relations, that's Hamish Falconer,
11:07who's actually in Strasbourg this week.
11:08And she began by asking him if Andy Burnham's remarks had radically changed his mandate
11:14as the UK's chief negotiator with Brussels.
11:17My Prime Minister set out a very ambitious approach last week.
11:22He believes that the current relationship that we have is not good enough.
11:26And I totally share that.
11:27And that's what I've been discussing with colleagues today.
11:29I've seen my counterpart, the Commissioner Sechevich, here, as well as many colleagues in
11:34in the European Parliament.
11:36I am ambitious, as is the Prime Minister, to go further and faster with the European Union.
11:43We are eternal neighbours.
11:45We have real shared interests.
11:47And we're looking at this relationship with a real range of determination and ambition.
11:53What does that mean, then, Minister, for this UK EU summit that we're expecting as soon as November?
11:58Do you expect to simply sign off on the deals negotiated by the previous government of Keir Starmer?
12:04Or can we expect more?
12:06And can we expect Burnham to lay out a more long-term vision in November?
12:12So, we haven't yet confirmed the date of the summit, but we hope to be able to do so soon.
12:17I want the most ambitious possible package.
12:19Of course, we've been conducting negotiations on a range of issues, including food, electricity
12:26trading standards, youth mobility.
12:29But we want to go further and faster, as I said earlier.
12:33And so, I'm not going to get too drawn into the detail of the negotiations.
12:36All I'll say is there's a real shared sense, both between me and my colleagues here, of a
12:43desire to bring Britain back closer to the European Union and be as ambitious as we possibly can.
12:48And in answer to your specific question, yes, I expect that my Prime Minister will set out
12:53in more detail some of the views that he talked about in our conference last week around the time of
13:00the summer.
13:01I appreciate you can't answer the details of these negotiations, but I want to ask you about
13:06Made in Europe, because I understand that for your government, the UK's inclusion in the
13:11Made in Europe industrial policy in order to avoid UK industries from being shut off the European market
13:17is a major priority.
13:20Do you see that a deal on that could be close?
13:23Look, I think it's worth saying at the outset that the industries that have lobbied me with
13:28the most enthusiasm are European industries.
13:32And there's such a clear sense that the European industrial base is shared.
13:37We're the second largest export market for the EU.
13:41We're the largest recipient of new EU vehicles, many of which are partially constructed in the UK.
13:48It would not be in either of our interests to see new barriers arising in our economic relations.
13:55It is so strongly in EU and UK interests that the existing strong arrangements that we have are sustained.
14:02And in terms of the concessions that you're willing to make in order to gain access and
14:07be included in that policy, you know, how far are you willing to go?
14:11So I think, as I said, I don't want to talk too much about the detail of the negotiations,
14:15but just in general, we've got very clear legally binding arrangements which govern the way in
14:21which the UK and EU markets are so closely integrated.
14:24That's the TCA that provides strong protections to both sides on rules of origin and all sorts of other things.
14:31It is the underpinning of a really important shared industrial base.
14:36If we were to fracture that industrial base, that would simply mean a weaker Europe, both in the UK and
14:42in the EU.
14:43So I don't think talking about sort of concessions is quite the right place to start.
14:47This is a shared European industrial base.
14:49We face shared common challenges, which I've been very pleased to discuss for so many of my counterparts here today.
14:56I think it is vital that we don't do things to make European industry weaker.
15:04And staying in Strasbourg, MEPs from the left wing of the European Parliament have come up with a new proposal.
15:11They want to slash their net salaries in half from €8,800 per month to €4,400.
15:18For more, we can head over to Strasbourg and speak to Marc Bottenga, Belgian MEP from the left and actually
15:23one of the authors of this proposal.
15:25Good morning, Marc. Thanks for joining us. Tell us more about your idea here.
15:31Well, the idea is very, I mean, as you know, that the salaries for members of the European Parliament, also
15:36members of the Commission, are extremely generous.
15:38You know, they can go up to €13,000, €14,000 a month easily without even the additional allowances.
15:44And so the question here is, in a situation in which many people struggle to make it to the end
15:49of the month,
15:49perhaps it is time to say, listen, we're going to cut the salaries a little bit in order to bring
15:54them down to earth
15:54and in order for MEPs to, you know, realise perhaps a little bit more what the regular European is going
16:01through.
16:01But I'm sure this proposal would face a lot of opposition there in the Parliament among MEPs.
16:06So what can you actually really change?
16:11Well, I think it's important to put that discussion out there.
16:14That's the first thing.
16:15Obviously, you know, people are shouting populism.
16:18But I think it's very important that when, also for the outside, when people see that, you know,
16:23members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, they're very happy to discuss anything.
16:27Like they can discuss cutting the European social funds, the cohesion funds, the regional funds, whatsoever.
16:32All of this can be discussed.
16:33But when it's about themselves, when it is about, you know, their own privileges, their own salaries,
16:38then suddenly, oh, no, this cannot even be discussed.
16:40So I think it's good to put that out there, especially today when we have this energy crisis,
16:44you know, when many of us are afraid to go actually, you know, go up, get your fuel, do your
16:51groceries and whatever.
16:53So I think that would be a really important signal.
16:55And I've seen some critics say this is a populist stunt here.
16:57What would you say to them?
17:02Well, you know, I would say why haven't they is the only thing, the only thing they're stressed about is
17:07their own salary,
17:08their own privilege.
17:08For the rest, they're very happy to discuss anything, as I said.
17:11Secondly, I do believe that the way you live influences the way you vote and the kind of proposals you
17:16make.
17:16You know, if you yourself have no clue what it means to be scared to, you know, pay for fuel,
17:23to pay for groceries whatsoever,
17:25you know, this is going to have an impact on the priorities and on the proposals you're going to make
17:30in Parliament
17:31or at the level of the European Commission.
17:33You know, you're not going to consider the energy crisis terribly horrible if you don't feel it yourself a little
17:39bit, at least, you know.
17:40So in this sense, I would say, you know, maybe it's time for you to get out of your bubble
17:45and realize what's going on outside.
17:47And if you want to lead by example, of course, why stop at the salaries?
17:50As you said, MEPs also get big allowances.
17:52Should they be looked at too?
17:57Oh, absolutely.
17:58I think there's a number of things we should be looking at.
18:01I mean, we've got different proposals as well.
18:02There's also the transitional allowance.
18:04So when MEPs leave Parliament, they get this transitional allowance.
18:07And, you know, we'd say, why don't you just integrate, you know, national unemployment schemes?
18:11Because there's a lot of pressure on unemployment schemes at national levels, also pushed by politicians.
18:17But then they themselves are exempt from those schemes.
18:20So I think there's a number of things that we can tackle.
18:23Also on the additional allowances, why should that be just a fixed amount?
18:27Shouldn't that be linked to what you're actually spending?
18:29You know, all of these matters are on the table and need to be put on the table.
18:33And that's what we're doing right now, because we're saying it's time to burst this bubble a little bit.
18:38People are angry outside and they're angry at decisions that have been made in this parliament and by this commission.
18:43And in order to break away with that, to do away with that, sorry, I think this is a good
18:49first step.
18:49Well, people are certainly angry.
18:51Mark Patengo, we see protests from Madrid to Paris.
18:54And, of course, Brussels bracing itself tomorrow for a national strike.
18:57Thank you so much for your time this morning and for joining us on Europe Today.
19:01That does bring this Thursday's edition of Europe Today, though, to an end.
19:05Do reach out to us if you have any comments or remarks on any of the stories that we are
19:10covering here for you.
19:11And, of course, you can also visit euronews.com for more longer reads or download our apps or visit our
19:16social medias.
19:17But, as always, thank you so much for starting your morning with us.
19:20Take care and stay with us here on Euronews.
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