Europeans are convinced that the arrival of Joe Biden as President of the United States next January will give a new impetus to multilateralism to tackle global challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
The G20 summit, which will be held by videoconference on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian Presidency, “ could mark a new beginning for global cooperation”, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday 20 November. She welcomed the fact that Joe Biden’s team “has already committed itself to increasing international cooperation, including on health issues”.
According to the European leader, the WHO will have to play a leading role in the response to the current pandemic. Moreover, only international cooperation will be able to guarantee the supply of Covid-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries through the COVAX mechanism, to which the European Union and some Member States are contributing EUR 870 million (see EUROPE 12600/25). The international community, von der Leyen stressed, will have the task of laying the groundwork for strengthening “global health security”, a central topic of the international conference that Italy will organise in 2021.
On this point, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, reiterated the idea of negotiating “an international treaty on pandemics” which should make it possible to better prevent these phenomena and to react more rapidly and in a more coordinated manner when they materialise, with the WHO as the central actor.
Climate. The climate is another global challenge that Europeans believe requires multilateral action.
“Last year, the United States broke the consensus. I am happy to see that they support the draft summit conclusions”, said Mrs von der Leyen.
At the Osaka summit in July 2019, 19 countries confirmed their commitment to implement the Paris Climate Accord in its entirety, thus isolating the United States led by Donald Trump (see EUROPE 12286/6).
Mrs von der Leyen welcomed the fact that more than half of the G20 countries have announced a climate-neutral target, mentioning “Japan, China, South Korea and South Africa”. Economic growth must now be decoupled from resource exploitation, she added, advocating a Paris Accord-style agreement to preserve biodiversity at COP15 in Kunming in 2021.
Trade. On trade issues, Mr Michel recalled the urgent need to develop more binding trade agreements in terms of environmental standards. In the same vein, he mentioned the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to avoid carbon leakage. “We will not accept under-regulated goods competing unfairly with European products”, he said.
The European Commission will present a legislative initiative to this effect in the second quarter of 2021.
Charles Michel also referred to the current lack of European standards governing “green bonds”. In his view, the G20 should take up the issue, just as the EU is doing. The Commission has announced a specific legislative proposal for the second quarter of 2021.
Development aid. Referring to the action taken by the international community to tackle the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, the two European leaders also welcomed the steps taken by the G20 Finance Ministers and the Paris Club to suspend the servicing of the public debt of 73 eligible non-Member States until the summer of 2021 (see EUROPE 12602/5).
“The G20 moratorium may need to be extended beyond mid-2021”, said Michel, who is convinced that “further debt relief is needed”.
Finally, when asked about the poor performance of the G20 Summit host country in terms of respect for human rights, the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission drew a distinction between discussions held in a multilateral framework and bilateral dialogue. The G20 summit has a specific agenda, while the issue of human rights, “including women’s rights”, is being addressed bilaterally with Saudi Arabia, von der Leyen said. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Léa Marchal)