President-Elect Joe Biden’s Pandemic Response Plans

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And what has been the effect of America absent from the field in that way?

FEDERICA MOGHERINI, FORMER FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF, EUROPEAN UNION: But, in one sense, on one side, Europe has grown up. I think we Europeans realized that even, if America is still our best friend and ally, it’s remained so because societies are bound together and the ties are so deep that you cannot really overrule them, even if you have an administration that doesn’t look favorable towards the European Union. But the feeling has been in these four years that we moved from cooperation by default with the Americans, with the United States, to a situation, a place where Europeans have to look for different partners on different issues and built alliances beyond the normal transatlantic one. I think that, today, we will have to face a situation where probably we will continue not to agree on every single file, and this is normal. This is even healthy, I think. This gives us some space also for autonomy in the European Union. But I think that, on the main point, the Europeans and the Americans will be back together again, which is the support to the cooperative multilateral approach on the world stage.

AMANPOUR: What do you think is the most important thing that you would hope the new president would do? He’s already said that he’s going to, first day in office, write a letter to the U.N. to put America back into the Paris climate accord, that. Then there’s the Iran nuclear deal. There’s committing again to NATO. What is the most important thing, do you think, right now?

MOGHERINI: Well, I think the climate change one is probably the most pressing one. It’s — for us, Europeans, it’s very clear it’s also a security challenge. I would say — and you might be surprised for that — the second place, I would place the attention to bringing equality into America, into society, to guarantee equal rights to all. Look back at the health care system, because, if a country like America is weakened in its social fabric, it’s the entire world, I think, that is damaged. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing the new administration paying a different kind of attention to American citizens and the American society, because we cherish the well-being of our friends and partners across the Atlantic. And I know that it has been hard four years for so many Americans. There’s been a suffering for us Europeans as well to see that great democracy neglecting and denying so many of its fundamental values. I would hope to see that back again. And I’m sure that this would be a number one priority for the Biden administration.