EU Commission chief to meet US President Biden in Washington

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday will meet with US President Joe Biden in Washington, the EU has announced.

Von der Leyen has already arrived in the US and is expected to return to Brussels on Thursday, commission spokesperson Dana Spinant told reporters on Monday.

Spinant said that details of the leaders’ talks have yet to be confirmed but implied that they would follow up on their meetings during last month’s G20 summit in Rome and the ongoing UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow as well as the fight against COVID-19 plus trade relations.

On Oct. 31, Biden and von der Leyen agreed to solve a dispute over the steel and aluminum trade and mutually lift retaliatory tariffs in place since 2018.

They also decided to set up a global arrangement over the next two years to make the steel and aluminum industry more sustainable and climate-friendly.

The initiative combatting “dirty” production mainly aims at making China comply with environmental and competition standards.

On Nov. 2, the EU and US launched the Global Methane Pledge to reduce emissions of the gas to help limit global warming to 1.5C.

In September, the EU and US also committed to raising the level of global vaccination aiming at a 70% worldwide vaccination by next year.​​​​​​​