H.E. Ms Karen Van Vlierberge:

Thank you so much. Indeed, you were referring to the huge amount of work. I did not mention the figure yet but there are still 140 legislative files on the agenda. Luckily, 60 of them are already in the phase of trilogue, that is, the negotiations between Parliament and Council, but there are still 80 other files. We will definitely do our utmost and will be working really hard.

The Chair's remark is very interesting. When our Prime Minister presented the programme to the European Parliament yesterday, he also referred to the upcoming elections in North America.

He said that if 2024 brings us the policy of America first again, Europe will be, more than ever, on its own, as the Deputy referred to. We are not afraid of that. We should not be afraid of this perspective. We should embrace it. As I was saying, it gives us the opportunity to put Europe on a more solid foundation and to be stronger, more sovereign and more self-reliant. We do not have to be afraid of it. Of course it will also be a paradigm shift and we should take that into account but it is also an opportunity for Europe to become a stronger geopolitical union. This is not only with regard to foreign policy but also with regard to energy and migration and the new Commission approach that was launched five years ago. Yes, I think it is a challenge, but for Europe it will also be an opportunity. It will allow us to see how we can strengthen our co-operation on very specific topics such as defence and security. Only two weeks ago Commissioner Breton referred to the talks he had last time in Davos with President Trump when he said that the United States was going to quit NATO. If this is the perspective, we really will be on our own. We can already see what is happening with Ukraine. For the moment the US Congress cannot agree on financing. As I said, whether we like it or not, the world has changed. In one way or another we should deal with it and we should take advantage to make Europe bolder, stronger and more resilient.