you see your making a difference immediately. ladies and gentlemen, what is being discussed here today is altima key about us, our prosperity, our economy, our security, our ability to make good on europe and during promise of peace. all values do not change the universal. but because the world is changing, we have to adapt the way we act. we need a europe that is more pragmatic, more focused, more determined, one bedroom, counter it's stripe, one bedroom leverage. it's enormous strength and power. and one that is standing by you praying and it sparkles and there's a lot that these fuel can do. and so it will rise to the moment. thank you very

much. and long lived here in union commission c, addressing the phoenix security conference. if you're just joining us, we're bringing lives by some coverage of the munich security conference. my name, you will just going to listen into a little bit of the q and a is coming up. now with the european commission president, you are running a little bit behind schedule and we have the vice president's also wasting fits. i'm really looking forward to speaking with you. i do meet a very consequential speech that for several days in uniquely to subset it's time to get serious about european defense. will it be different this time? absolutely, because it isn't our own interest and we have the experience of no, almost 3 years of an atrocious russian russian war in ukraine basically at our

borders. and this is only one of the challenges we see. so it's absolutely clear, and it is this mentality of urgency that i was asking full that we have to develop and therefore step up defense we have for too long. i mean the last 2 decades kind of outsourced defense and security or i'm the invested in it. and now we see that there is an enormous gap that we have to close. and therefore us together as europeans, we have to step up. and we have to make these investments because it's of our security that we're doing, this is where that is necessary. what do you think that should be? i mean, do you agree with president trump that it should be 5 percent steel flies is important that you close our capability gaps and as a process, a nature that has defined what the capability gaps are. so i'm spending must increase without any question, but important is that we get the right couple abilities for the investment that we

are doing. and therefore the feeling these investment gaps. this must be our goal as rapid as possible with a non some standards of nature. because for me it's very important that we do that . yeah, absolutely complimentary with nature. we need each other. and therefore, i propose to flexible lies the possibility of the member states. what's the investment in defense is concerned even if they have fiscal constrains. with this escape clause, this opens the door for target li, investing more in defense. so this is individual for each member state. then we have to look at big projects of common european interest. like advanced air defense, for example, which no member state can do on its own. but we need it all together. then there's a point i have not mentioned here, but this is speaking with our bands. the promotional band,

selecting your pin investment bank, that to use to not invest in defense now is changing the lending practices. and of course, we have also to speak with our big private banks that were hiding because behind the b for too long. also to modernize ended up there are lending practices, we've only got a couple of minutes left, but you crane clearly won't need security. and that is it just been working a lot of coverage of on your there's from the munich security conference where the president of the european commission, or sort of underline, has been addressing the audience. they're participating in a little bit of q and a after delivering her speech. she was a close that up by saying the to europe is, is trying to close the capability gaps when we're dealing with security. and dodging the question about whether europe should be spending 5 percent on it's on his defense on his defense anyway with us on location, they're also listening to that speech. we have nina, houses are cheap,

political correspondent, nina. you listen to what the european commission president or some of the on the line had to say, what was your impression, your take away? i thought the 1st question by the gentlest interviewing her after a speech was a very important question. for years now, we've had the europeans, have understood that they need to do more. what is going to be different this time? unfortunately, i was in to convince what's left on the lines responds. and then you have to look at the details m. as you said, the 5 percent c dogs, the question somewhat, but again terry, that is also something with as a debate and the security policy cycles. do we need to talk about percentages of g d p? really? when it comes to how much we're doing in terms of defense investment or should we look at the global sum of money that the country is investing and what kind of

investment is not more important. so i believe some politicians trying to dodge the question about whether or not their countries will actually put 5 to send to the table or not because they know they con finance it. but other people are also saying it's not the right measure any way. and it's largely symbolic, so you have to, to 0 side if you will. and, but it says you was up on the line said that the european countries need more flexibility when it comes to just how they can invest in depends. she says, we have to acknowledge that we all in the new prices and whether you are paying union did off to the cobra, tends to make was that they lose and fiscal rules. essentially, they made it possible for europe in countries to take up that additional debt that is otherwise banned by countries. constitutions, because they want to european countries to be able to help their own economies. and

hope that people is on the line sees the situation right now. with russia as well going on for 3 years now almost to the day as another such crisis dot warren, small fiscal flexibility. of course, we're just waiting for j events to address the meaning security conference to us president he's his speech. there is a frontier in the drive by the way, terry. okay, so we'll be cutting over to that very, very quickly. i'm sure i just wanted to ask you in the meantime, nina, this munich security conference this year is happening at a critical time with trump back in the presidency in the white house. and also just days before germany is about to hold another general election, a snap election unexpected. what's the atmosphere? what's the news there? i've spoken to a couple of people now who go to munich security conference every year and they've

done sorry for the last 20 years or so. and they tell me that it is something that they haven't experienced before because it serves k of 6. and a lot of it has to do with the quick announcements made by the us. and the, the, essentially, the, the lack of time the europeans have to react to news from washington. so i think the mood is them is divided is definitely very, very 103010. but again, this is a meeting of, well leaders and especially western leaders. so every time it is tense but this time around, you've got a new administration in place where people are asking themselves, is it strategy or do they just need to get settled in their offices? but it is definitely causing a lot of chaos. thanks to all the nina. thank you very much. we're going to cut back now live to the stage. the main stage they're estimating through the conference were jenny, best us, vice president is preparing to deliver his remarks. he's just being introduced. i

understand by the chairman of the, of the munich security conference plus listing and there's you there. yes, i wanted to, to talk about today is of course, our shared values. and, you know, it's, it's great to be back in germany as, as you heard earlier. i was here last year as united states senator, i saw a foreign minister excuse me for the secretary, david lamby. and joe, for both of us last year had different jobs and we have now. but now it's time for all of our countries, for all of those who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples. so use it wisely to improve their lives. and i want to say that, you know, i was fortunate in my time here to spend some time outside the walls of this conference over the last 24 hours. and i've been so impressed by the hospitality of the people, even as course, as they're reeling from yesterday's horrendous attack. and the 1st time i was ever in munich was with it was with my wife actually who's here with me today. i'm on

a personal trip and i've always loved the city of munich, and i've always loved its people. and i just want to say that we're very moved in our thoughts and prayers are with munich. and everybody affected by the evil and inflicted on this beautiful community we're thinking about you were praying for you and we will certainly be rooting for you in the days and weeks to come. so i hope that's not the last bit of applause that i get, but we, we gather at this conference of course to discuss security. and normally we mean threats to our external security. i see milly, many great military leaders gathered here today. but while the trumpeting registration is very concerned with european security and believes that we can book come to a reasonable settlement between russia and ukraine. and we also believe that it's important in the coming years for europe to step up in

a big way to provide for its own defense. the threats that i worry the most about visa, the europe, is not russia. it's not china, it's not any other external actor. and what i worry about is the threat from within the retreats of europe, from some of its most fundamental values value shared with the united states of america. style struck that of a former european commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the romanian government had just an old and entire election. he warned that if things don't go to plan, the very same thing could happen in germany too. now these cavaliers statements are shocking to american ears. for years. we've been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. everything from our ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as

a defense of democracy. but when we see your pin courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel weathers, we all to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. and i say our selves because i fundamentally believe that we're on the same team. we must do more than talk about democratic values. we must live them. now within living memory of many of you in this room, the cold war positions defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. and consider beside in that fight that censored this, it is that close churches that canceled elections where they the good guys, certainly not. and thank god they lost the cold war. they lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty. the freedom to surprise to make mistakes, to advance, to build. as it turns out,

you can't mandate innovation or creative any, just as you can't force people what to think, what to feel or what to believe and we believe those things are certainly connected . and unfortunately, when i look at your up today, it's sometimes not so clear what happens to some of the cold war's winters. i looked at brussels, we're, you, commission commissars, warrant citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest. the moment they spot, what they've judge to be, quote, hateful content for this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti feminist comments online as part of quote, combating massage any on the internet. a day of action. i looked at sweden or 2 weeks ago, the government convicted a christian activist for participating in korean burnings that resulted in his

friend's murder. and as a judge, in his case showing we noted sweden's laws to supposedly protect free expression, do not, in fact, grants. and i'm quoting a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the groups that holds that belief. and perhaps most concerning lee, i look to are very dear friends, the united kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience right says place the basic liberties of religious britons in particular, in the cross hairs. a little over 2 years ago, the british government charged adam smith connor, of 51 year old physio therapist, and an army veteran with ve, heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic, and silently praying for 3 minutes. not instructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own staff. diverse law enforcement spotted him and

demanded to know what he was praying for. adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son. he and his former girlfriend had a boarded years before. now the officers were not moved. adam was found guilty of breaking the government's new buffer zones law, which criminalize the silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person's decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. he was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds and legal costs to the prosecution. i wish i could say that this was a fluke, a one off crazy example of a badly written law being acted against a single person. but no. this last october, just a few months ago, the scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within. so called safe access of warning them, but even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.

naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime in britain and across europe. free speech i fear is in retreat. and in the interest of comedy's my friends, but also in the interest of truce, i will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to sensor so called misinformation misinformation like, for example, the idea that corona virus had likely wait for weeks from a laboratory in china. our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dare to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth. so i come here today, not just with an observation, but with an offer it just as the by the ministration seem desperate to silence people for speaking their minds. so the trump administration will do precisely the

opposite. and i hope that we can work together on that in washington. there is a new sheriff in town and under donald trump's leadership. we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square. agree or disagree of the now we're at the point of course that the situation has gotten so bad that this december remote romania straight up, canceled the results of a presidential election based on the funds, the suspicions of an intelligence agency. and a norm as pressure from its continental neighbors. now, as i understand that the argument was that russian, this information had infected the romanian elections. but i'd ask my european friends to have some perspective. you can believe it's wrong for russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. we certainly do. you can

condemn it on the world stage even. but if your democracy can be destroyed with a few $100000.00 of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with. now the good news is that i happen to think you're democracies are substantially less brittle than many people, apparently fear. and i really do believe that allowing our citizens to speak their mind will make them stronger. still, which of course brings us back to munich, where the organizers of this very conference have banned law makers, representing populace parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations. now again, we don't have to agree with everything or anything that people say, but when people represent, when the political leaders represent an important constituency, it isn't incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them or not. so

many of us on the other side of the atlantic, it looks more and more like old and troops, interest hiding behind the ugly sylvia. their words like misinformation and this information who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, god forbid, vote a different way or even worse when in election. now this is a security conference, and i'm sure you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you attend to increase defense spending over the next few years in line with some new target. and that's great, because as president trump has made abundantly clear, he believes that our european friends must play a bigger role in the future of this cotton that we don't think you hear this term a burden sharing. but we think it's an important part of being in a shared alliance together that the european step up while america focuses on areas

of the world that are in great danger. but let me also ask you, how will you even begin to think through the kinds of budgeting questions, if we don't know what it is that we're defending in the 1st place. i've heard a lot already in my conversations that i've had many, many great conversations with many people gathered here in this room. i've heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from. and of course that's important . but what seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly i think to many of the citizens of europe is what exactly it is, but you're defending yourselves for. what is the positive vision that animates the shared security compact? that we all believe is so important? and i believe deeply that there is no security. if you're afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your very own people in europe faces many challenges

for the crisis this continent faces right now the crisis i believe we all face together is one of our own making. if you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing america can do for you, nor for that matter. is there anything that you can do for the american people who elected me and elected president trump? you need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming years that we learned nothing. that fin mandates produce unstable results. but there is so much of value that can be accomplished with a kind of democratic mandate that i think will come from being more responsive to the voices of your citizens. if you're going to enjoy competitive economies, if you're going to enjoy affordable energy and secure supply chains, then you need mandates to govern because you have to make difficult choices to

enjoy all of these things. and of course, we know that very well in america. you cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail. whether that's the leader of the opposition, a humble question frank, in our own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society. and of all the pressings, challenges that the nations represented to your face. i believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration. today, almost one and 5 people living in this country moved here from abroad. that is, of course, in all time high because a similar number, by the way, in the united states. also, in all time high, the number of immigrants who entered the u from non e u countries doubled between 20212022 alone. and of course has gotten much higher since. and we know the situation. it didn't materialize in

a vacuum. it's the result of a series of conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent and others across the world. over the span of a decade. we saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city . and of course, i can't bring it up again without thinking about the terrible victims who had a beautiful winter day in munich ruins. our thoughts and prayers are with them and will remain with them. but why does this happen in the 1st place? it's a terrible story, but it's one we've heard way too many times in europe and unfortunately too many times in the united states as well. and asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid twenties, already known to police, rams, a car into a crowd, and shatters a community. how many times must we suffer? these are following setbacks before we change course in. take our shared

civilization in a new direction or no folder on this cotton that went through the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of undivided immigrants. but you know what they did vote for in england. they voted for breakfast and agree or disagree. they voted for it and more and more all over europe, their voting for political leaders who promised to put an end to out of control migration. now i happen to agree with a lot of these concerns, but you don't have to agree with me. i just think that people care about their homes, they care about their dreams, they care about their safety and their capacity to provide for themselves and their children. and they're smart. i think this is one of the most important things i've learned in my brief time and politics. contrary to what you might hear, a couple mountains over in davos, the citizens of all of our nations don't generally think of themselves as educated animals or as interchangeable colleagues of

a global economy. and it's hardly surprising that they don't want to be shuffled about or relentlessly ignored by their leaders. it is a business of democracy to adjudicate these big questions at the ballot box. i believe it dismissing people dismissing their concerns or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting peach people out of the political process protects nothing. in fact, it is the most sure fire way to destroy democracy and speaking of, and expressing opinions is it election interference. even when people express views outside your own country. and even when those people are very influential and trust me, i say this with all humor. if american democracy can survive 10 years of gratitude, bloomberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of you on musk. but what german democracy,

what no democracy, american, german, or european will survive, is telling millions of owners that their thoughts and concerns their aspirations, their please for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered democracy. russ, on the secret principle, that the voice of the people matters. there is no room for firewalls. you either uphold the principal or you don't. your opinions, the people have a voice. european leaders have a choice and my strong belief is that we do not need to be afraid of the future. you can embrace what your people tell you, even when it's surprising, even when you don't agree. and if you do so, you can face the future with certain dean, with confidence, knowing that the nation stands behind each of you. and that to me, is the great magic of democracy. it's not in the stone. buildings are beautiful

hotels. it's not even in the great institutions that we have built together as a shared society to believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and has a voice. and if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our most successful fights will secure very little. or has pope john paul the 2nd. in my view, one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other one said, do not be afraid. we shouldn't be afraid of our people even when they express views that disagree with their leadership. thank you all. good luck to all of you. god bless you. and that was very vance, the grass vice president. pressing the meeting security conference, the vice president there, railing against numerous of legal decisions made within the european union,

particularly surrounding issues of free speech, suggesting that the biggest threat to europe is not from without but it is from within. he was suggesting that the migration is out of control, and that there may be systematic ignorance about what voters really want in europe. well, with us on the scene there at the meeting security conference is our chief international editor, richard walker, who is following j events of speech. it speech and the others. richard, you're main take away from that speech. yes, terry. so yeah, digesting that certainly, i mean i've never heard of speech like that or the meaning security conference, certainly not from or us vice president. and i, i'm sure that nobody here really has that was a really, really unusual speech or a pretty massive intervention by j. d. vance. in european politics. we got

a little bit of a hint to the beginning of it when, where he got an applause line. and he said, i hope that is not the last line of applause that i guess in the speech. actually it turned out it pretty well was he was essentially saying through the audience here in europe that, that whole approach to the right wing population parties that it'd be making gains here in germany and elsewhere. s within the consonant is completely wrong. and that it presents a greater danger to european democracy, european society and the west, and then any danger, oppose from outside. for instance, the world is raging in ukraine. so i think certainly that germany was bracing for this is some clips of the speech or some excess from the speech came out to through the price before a judge. events took to the stage, but i don't think anyone was expecting him to devote pretty much his entire speech

to that subject. and i think essentially you can see this is a little bit of a payback from the american right from donald trump's kind of movement in us politics. so what they see is this me a ring by europeans about the mega move and make america great. again. i don't know, try and put in his entire political movement is they perceive that european sneed about that in the 1st time that they opposed it in the run up to the last election . they want to terrace. when donald trump came in try, i'm sense. and now this is a certain amount of political payback for that i thought a remarkable richard at the beginning of a speech to where jed events attacked the decision to and all the results of the 1st round of the romanian presidential election. that would set sounds a lot like use intervening directly in the, in the europeans own sovereignty with respect to the to it's.