 Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon. In fact, I'm very pleased to welcome you to the IEA for this webinar this afternoon. And of course, it's a particular pleasure for us to be joined today by Valdez Dombroskis, European Commission Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Trade, who has been generous enough to speak to us today about EU trade policy post-COVID. This event is part of the IEA Global Europe Programme of webinars and research, which is generously supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and which the Institute works in cooperation with the department. The Executive Vice President will speak to us for about 15-20 minutes and followed by question and answer session with our audience. And just to say you'll be able to join the discussion using the Q&A function on Zoom, which you should see on your screen. And please feel free to send your questions in throughout the session as they occur to you and we will come to them once the Executive Vice President has concluded his remarks. If I could request you to keep your questions as brief as possible so that we can get to as many as possible during the event. And we would also appreciate if you could provide us with your name and your affiliation and particularly a reminder that today's presentation and the Q&A are both on the record. Please feel free of course to join the discussion on Twitter using the handle at IEA. And we're also live streaming this afternoon's discussion on via YouTube and a warm welcome to all who are joining us from YouTube. Just before I introduce the Executive Vice President, I would like to remind our audience that the IEA will continue to celebrate its 30th anniversary throughout the month of May with the series of keynote speeches such as this afternoon's and panel discussions open to all on the pressing issues which are shaping Ireland and the world. And now let me formally introduce Executive Vice President Baldis Dombrovskis. He was appointed Executive Vice President for an economy that works for everybody in 2019. And as part of the current European Commission of President von der Leyen, he is responsible for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union. He has also since October 2020 held the trade portfolio. In fact, it's as you can see it's an extremely wide brief and just looking at the mission letter for the Executive Vice President from Commission President von der Leyen the tasks outlined there run in fact to about eight pages. He previously served as Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue from 2014 to 2019 as part of the Claudionka Commission. And prior to joining the European Commission. He was Prime Minister of Latvia from 2009 until 2014. He was an MEP in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. And he was the Latvian Finance Minister from 2002 to 2004 and Chief Economist at the Bank of Latvia, Monetary Policy Department. In addition to that widespread of very significant experience, the Executive Vice President holds a master's degree in Customs and Tax Administration, which will touch a point here in Ireland as well as a degree in economics and also physics. So with that frighteningly impressive CV Vice President, may I hand the floor to you to tell us about trade policy for the EU after COVID. The floor is yours and you're most welcome. Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, thanks to the Institute for International and European Affairs for organizing this event. And I want to congratulate you on your 30th anniversary as a foremost think tank on EU and international affairs in Ireland. I welcome this opportunity to engage with Irish audience on the subject of EU trade strategy and its importance for your country. Let me say that Ireland is studied closely by other small European countries, including the one I know best Latvia as an example of how to harness open trade and investment for economic development. So Ireland has traditionally been a strong voice at the European table when it comes to defending an open fair rules based trade policy. Indeed, Ireland has based its economic development model on international rules based trade, and now you are one of the most globalized economies in the world. The late Peter Sutherland was the first director general of the WTO, so the Irish voice has been strong in support of global rules based trading system. Accordingly, I'm convinced that Ireland can support the new EU trade strategy launched by the European Commission in February. The new strategy aims to be open, sustainable and assertive. These keywords reflect a number of lessons learned in recent years. So let me go through them one by one. Open, because we will need open trade more than ever to help us to recover from COVID-19 exports already support one in six EU jobs. So Ireland that figure is even higher. We estimate that one in every three Irish jobs is facilitated by extra EU exports. This is among the highest levels in the EU. Ireland also witnessed one of the highest increases in export supported employment between 2000 and 2017 estimated to be at 147%. To build on these strengths, Ireland and the EU should continue to make the most of our global trade relationships. This is fundamental given that 85% of global growth will happen outside the EU in the next decade. Open trade also depends on having the right global rules. This is why we have published a detailed EU agenda for reform of the World Trade Organization, and I'm engaging with a new WTO director general in this respect. But openness in itself is not enough. Trade policy needs to work in synergy with other headline policies reflecting our European ambitions and values. This is why we're putting a strong emphasis on making trade policy more sustainable. We'll pursue a number of concrete actions, including a trade and climate initiative as a WTO, seeking commitments from G20 countries to achieve climate neutrality in trade agreements, making full use of our network of trade deals to work with global partners on biodiversity, pollution, circular economy and sustainable food systems, and making a Paris Agreement commitments and essential element of future agreements. We also plan to propose a carbon border adjustment mechanism in full respect to WTO rules. With these federal relationships, we want to be sure that our partners live up to their agreed obligations on trade and sustainable development, including commitments on climate and liberal rights. To help in this respect, last year we appointed the first EU chief trade enforcement officer. His mandate is to enforce our rights and get the most value out of our trade deals for our exporters including SMEs. But he's equally tasked with monitoring our deals to make sure our partners honour what they have signed up to, including on climate and sustainability. This is important because we want to help to reassure our citizens that European value remains at the heart of trade policy. For example, I have noted some concerns from Irish politicians about CETA agreement with Canada, claiming that it would enable corporations to pursue legal action against states if new legislation impacts their profits. Let me be very clear. CETA fully protects the right of state and local authorities to regulate and this applies in all fields where public policy objectives are at stake. The Belgium government expressed doubts in 2019 and asks the EU Court of Justice to look into the matter. In its opinion, the court confirmed that there was no such risk and also confirmed that the investment court system proposed is fully compatible with the practices of judicial independence and in partiality under the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The investment court system established in CETA is a clear break from the ad hoc system of private arbitration known as the ISDS, which exists in many bilateral investment treaties. The new system not only preserves the government's right to regulate but also makes the procedures to resolve investment disputes fairer, more transparent, independent and in partial. It is important to point this out because the public deserves to help the facts. There is no hidden agenda in EU trade policy. We simply wanted to support our workers and companies, create jobs and work in synergy with our wider objectives. This is why we will take another important steps to be more assertive. We want to strengthen our own capacity to level the playing field and to defend ourselves when our partners do not play by the rules. Last week, for example, we proposed a legal instrument to address distortions by foreign subsidies in our internal market. There are many other proposals being implemented or coming in the legislative pipeline. I'm happy to discuss this in further detail if you wish. Finally, let me point out that the success of our trade agenda depends on strengths of our global relationships. Let me focus on three relationships which are of high relevance to Ireland, the United States, the UK and China. I do not need to explain to an Irish audience the importance of transatlantic relationship. In Ireland, with its economic, cultural and historical links to the US always plays a central role in the transatlantic relationship. And I'm pleased to report that we have seen a marked improvement in our transatlantic relations with the Biden administration. We have mutually suspended the tariffs imposed in the Airbus Boeing dispute in order to see a negotiated solution. We have welcomed the US rejoining the Paris climate agreement, and we see positive perspectives for restoring EU US leadership as an engine for positive global change. Of course, the relationship with the EU and the UK is of utmost interest to Ireland as a EU member state with most at stake in this relationship. When it comes to the UK, my colleague, Vice President Shevcovich is responsible for ongoing negotiations, but from a trade perspective, I can take, I can say this. The trade and cooperation agreement concluded at the end of the last year is still in very early stage of implementation. So we lack trade data to get a comprehensive picture. However, we do see the emergence of some early difficulties. They relate to the withdrawal of the UK from the single market, which is an unavoidable consequence of the type of Brexit pursued by the UK government. Other issues relate to the implementation of the agreement, including the Northern Ireland protocol to address these issues that EU plans to be fully solution oriented and engage constructively with the UK authorities, keeping a calm but firm approach. I would like to reiterate the EU's commitment to making the protocol work, and I would add that doing so relies on joint action through the joint bodies under the withdrawal agreement. Ongoing discussions at the technical level will continue in coming weeks. It is in strong mutual interest of the EU and UK to make our trade relationship work. Finally, let me briefly mention our relationship with China. As you know, last late last year we concluded negotiations on a comprehensive agreement on investment. From the economic perspective, a deal contains many benefits for European companies as it restructures the EU-China partnership to be more reciprocal, balanced and fair. The comprehensive agreement on investment also enshrines sustainable development commitments, including the fight against climate change and respect of core international labour organization principles. And this is the first time China has agreed to such concessions in a deal with a global partner. But the ratification process cannot be separated for a wider political context. The EU sanctions against China for human rights abuses, how led to China's retaliatory sanctions targeting, for example, members of European Parliament. We will view China's actions as unjustified and regrettable, and not helpful for creating the favourable environment needed to pursue ratification. So essentially the future of the deal depends on how broader EU-China relations evolve. To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I hope I have provided a useful overview of some prominent topics in EU trade agenda, and I will happily answer your questions and comments. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Vice President. That was a very comprehensive overview of where the trade situation is at the moment with the EU. Could I just take advantage of my role and ask you with regard to you finished up on the question of the trade and investment agreement with China, which as you mentioned is not proceeding. Can I ask you with regard to the US-China situation and where the EU finds itself in certain situations caught between the two countries where tensions have arisen significantly. Do you have any view that the EU could play some role between the two countries, or in fact what objective has the US with regard to its China policy, but particularly what is the EU position between the US and China at the moment with regard to trade? Well, first of all, if we look at state of play regarding different agreements, US how their phase one deal with China. Recently, also in Asia, there was a regional comprehensive economic partnership agreed the reset. Of course, it's important for EU not to be only a major economy not having any kind of agreement with China, so of course it's important that we at the end of the day arrive at successful conclusion on comprehensive agreement on investment to rebalance our economic relationship. And then if we talk about US-China relations and EU's role on them, well, we must be realistic that with comprehensive agreement of investment we will not solve all our issues in relations with China. There are many concerns which we are sharing with US to give some examples on issues, for example, like industrial subsidies, role of the state owned enterprises and their competitive neutrality, forced technology transfers, intellectual property rights. We are sharing all these concerns. So actually, we are cooperating quite closely with Biden administration to see how we better address those concerns, how we coordinate our work bilaterally, also trilaterally together with Japan, and how we also address those issues multilaterally in a context of WTO reform. So all those work streams are currently being pursued. So actually, we are in very constructive work and exchanges with new US administration on this. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President. I just have a follow up question from Adam Daly in the journal since we're speaking of the China investment. And he asks specifically, do you see a future for the investment deal and what are the, could you speak on the direct benefit such a deal would have for Irish business? That's quite specific, but it's of considerable interest here. Yeah, well, first of all, on comprehensive agreement of investment and its benefits. So, in a sense, it's a symmetric agreement to address a symmetric situation, because currently EU market is substantially more open to Chinese companies and Chinese investments than China's market is to the EU companies. So, therefore, as agreement contains quite a few new commitments from China in terms of market access in different sectors in terms of level playing field. I also mentioned that sustainable development and it actually contains very few new commitments from the EU side. It's basically we are maintaining our existing level of openness. So then, as regards benefits specifically from Ireland, of course, it's for companies in the sectors which are active and having new market access offers from China to evaluate exact benefits. Is it automotive sector or is it sector in services and cloud or private healthcare providers or real estate or financial services, number of other areas where we have new market access openings, for example, by phasing out or withdrawing joint venture requirements or similar requirements. So, but then generally speaking, I would say Ireland benefits from global rulemaking as a small open economy, because it's clearly that especially small open economies can function better in a situation where there is a lot of rules when there are trade agreements which these countries can explore and that goes I would say very much also for Ireland. Well, in terms of the future of the deal already mentioned that from the commission side we continue to work now the technical work is ongoing the legal scrubbing. The next steps concerning the ratification will need to see in a context of broader EU China relationship. Yes, thank you for that. And just as a final one, and it's asking you I think to look into a crystal ball but a question from Politico for Giorgio Leali is, do you feel that if some of the Chinese sanctions against European officials are removed from the China ratification deal might pass through the parliament. Well, indeed, as I mentioned in introductory remarks. That's exactly the now problems that China imposed its retaliatory sanctions, including two members of European Parliament including entire parliamentary subcommittee being sanctioned. So clearly, this is something which needs to be addressed in order to proceed with ratification and eventually in order to be able to successfully conclude the ratification. Thank you. Thank you for that. We have a number of other questions. One from our former finance minister Alan Dukes on the border carbon tax adjustment and Alan asks, has the commission modeled the effects of the border carbon tax adjustment. The proposed increases in in carbon tax and in relation to the trade agreements. Yeah, well as regards carbon border adjustment mechanism as a work is currently ongoing. And of course it's quite fundamental issue when you is moving towards carbon neutrality. We have a commitment to be carbon or climate natural by 2050. It means that of course they cannot continue with giving free emission allowances to energy intensive industries. But if we start to phase them out. Obviously we need to address the issue of carbon leakage to compensate for the cost difference. These are the those jurisdictions where they are less strict environmental rules. So that's a fundamental rationale of the carbon border adjustment mechanism. Well of course what is very important is to ensure that what we are putting forward is WTO compatible and key words there is non discrimination and avoidance of double protection. And since cannot put through this carbon border adjustment mechanism importers as a competitive disadvantage with European producers. So in a sense we need to ensure level playing field here. And it's, I can imagine that also for other, especially advanced economies as they are moving towards climate neutrality and more and more countries are actually committing to that. So they will have to address the similar issue of carbon leakage. So, in any case, there will be further discussions and coordination of approaches needed but in a sense, one can say that the EU is at the forefront of this development. And vice president. I have a specific question from, which is of interest to Ireland, and it's from William level of the Irish whiskey association. And he asks, can the automatic doubling of you tariffs on us whiskey imports on the first of June be avoided or deferred. If implemented this doubling would go very much against the desire for de escalation of transatlantic trade disputes. A question of Irish interest but also of course of wider whiskey producers everywhere. Yeah, well, we are now in intensive discussions with a new US administration. And the issue related to so called 232 tariffs imposed by Trump administration on a steel and aluminum based on national national security concerns of course we are not accepting that US is treating EU as a threat to national security and we hope that's a new and we will correct that. And we are now in indeed in intensive discussions with Biden administration as regards this to see how we can ensure that we actually are addressing in the sector of steel is a core problem which is global steel over capacity and not so much production of steel in the EU or us we know that the bulk of our capacity comes from China. Instead of imposing tariffs at each other. So, we are working on this and of course we are hopeful that we can avoid this next step in terms of our response as regards to 232 tariffs imposed by Trump. Thank you. Thank you for that. From, we have a question from Joanna Sapinska from the Melix market insight and she's speaking about another dispute which is the Boeing Airbus dispute and she asks how advanced for the negotiations with the US on the settlement. Is there still a chance that the talks are finished within the four month deadline, or will more time be needed. Do you feel for an agreement. Well, as regards service going of course the first positive step was that we agreed on a mutual suspension of tariffs. For four months and they're actually halfway through that time and negotiations are also on this area, ongoing very intensively so looking at the future disciplines in the area of large civil aircraft manufacturing. Well, of course we are working with the time timeline of four months in mind. And in the case it's clear that it would be very important to avoid the introduction of the tariff so definitely we must work with aim to avoid this scenario. Thank you for that. Just moving on to an issue that is very much also in the forefront of trade considerations particularly in the context of COVID-19. So I have a couple of questions here one from the Ambassador Belgium to Ireland, and he asks, could the Vice President elaborate his views on EU strategic autonomy in the context of the recovery of European and world economies. Mr. Allen, the digital researcher in the Institute asked what are the implications of open strategic autonomy and digital sovereignty for Europe's digital economic trade. I give you those two vice president. Okay, as regards strategic autonomy or rather I would say open strategic autonomy. We have elaborated on this concept on also in our new EU trade policy strategy, being very clear that we remain open to the world, we remain open to fair and rules based trade. But we are ready to defend ourselves more assertively if third countries or operators in third countries do not play by the rules. So in a sense, we are willing to act multilaterally whenever we can, but we are ready to act unilaterally whenever we must. So this is an approach how we use this in our trade, new trade policy strategy. So then, as regards as a question of what was mentioned, digital sovereignty. Of course, we once again we believe that our strengths is through our engagement with the world and not turning inwards. For example, one of the items which we are currently negotiating and negotiating in the context of the world trade organization is so called e commerce negotiations where you mandate is very clear for example, this is the most unjustified data local localization requirements some kind of a digital protectionism. And it's important as that we maintain this approach that we are open in principle and willing to cooperate with the world. There are some specific issues linked with security or other justified cases that may be a case to restrict certain activities to you only. So this assessment is also now currently ongoing for, for example, in a context of our work on industrial alliances, but as I learned I believe that the openness is actually our strengths. Thank you Vice President. Yes, that is interesting because I think there has been some worry among smaller countries such as Ireland that a strongly enforced strategic autonomy might have negative effects for small country industries, for example, and that it would promote the larger industrial complexes if we moved very far in this direction. Is that a sentiment that you have sensed in your discussions. Well, actually we just recently updated our industrial strategy, learning lessons from the crisis also, for example, assessing the resilience of our supply chains. And the conclusion was actually that our supply chains are quite resilient and there is a very limited number of goods where some action some intervention may be needed to ensure more resilience supplies or EU production capacity. So there are some industries where we want to strengthen our production capacities or the existing alliances like for example, a batteries alliance in the context of electricity mobility, clean hydrogen alliance in the context of developing a hydrogen economy. As you'll see those are issues linked with with European Green Deal, but right now we are proposing to new industrial alliances on semiconductors and on big data cloud and H technologies. And once again, we need to find the right balance there between openness and principle and being restricted in newly justified cases that such as, for example, for the fence or security grounds. Thank you. Thank you for that. Just coming back to the covert 19, which of course we are all still in which we're still involved. And the issue of abolition of patents for vaccines vice president. That is causing some difference of approach between the US and EU and of course the suggestion which came from India which you've had discussions with recently but what is the European view on the question of patent abolition. As we had been clear from the very beginning we are open to discuss this US proposal and see how exactly it leads to the aim which we want to achieve which is a boost in a global vaccine production and improved availability of vaccines to developing countries. Here of course are number of elements which needs to be discussed in including export restrictions. For example, you is exporting almost half of our vaccine production, this is unfortunately not the case with countries like United States or United Kingdom. So we need to discuss actually how these countries are also contributing to accessibility of vaccines in developing countries and we need to see what is a practical way of improving global vaccine production. And there we see that the licensing arrangements are needed between between companies who have the necessary know how and companies which can provide additional manufacturing capacity. So it's not only about intellectual property rights, it's also about having necessary know how having necessary inputs to be able to speedily boost global vaccine production through voluntary licensing agreements or as we have been flagging already since these discussions started if necessary also through compulsory licensing, but in any case we are ready to discuss with US and in a sense expecting them to come in with more elaborate outline of their proposal and how it helps to achieve a boost of global vaccine production. Thank you Vice President yes obviously production of vaccines and any freeing up of that is obviously a very much a discussion that's of considerable interest at the moment. I have a question from economics researcher, which is, what kind of new fiscal policy instruments will be considered as part of the stability and growth pact review. And will the Commission consider a quote golden rule at tying deficit spending exceeding structural budget balances to investment projects. That's definitely a question from an economist to an economist. As regards the review of EU fiscal rules, we have for a time being suspended our public consultation to focus on immediate crisis issues. But we were clear that after the crisis we will sort of say continue our public consultation, gather necessary inputs and come forward with proposals on a possible way forward. So, at some of the issues which we are looking at. First of all, there has been a good input already pre covid from the European fiscal board outlining several ideas. First on the simplification of rules and moving away from directly on observable indicators such as output gaps and structural balances and moving instead for expenditure benchmark with a depth anchor because expenditure is something which governments can directly control. And another proposal for consideration by European fiscal board was what they were calling limited golden rule. So we are also looking at this also now in a context of post covid economic recovery. But in a sense we do not now want to prejudge the debate we will reopen and finish our public consultation gather the use of member states of different stakeholders, and then see what is a way forward. But already now it's important to emphasize that building consensus will be important, because we know that the views of on on on the fiscal rules tend to worry. We need to avoid the station where we are just getting into some kind of divisive discussion that indeed, if we are opening as a fiscal rules we can be confident that we are landing them in a better place where we are now. Thank you Vice President. Do you see challenges in this our opinions very divided or are you hopeful that we will see relatively early results in this area. I would say that remains to be seen we know that normally it's not an easy discussion on the fiscal rules. So, at the same time, we managed as a EU to react in a coordinated way and in spirit of European solidarity to the crisis so hopefully we can build momentum also around those new fiscal rules. And so to say finds the right balance between stimulating say economic recovery and ensuring fiscal sustainability. Thank you. I get a sense from what you say that the covert while initially there may have been difficulties that it has improved cooperation between members of the EU, and that that is is positive for going forward with whatever policies need to be implemented. Well, as regards the cooperation between EU countries, indeed, I think it's very positive that we were able to reach agreements on major economic stimulus packages at the EU level, and with next generation EU for the first time we are using the approach that this recovery package will be based on common EU borrowing in the financial markets. So, of course, now what is important is implementation so to make sure that member states prepare or how prepared good quality recovery and resilience plans, because our idea is not only to ensure economic recovery, but also use this new fiscal stimulus to facilitate say green and digital transformations of our economy, that's why they are green and digital mainstreaming targets for member states recovery and resilience plans, and also strengthen the resilience of your economy. And that's why as a link with a country specific recommendations within your European semester is very important. Yes, as you had mentioned earlier, this is a huge task that's underway at the moment for the Commission to examine the recovery plans, which member states are submitting at the moment. So I could move Vice President to the strategic partnership agreements. I have a question here from Thomas Conway, a politics and economics student at Trinity College and he asks that the EU launched its EU Africa strategic partnership last year. And to what extent have you Africa trade relations developed since, and is there any prospect for establishing a free trade deal with the African continent free trade area. Okay, so first on EU Africa strategic partnership it's reflected also in our new EU trade policy. We actually in terms of new engagements we identify Africa and EU neighborhood as priority areas for for further engagement. As regards our trade cooperation with Africa, it continues to develop and EU is a main African trading partner so we continue to develop our economic partnership agreements which are regional economic partnership agreements or in some cases we have bilateral negotiations with some African countries. As regards specific is a question of continent to continent negotiations. First of all, we are providing lots of support for this initiative of continental free trade area in Africa, so we are providing both technical and financial and political support to this work and certainly will be willing to negotiate continent to continent free trade area, but we see this more as a longer term perspective. Thank you. Thank you for that. Vice President you were in Porto at the last weekend where you had a virtual meeting with the Indian Prime Minister, and that we see that the New Delhi trade talks are being resuscitated. And I wanted to ask you post Porto discussions where very wide range of issues for these talks were laid out on the table. Are you optimistic about such an agreement. Obviously the geopolitical situation has changed and was different from the earlier talks which were going on for many years but in effect came to nothing. Are you optimistic for these present talks. Yeah, well, first of all, it's a very positive outcome from the EU India summit that leaders confirmed that we are launching our negotiations on deep and comprehensive free trade agreement between you and India. We hope that there is a new momentum now political and also geopolitical momentum and we see more willingness on India's side to engage actively and actually make progress on those negotiations. We actually agreed to launch three negotiations so we start negotiations on free trade agreement. Start negotiations on a separate investment protection agreement, and also start negotiations on agreement on protection of geographical indications. So of course as regards the free trade agreement and investment agreement we see that of course they need to be mutually reinforcing. And so we hope that indeed there is now more positive momentum and willingness to move forward. The outline also to Indian side is that there is to generate this momentum there is also importance that we address market access issues, some of which are long standing market access issues because this will help to create the right political environment for moving forward with those talks. Thank you for that. And coming from Ireland I suppose what we would be also interested in where you see the Mercosur agreement at the moment. As regards EU Mercosur agreement, I would like to underline that in terms of tariff reductions, it's actually the largest free trade agreement EU has ever negotiated. And I'm not mistaking the tariff reductions value was somewhere around 3 billion euros a year, but I'm now kind of quoting this figure from from heart so worth double checking but so there is a large significant significance in this agreement EU would also be the first global partner having trade agreement with Mercosur which is a large and quite protected market so it helps substantial first move advantage. And of course we know that there are concerns related deforestation. Actually I now got the corrections for billion euros in annual tariff reductions. Of course we are aware of the concerns regarding deforestation and environmental record in Mercosur countries that's notably in Brazil. That's why we are now engaging with Mercosur countries on additional competence concerning sustainability concerning respect of Paris agreement and deforestation. And it's clear that to be able to successfully move towards Mercosur ratification we need to address those concerns so the reactions from the Mercosur countries are broadly speaking positive but of course we need to negotiate exact nature of the commitments and its legal form so this is a work which is currently ongoing in parallel with a technical finalization of agreement legal scrubbing and all other things which we need to do. Just a short question on that Vice President would you see it when COVID which is obviously some blocking some developments at the moment would you see these negotiations on Mercosur moving forward fairly swiftly when the COVID worst of COVID is over. Well it's now you know somewhat difficult to say or predict exact pace of those negotiations because the EU Mercosur trade agreement negotiations are concluded. So now in a sense we are coming back and saying okay now we expect some commitments on top of this as regards sustainability. So, as I said, we still need to discuss on Mercosur countries both the scope and exact legal nature of those commitments. So, I cannot now give you exact timeline, it may take some time. But in general, there is acknowledgement from Mercosur countries that these commitments are needed if we are to move forward with successful ratification. Thank you for that. And then just bending back towards quite a specific question on EU steel safeguards and again from the Melix market inside Joanna Sapinski on the EU steel safeguard. Is the EU going to extend the steel safeguard that is expiring on June the 30th as requested by the steel industry. Well, this is something which we are currently investigating so there was a request of number of member states to do this investigation on possible extension of steel safeguards so something which we are currently undertaking and gathering all the necessary inputs all the necessary evidence and will base our decision on our proposal for member states on this on the base of evidence which has been gathered so we had actually a large number of inputs if I'm not mistaken more than six haven't input so now we are doing the assessment. So we expect this decision being somewhere well late may presumably but we cannot now tell exact date so decision is not taken at current stage of course you need to see the interest of steel industry will lead to see also interest of downstream industries and there is one factor which we need to keep in mind which are also currently assessing that if we extend the steel safeguards for longer than three years which would be the case. It means that you is opening itself to retaliation by third countries, because then third countries which are affected by these still safeguards can retaliate imposing additional tariffs on EU goods and some countries which are concerned so the two biggest countries concerned in terms of import values are Turkey and Russia had in a sense made some noises on this potential including in steel sector concerning steel products themselves so we need to do also this evaluation of that economic impact on steel industry or potentially on any other industry because in a sense third countries are free to retaliate in whichever sectors they decide so what is potential impact of this retaliation. Thank you for that very insightful answer and the detail given our director general asks you bringing us closer to home. He asks Michael Collins is asking saying the EU is actively looking the UK is actively looking for new trade deals post Brexit. Do you see that the UK has any extra advantages in these negotiations and not being a member of the EU. Well, in a sense, that's exactly the reason why UK now has to actively look for a new trade deals because as a member of the EU and member of the Customs Union. The EU was covered by EU free trade agreements and you have a best network of free trade agreements in the world. So what you case now seeking in a sense is to the extent possible replicates this network of free trade agreements it comes from the very nature of decision of leaving not only is the EU but also the Customs Union. So I don't think there's any like major advantage because from the EU side we have the most comprehensive network of free trade agreements in the world and currently it's not available to the UK so UK needs in a sense to replicate as much as you can. Thank you. And Vice President just a last question then on on the huge area of the WTO and the reform in your trade policy review and in discussions. You laid great emphasis on the EU determination to bring about reform of the WTO. What are you proposing in that regard with the with the WTO to strengthen the WTO because of course huge areas outside the trade agreements that the EU has are actually dealt in the through WTO rules. So what do you feel just finally is necessary to bring about with the WTO. Yeah well as regards WTO reform indeed our new trade policy strategy was accompanied by detailed WTO reform proposal and we think that we need reform pretty much in all branches of the WTO work so as regards negotiating function as regards monitoring and deliver deliberation and also as regards dispute settlement probably restoration of the functioning of the dispute settlement body would be the most urgent issue, but we also more broadly need to bring the rule book of WTO so to say into 21st century. So that it's able to respond to the current challenges including the green and digital transformation of the economy, and it's also better able to respond to some new or not so new already economic developments and shifts coming. For example, from a social economic model of China, because current WTO rule book is not very well, well, it's not very good at addressing these kind of challenges. So it's actually quite a comprehensive reform which we are proposing. And we believe that we know how a good momentum for this was a new WTO director general with a new administration in the US that we could really move forward and so to say bring the WTO rule book into the 21st century. Thank you. And a very final question and I will put it because it relates to Latvia. And it's a question from our Dara Moriarti who's a student of political economy. And he's asking you with coming from an Eastern expansion member state. What are your thoughts about the Eastern states and how they have fitted in into the whole European scene and whether the external incentive model for building a common EU identity works well and does your portfolio have a role in building a broader collective identity. Yeah, well, as regards EU enlargement and how it has worked, I would say, all in all it has worked remarkably well. It has seen a strong degree of convergence of GDP per capita between as a well, so to say old EU member states and new EU member states of course this process of convergence is still ongoing it's important that it continues to be supported at the EU level and it's definitely the case both in the next multi-annual financial framework and also it was reflected when we were designing the EU economic recovery plan. So, economically, I would say that Central Eastern European countries managed to integrate quite well, and also EU is also EU is actually quite appreciated among the citizens and the support for EU is quite high. I would say across the Central Eastern European countries and also trust for EU institutions and for Euro, for example, is quite high. So, all in all, those are positive developments of course it's not without its challenges and its problems and there is a constant work to address them, but I think economically it was very important and I think for many Central Eastern countries, including for Latvia, it was also strategic choice. Where do you want to belong? Do you want to belong to the western democratic world or somewhere in a grey zone between EU and Russia? And I would say that Central Eastern Europe's answer to this was very clear. Yes, thank you. Vice President, if I could just trust us on your patience for one more question, which has come from YouTube and from the Irish Times. And it's, have you any message for the DUP and leadership candidates and those who oppose the Northern Ireland protocol? I started earlier. Any message that you would leave with us on the Northern Ireland protocol for those in Northern Ireland? Well, something which I said already in the introductory remarks that we are from the EU side very committed to the successful implementation of Northern Ireland protocol and ensuring that there is no hard border in the Northern Ireland of Ireland and we will continue to ensure this and of course it requires joint effort of the EU and the UK for this to function smoothly. So Vice President, thank you very much indeed. We greatly appreciate the attention you have devoted to your initial remarks and also for answering the question so comprehensively and in such an informative manner. We wish you well in your very wide portfolio, and I think you can be assured certainly of the support of the Institute and we do hope that we will see you in person sometime in the not too distant future. But in the meantime, thank you most sincerely for joining us. And we wish you well. Thank you. Bye bye.