BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union hailed Joe Biden’s inauguration later on Wednesday as U.S. president as a “new dawn” for Europe and the United States, while insisting U.S. technology companies should be regulated to stop the “dark forces” of hate speech online.

The EU and the United States are the world’s top trading powers, along with China, and have close cultural, historical, business and defence ties, but Donald Trump sought to sideline the EU, championing Britain’s departure from the bloc.

Expressing relief at the end of four years of Trump’s “America First” policy, the EU’s chief executive and chairman told the European Parliament that shaping new global digital regulation together was paramount.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. But she also cautioned: “This sense of relief … should not lead us to making any illusions. Trump may be consigned to history in a few hours, but his followers remain.”

Von der Leyen said that while it might not be possible “to completely eliminate any of these dark forces” of the kind of incitement that led to the storming of the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, hate speech and fake news must not be allowed to circulate freely on the internet.

“This political power, unbridled power held by the big internet giants must be reined in,” Von der Leyen said.

EU lawmakers are debating new digital policy that would have implications for Google, Facebook and Apple, but without major technology companies of its own, the European Union’s digital privacy and antitrust regulation can only go so far.

Von der Leyen proposed in her speech setting up a EU-U.S. Common Technology Council as a first step to draw up a template for global digital regulation that others around the world could follow.

From regulating artificial intelligence to complex algorithms based on vast amounts of data, the EU wants restrictions that would not at the same time limit the benefits of technology, such as self-driving cars or sharing data to fight diseases.

European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits in Brussels, said transatlantic priorities should also include combating COVID-19 and climate change.

“Together, we must stand as the bedrock of the rules-based international order, working for peace, security, prosperity, freedom, human rights and gender equity,” Michel said. “Let’s build a new founding pact for a stronger Europe, for a stronger America and for a better world,” he told EU lawmakers.

The European Union’s top officials expressed relief on Wednesday that they would again have a friend in the White House as Joe Biden replaces Donald Trump.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said the moment should be seized to form a new “founding pact” between democratic powers.

He was joined in the European Parliament by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Council, to address MEPs hours ahead of Biden’s inauguration.

“This time-honoured ceremony on the steps of the US Capitol will be a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy,” she said. 

“And the resounding proof that, once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”

But Brussels’ top official warned the fact that millions of Americans had voted for Trump and that some of them had rioted on his behalf on January 6 should serve as a warning.

“President Trump may be history in a few hours, but his supporters remain. More than 70 million Americans voted for Trump in the election,” she said. 

“A few hundred of them stormed the Capitol in Washington, the heart of American democracy, just a few days ago.

“And this really is what it looks like when words put into deeds, when hate speech and fake news become a real danger to democracy,” she said. 

– Absurd fantasies’ –

“Despite established democracy being embedded here, we cannot assume that we are immune to these phenomena.”

Von der Leyen compared the US riot to a recent attempt by German activists to storm the Reichstag in Berlin in protest at coronavirus lockdown measures.

And she cited the case of Jo Cox, a British MP who was murdered by a far-right activist weeks before the UK voted to leave the European Union. 

“Of course, there are differences with the storming of the Capitol, but there are also people here who feel wronged and angry”, she warned. 

Europeans should beware of “people who adhere to wildly rampant conspiracy theories, an often confused mixture of completely absurd fantasies”, she said.

Michel, who hoped to host Biden at an EU-US summit in parallel with a NATO meeting in Brussels early in the new president’s term, struck a more upbeat tone.

“Law, order and democracy, have prevailed over this disgraceful attempt to overturn the election. American democracy has proven its strength and resilience,” he said.

“Let’s build a new founding pact for a stronger Europe, for a stronger America and for a better world.”

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The European Union (EU) and the United States of America have both expressed concern over the Zimbabwean government’s failure to probe the disproportionate use of force by security personnel against civilians in January 2009.

In a statement posted on its Twitter handle, the EU in Zimbabwe demanded an end to impunity and the prosecution of human rights violators. It said:

Two years on, investigations are lacking and impunity continues to prevail on human rights violations perpetrated in #Zimbabwe in January 2019. #NoZIMpunity.

In a related development, the U.S. Embassy in Harare queried why Zimbabwe has not yet prosecuted and convicted the security forces accused of rape, torture, and killing civilians in January 2019. It said in a tweet:

Two years. When will Zimbabwe investigate, prosecute, and convict government security forces accused of rape, torture, and killing civilians in Jan 2019? Two years is too long to seek justice/answers/accountability.

Zimbabwe descended into anarchy characterised by the looting of businesses and barricading of roads in January 2019 after the government unilaterally hiked the price of fuel by over 150 per cent.

In response to the fuel riots, the government blocked the internet for several days and unleashed security forces on civilians resulting in the death of over 20 people and serious injuries to hundreds.

There were also allegations of some rogue members of the security services moving from door-to-door raping women who were too terrified to report the abuse for fear of victimisation.

The Zimbabwean government denied the reports insisting that “terrorists” and a “third force” were responsible for the violence.- Pindula News