It was a pleasure meeting President Biden at the White House in Washington yesterday, The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said.

Ursula von der Leyen: We had a very productive exchange on four key points:

→ We are taking new steps to coordinate on the clean economy transition.

We will immediately start discussions on a critical raw materials agreement. So that critical raw materials for electric vehicle batteries, extracted or processed in the EU, are treated in the same way as if they came from the US.

On top of this, we are launching a dialogue on clean energy incentives, to ensure that they reinforce each other rather than compete.

→ We are turning up the pressure on those who try to circumvent our sanctions against Russia. No one should be able to help Russia to feed and maintain its war machine. And of course, we will remain Ukraine’s top supporters for as long as it takes.

→ We are stepping up our bilateral cooperation in economic security, to address coercion against our companies and economies. We will work, for example, on aligning our strategic investment and export controls.

→ We keep building bridges between our people, and especially our youth! We will work on deepening and expanding student exchange programmes.