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If you look at the alternatives, it's very clear: no other couple can compete with the EU-US partnership.
Neither Europe nor America will find a partner who is more in line and stronger.
After four difficult years, it is time to start over.
Joe Biden's election victory gives us the chance to make this new beginning a reality.
This does not mean that we will always agree or that we have identical interests.
That was not the case before Donald Trump and it will not be the case under Joe Biden either.
But we have a lasting partnership based on shared values and decades of cooperation.
The past four years have been difficult, and there are deep reasons - demographic, economic and political - why the historical development of the US and Europe has been very different.
But for at least the next four years there will be a US president who believes in working with democratic allies.
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We appreciate that and share the same conviction.
My message is clear: Europe wants to make the most of this opportunity that is presented to us - and we not only come with wishes and demands, but also with offers.
"Joe Biden knows Germany and Europe well"
Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their election victory.
Merkel emphasized that Joe Biden would bring decades of political experience with him and that she was looking forward to working together.
Source: WORLD
There's a lot to fix and more to build.
Both the US and the EU struggle with polarization and social divisions.
We see autocrats and disruptive forces undermining regional security and global order.
A pandemic is raging, we have a global climate crisis, instability and conflict in our neighborhood, and fierce competition over who will write the rules of the digital age.
Our ability to find solutions has not kept pace with the pace and scale of global change.
Time is relative in politics.
As in physics, it depends on your own speed: when the world changes faster than our ability to deal with it, you are moving backwards in relative terms.
And we can't afford that.
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President-elect Biden has underlined the key role that he sees for a close partnership between the US and the EU, and Europe also has its own ideas for an ambitious transatlantic agenda.
We now have to implement this.
To this end, the European Commission recently presented “A New Transatlantic Agenda for Global Change” with proposals for cooperation in various areas: Covid-19, climate change, global economic issues, technology, trade and standardization, and strengthening democracy in the world .
I would like to concentrate here on foreign and security policy and highlight three points.
First, the US's role in European security is indispensable, but at the same time we Europeans have to be more concerned about our own security.
Hence our efforts to strengthen European defense capabilities and operational engagement - to make us a stronger security actor, bearing more of the “burden”, especially in our neighborhood.
There are already 17 European crisis management operations and missions, from the Western Balkans to Ukraine to the Sahel, and we are investing with various defense policy initiatives to keep developing the capabilities we need.
Kramp-Karrenbauer does not see European defense without the USA
In her keynote address, Kramp-Karrenbauer insists that there cannot be a European defense without US support.
Much depends on the future US President Joe Biden.
Source: WELT / Matthias Heinrich
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It is a red herring when we debate - mostly in abstract terms and debates - whether we should be either “European” or “transatlantic”.
Because that's the other side of the same coin.
That is also the reason why we should continue our pursuit of European strategic autonomy: a strategically conscious and capable Europe is a better partner and NATO ally for the USA and what the Europeans themselves need.
Let's put abstract debates aside and focus on the essentials.
When it comes to European security, we will have to work together to embed the Western Balkans in Euro-Atlantic structures, to support Ukrainian sovereignty and reforms, to develop a robust and consistent stance towards Russia and to provide another “ To prevent Turkey from drifting away.
Second, we know that China's rise and growing assertiveness and the associated competition with the United States will continue to shape global politics.
We should discuss and address some of the challenges China poses together: from persistent asymmetries in market access to legitimate questions about 5G to attempts to push for competing standards in multilateral organizations and to weaken collective action in the area of human rights.
The EU is ready to commit itself to a balanced approach and on the one hand to work with China (for example on climate policy) and at the same time to push back where necessary.
This will be combined with active EU engagement for the wider Indo-Pacific region and cooperation with democratic partners in Asia.
Many like-minded partners would like the EU to do more.
Like us, these partners want an open and rule-based global order.
This means that disconnection, closed blocks and binary decisions must be avoided.
Third, we have to find a way for the US to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran and for Iran to fully comply with it again.
The nuclear agreement remains a milestone in successful diplomacy.
The EU and the US should look for ways to strengthen the agreement and expand its successes.
There are of course many other foreign policy issues and priorities, but let's start by focusing on these three in order to get the engine of transatlantic cooperation going again.
The further we go, the more ambitious we can become in the future.
Source: Getty Images
The author is Vice President of the EU Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Security Policy