EU sighs with relief as Biden readies to enter White House

EU sighs with relief as Biden readies to enter White House

The European Union's top officials breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday that Joe Biden will be taking over as president of the United States, but they warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump and that trans-Atlantic ties will be different in the future.

"This new dawn in America is the moment we've been awaiting for so long,“ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, hailing Biden's arrival as "resounding proof that, once again after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.“

"The United States are back, and Europe stands ready to reconnect with an old and trusted partner to breathe new life into our cherished alliance,“ she told EU lawmakers, hours before Biden was to be sworn in at his inauguration ceremony in Washington.

European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs summits between the EU's 27 heads of state and government, said that trans-Atlantic relations have "greatly suffered in the last four years. In these years, the world has grown more complex, less stable and less predictable.“

"We have our differences and they will not magically disappear. America seems to have changed, and how it's perceived in