The European Union has not yet defined a common response to face donald trumpwho, after inaugurating his second term as president of the United States on Monday, signed up to 100 executive orders and launched indiscriminate tariff threats against partners and rivals. However, some countries have already begun to establish their position, in line with the guidelines proposed by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen: negotiate, yes; but without giving up the defense of European “interests and values”.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholzand the French president, Emmanuel Macronhave been among the first to send a strong message to the new tenant of the White House. “Our position is very clear. Europe is a vast economic space of some 450 million people. We are strong, we are united and Europe is not going to hide. Will be a constructive and self-confident partner. On this basis, we will have good cooperation,” declared the German president from Paris, where he celebrated with his French counterpart the anniversary of the Elysee Treaty.
Scholz and Macron, leaders of the two richest countries in Europe, share internal problems: the first has been forced to break the Executive and call early elections this February, and the second sees its influence waning with each new convulsion of the Government. However, both have put aside their problems and the strategic divergences of recent years to give an image of unity before Trump.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, in his first speech at the White House.
“After the inauguration of a new administration in the United States, it is more necessary than ever for Europeans and our two countries to play their role in consolidating a united, strong and sovereign Europe,” said Macron, who has been demanding greater European autonomy. “The priority must be even more Europe and first of all our competitiveness, our prosperity, our security to strengthen our democracies and preserve our economic and social model,” he added.
On his first day as US president, Trump said that the EU was “very, very bad” and announced that he would have to “pay tariffs” so that “justice would be done.” In this sense, both Scholz and Macron mentioned the need to urgently reinforce “certain critical sectors” such as steel, automobiles and chemicals, crucial for the European economy and possible targets of US tariffs.
Ukraine, a priority
In response to the Republican president’s reproaches that Europeans do not dedicate enough efforts to their own security, Scholz stated that, in recent years, “Not a few things have been done to jointly strengthen the European pillar of NATO” and that defense spending “has increased in almost all European States”, although he acknowledged that there is still room for further progress. For his part, the French president stressed the need for a Europe that maintains “transatlantic links” but that also “knows how to affirm its own interests and defend them with its values and with European instruments,” according to Efe.
For Macron and Scholz, the defense of European interests implies continuing to support the Ukrainians against “Russian aggression” with the objective, in the words of the French president, of “establishing the conditions for a just and lasting peace.” This contrasts with the statements of Trump, who has reiterated on several occasions his intention to end the war “in 24 hours” forcing Russia and Ukraine to sit at the negotiating table and withdraw US aid to kyiv.
Aware that Trump’s arrival could be a setback, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on European leaders on Tuesday to increase defense spending and assume responsibility for their own security, turning Europe into an “indispensable” global player. “Will President Donald Trump pay attention to Europe? Does he consider NATO necessary? Will he respect EU institutions?” Zelensky questioned during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, before concluding that “Europe does not can allow itself to be relegated to a second or third plane by its allies.
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