When the American president, vice-president and sundry acolytes spend their time badmouthing and attacking Europe, the key question is not whether they are right or wrong, nor even how European leaders should respond.
The key question is why these self-described America Firsters take the trouble to rubbish countries far away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The answer is that Europe matters, despite all its frailties. We should take this unwanted attention as a compliment.
Europe matters, in fact, because of its strength, not the weakness that Trump accuses it of. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, European countries and institutions have provided nearly two-thirds of the military and financial aid received by Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker, and more than 95% of aid that has been pledged but so far unallocated.
The European Union’s economy is eight times larger than Russia’s, or ten times if you add the UK. They may not be as prosperous as they would like to be, but European countries can afford to keep on supporting Ukraine, which makes them an obstacle to an American administration that wants to remove the Ukraine war as an obstacle to its own desire to do business with Russia.
Certainly, European companies lag far behind American ones in most forms of digital technology. But another reason why Europe matters was shown by the disproportionately noisy and hostile reaction from Trump and Vance to the quite modest fine of 120 million euros (US$141.3 million) imposed by the EU on December 5 on Elon Musk’s X for breaking the EU’s transparency rules. Contrary to Vance’s claim, this penalty was not an attack on free speech. It was simply a penalty for breaking the law.
Trump, Vance and their acolytes stated in America’s new National Security Strategy that they are opposed to the whole idea of the European Union as a supranational body of laws developed (as it is) according to the free democratic will of sovereign EU member states. Its creation and development have been the result of acts of sovereignty, and are not, as the National Security Strategy claims, threats to sovereignty.
Clearly, the EU poses no actual threat to American security, especially as 23 of the 27 EU members are America’s treaty allies in NATO. What the EU does do is to pose a threat to the full freedom of the large American online tech platforms, on whose support Trump and Vance depend. The EU’s regulatory power is a threat to the platforms’ profitability.
Europe also matters to this American administration in other ways, because its superior health outcomes, its better-functioning welfare systems and the higher priority given in European politics to issues such as climate change and inequality serve to make the United States look less good even in the eyes of its own citizens, let alone the rest of the world.
In that sense, of being a mirror in which America can look at itself and sometimes feel bad, Europe offends Trump in much the same way as Democratic Ukraine offends Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These American attacks should not be described as a “wake-up call” for Europe because so many of the attacks are actually false and because in important areas such as military spending, defense industry expansion and diplomatic leadership, much of Europe has woken up long ago.
There is much more to be done, and still parts of Europe that want to hide from the reality of the security threats that we face, but in many respects, Europe is moving clearly in the right direction.
European Union and UK leaders should take Trump’s attacks as a compliment, disrespectful and often ugly though they are, but also as a warning that the major political community on which we have depended for peace over the past 80 years has now fallen apart.
What we have called “The West” can no longer exist if that community’s former leader, America, is declaring political war on Europe, while choosing not to define Russia and China as threats. The West may not be dead forever, but it must be considered defunct for as long as either Trump or Vance occupies the White House.
From now on, Europe will have to act as if it is on its own. This does not mean it can ignore America and nor should it retaliate against Trump in words or deeds. But it has to take decisions and actions independently of America, and simply welcome US support for those actions whenever such support transpires.
It must not, and cannot, wait for American permission, which is the way in which many European leaders behaved for much of the first half of this year.
The immediate test will come over continued financial support for Ukraine, and in particular over the proposal to lend Ukraine 140 billion euros on the basis of Russian central bank assets that have been frozen in European bank accounts since February 2022.
The European Union has now agreed to adopt emergency powers available under Article 122 of the EU’s treaty to freeze Russia’s central bank assets indefinitely, a move that ought to draw Trump’s respect, given that he has chosen to impose his import tariffs under emergency powers.
This will prevent pro-Russian governments, such as Hungary’s, from blocking the loan to Ukraine by blocking the sanctions through which the assets were originally frozen.
Then a final decision on the loan has to be made at the December 18 meeting of the European Council: [Belgium and Italy have been stalling the loan, supposedly on legal grounds but also for quite ignoble reasons in Italy’s case to do with divisions inside the governing coalition] The UK has promised to join the loan to Ukraine if the EU proceeds with it.
By acting decisively on this [or if agreement cannot be reached, by immediately finding another means to finance Ukraine], European leaders will confirm that they are strong, not weak, and will bolster Ukraine’s own bargaining position with both Russia and America.
The Europeans can also show their strength by making concrete proposals about sending military forces to Ukraine to guarantee that country’s security if a ceasefire can be agreed upon with Russia.
With its usual bluster, Russia has claimed that it will consider any European troops stationed in Ukraine to be legitimate military targets. But if it is serious about that threat, then it is plainly not serious about making a ceasefire or peace deal with Ukraine. Europe needs to call Putin’s bluff, and Trump’s bluff too.
This is the English original of an article originally published in Italian by La Stampa. It can also be found in English on Bill Emmott’s Global View Substack. It is republished with permission.
