Donald Trump is the main challenge that Europe is facing at this time. If the European Union was immersed in strengthening its competitiveness, the road threatens to steep if the US imposes tariffs. And after three years of war in Ukraine, Washington has kicked the board that has left the EU knocked out at a time when its own security that is externalized on the other side of the Atlantic cannot be guaranteed. With that scenario, and the displants that have been evident as the plant to the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, by his American counterpart or Trump’s refusal to receive Ursula von der Leyen, who asked for an audience even before his investiture, the hand remains laid.
This has been made clear by the president of the European Commission at a press conference this Sunday on the occasion of the first 100 days of mandate (which are fulfilled, however, on Tuesday) in which she has defended what they have done at this time “that has seemed a life.” The US fluctuations are those that have generated the main restlessness in Europe. “If two months ago we thought what came to us, now we thought that hopefully we would have been left with what we believed came to us,” admitted this week a high European source on the order that Trump has launched on economic and on Ukraine.
Even so, von der Leyen has reiterated that the US is the “main partner” of the EU and that you have to work “together”, despite the differences. The German rules, therefore, distances with that country with strategies such as the EU with other powers, such as China, with which it carries out a “de-risking” policy, which means preparing to eliminate risks such as dependence on raw materials, for example.
But to a large extent, the EU has been forced to accelerate its plans to increase defense spending and strategic security capacities precisely due to the US and von der Leyen turn has defended the ‘Reharme Plan’ with which it intends that countries inject 800,000 million euros into the expenditure, military in the coming years, even if that involves increasing debt and deficit. “Extraordinary times require extraordinary efforts,” reiterated the German, who has recognized that there is now a greater “feeling of urgency.”
It has also been open to explore other additional proposals, such as Eurobons (Spain claims that there are direct transfers for defense and not only credits), although it has said that it is early to take those measures and that at the moment they will limit themselves to the legislative development of what has already been put on the table.
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and this also applies to the commission. To deal with the difficult way ahead we have to change towards a preparation mentality. Therefore, in the coming weeks I will convene the first security school, ”he said about an initiative with which he intends to guarantee that all members of the community government receive information on security events, whether external or internal, but also in terms of energy, defense, cybersecurity, trade or foreign interference, among other issues. “Only if we have a very clear and in -depth compression of threats, also hybrids, we can effectively contribute to collective security,” he said.
There have been no large ads at the press conference beyond advancing that the proposal for returns of migrants without papers that the Colegio de Commissioners will launch this Tuesday – and that is about to see if it includes the controversial deportation centers outside the EU as those of the ultra -rightist Giorgia Meloni in Albania – will include a new “European order of returns” (or what is the same as expulsions).
Von der Leyen has taken the opportunity to breastfeed in its management in these three months, especially with the design of the “Rearme Plan”, which has assured that it will serve to boost the industry, as well as the plans to remove the EU from the lethargy, with the strategic dialogues with sectors such as agricultural or the car, which have resulted in steps back on the green agenda. The same has happened with the Bus Package with which the European Commission intends to simplify administrative processes, but that in practice will involve a reduction in environmental and social requirements.
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