The EU appears to be divided between the line of Giorgia Meloni (who wants to avoid the wall against wall) and that of Emmanuel Macron (who prefers the hard line): he goes to the fate of transatlantic relationships
The 20% duties at the European Union, announced on Wednesday by Donald Trump, have shocked Brussels considerably.
“We are already completing a first package of countermeasures in response to the steel rates. And now we are preparing for further countermeasures, to protect our interests and activities if the negotiations fail, “said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, while visiting Samarkand. “We will also carefully observe the indirect effects that these rates could have, because we cannot absorb global supercability nor will we accept dumping on our market,” he continued.
«The unjustified rates inevitably return against. We will act calmly, carefully gradual and unitary, while we calibrate our response, while leaving adequate time for interviews. But we will not remain inert, if we are not able to reach a fair agreement. I will talk to my US homologues tomorrow », in the meantime he has affirmed the European Commissioner to Commerce, Maros Sefcovic.
In all this, the Spanish Premier, Pedro Sanchez, accused Trump of having caused an “unjust and unjustified crisis”, while the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, defined the move of the American president “basically wrong”. «We are ready to react. Our favorite option is obviously negotiating an agreement. We don’t want growing commercial barriers. We don’t want a commercial war. If this fails, the EU is ready with countermeasures. And we are a great commercial power at a global level, “said the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson.
For its part, Emmanuel Macron seems willing to promote the hard line against the United States. He defined the “brutal and unfounded” duties, claiming that the European Union should react “sector by sector”. “Nothing can be excluded,” he specified. Second Bloomberg Newsthe French president also asked that European companies interrupt their investments in the USA. An approach, that of the Elysée’s tenant, rather far from the position of Giorgia Meloni who, while defining the “wrong” rates, is urging to avoid taking an attitude marked by the wall against wall. The line promoted by Palazzo Chigi is in fact to safeguard transatlantic relationships as much as possible, exhorting the European institutions to understand what the dossiers on which Trump wants to open negotiations are.
The future of the European response will therefore depend on which approach to the end will prevail. If Meloni wins, Brussels will carve negotiations to try to recompose fractures with the White House. If Macron will impose himself, the EU will opt for the wall against wall. A strategy, the latter, which would prove to be anything but wise. The risk is not only to aggravate economic damage, but also to condemn the entire European Union to a further geopolitical irrelevance.
