My Take | Europe being run into the ground by amateurs and ideologues
Subservient to the United States while being antagonistic to China, the EU-Nato axis is guaranteed to end up with the worst of both worlds
The European Union is determined to talk down to China from a position of considerable weakness. The result has been a prematurely concluded summit in Beijing with nothing to show for it other than a standard statement on climate cooperation.
At the same time, it has literally cried “daddy” by accepting 15 per cent tariffs on exports to the United States after Donald Trump threatened to slap the bloc with duties of up to 50 per cent. No wonder many European politicians openly complain that Brussels has effectively capitulated. The deal is even worse than the 10 per cent tariffs placed on British exports. London is now boasting about Brexit.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou tweeted on X: “It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the deal would cause “considerable damage” to all parties concerned. “Not only will there be a higher inflation rate, but it will also affect transatlantic trade overall,” he said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, a “featherweight” who had been “eaten for breakfast” by the Americans.
Given the challenges from Washington, you might think Brussels would have seized the occasion to expand trade opportunities with China. No, not really.
Before her underwhelming trip to Beijing, von der Leyen and her even lighter-weight deputy, the EU foreign minister Kaja Kallas, continued to talk down to China for supposedly propping up Russia. The reality is that the combined resources of the EU and the US still can’t prop up Ukraine.