The European Union must start acting like the global power it already is, as the bloc confronts the shifting trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, says former EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
“Europe must be at the level of what it represents: a power on the scale of the United States and China,” Breton told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in an interview published Saturday.
Breton, who has attacked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for “questionable governance” in the past, called on her to take the lead as trade is an exclusively EU competence.
“The European Commission represents 450 million citizens,” Breton said, adding that it was up to the Commission chief “to assert that weight by leading the negotiations in Washington.”
Confronted with an aggressive trade agenda from the United States under Trump, Breton insists that Europe cannot afford hesitation. It is a time for unity and central leadership if the EU is to be taken seriously on the global stage, he said.
According to Breton, the bloc’s decision to pause retaliatory measures against the U.S. on Thursday, after Trump delayed his announced tariffs, should be seen as an opportunity to act strategically.
“This pause must not be seen as a sign of weakness,” Breton said. “Our territorial integrity — I’m thinking of Greenland — and our democratic integrity — I’m thinking of our digital regulation laws — are non-negotiable,” he said.
The recent volatility on financial markets caused by Trump’s back and forth, shows to Breton that the U.S. “is not in a strong position,” he said. Breton underscored that the U.S. debt burden is a fundamental weakness, warning that with more than $33 trillion in liabilities, Washington is deeply reliant on foreign creditors — including Europe — to sustain its economy.
“The U.S.’s creditors are the very countries they’re targeting now,” Breton stressed. “It would be smart politics to treat them with care.”
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