The Brief – Why Europe has succumbed to Chinese whispers
'I beg of you, monsieur, watch yourself… this place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere!' the Frenchman exclaims as he quietly lifts the unsuspecting man's wallet and walks off. The victim's naïveté makes it difficult to feel sorry for him – we all saw it coming.
So it is with Europe these days, as it stumbles across the world stage, treating friends like vultures and vultures like friends.
The tragedy of that wrongheadedness has rarely been as obvious as this week, as the EU struggles to formulate coherent policies on an array of flashpoints from Gaza to the war in Ukraine to U.S. trade talks.
On Gaza, the bloc is hopelessly divided between countries that do not think Israel has the right to continue to wage war against Hamas, given the large number of civilian casualties, and those who believe that Europe has a moral duty to continue to back the Middle East's only democracy after the savagery of 7 October.
At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, EU foreign ministers failed to resolve their differences over a proposal to effectively sanction Israel for its hard line on Gaza.
Meanwhile, just hours after Donald Trump confirmed his willingness to arm Ukraine in the face of Russia's intensifying bombing campaign there, the EU was forced to postpone a decision over a new Russian sanctions package. The reason? Slovakia – a country that accounts for 0.7% of EU's GDP and about 1% of its population – is blocking it.
On the tariff front, the picture is no less confused. After months of negotiations the Commission went into last weekend believing it had escaped Trump's wrath, only to be slapped with the threat of what would be a crippling 30% tariff regime on Saturday.
It's easy to blame Trump's volatility and mercurial nature for the outcome. As ever, the truth is a little more complicated. It has since emerged that Brussels wasn't willing to go far enough on China by, in the words of one senior EU official, agreeing to a Trump demand that the bloc 'follow us 100% on what we do on China'.
Leopoldo Rubinacci, the Commission official, went on to say: 'I don't think, as a matter of principle, that the European Union should follow examples. I think that the European Union should set its own examples.'
The example Europe has set on China is hardly one others should emulate.
With Beijing, Europe has slipped on the proverbial Chinese finger trap: Resistance only makes the pain worse. Even as Europe allowed the Chinese to steal most of their intellectual property, European industry – especially the Germans – built up such a heavy dependency on China that it would be impossible to head for the exits, no matter what Trump threatens.
That bitter reality explains why the EU ended up in a place where it devotes much its diplomatic energy and moral outrage to castigating a liberal country of 10 million defending itself against terrorism, while saying virtually nothing about the real-life concentration camps China's authoritarian regime has erected in Xinjiang to 're-educate' Uyghurs. It's also why Europe says nothing about China's crackdown in Hong Kong, nothing about the Chinese Communist Party's systematic suppression of Tibet and little about Taiwan.
That's where the Casablanca metaphor falls apart. Unlike the hapless gentleman at Rick's, Europe knows exactly who the vultures are; it just lacks the moral clarity and courage to face them down. The Roundup Bigger budget? – The next Multiannual Financial Framework aims to answer mammoth challenges. Can it deliver or will member states savage the Commission proposal?
W(h)ining about a trade war – Europe's wine sector has condemned the European Commission's plan to make wine part of its €72 billion push-back against US exports.
Meaty veggislation – A draft proposal by the European Commission seeks to restrict the use of traditional meat terms for plant-based products but does not go as far as banning widely used terms such as 'steak', 'burger', and 'sausage'. Across Europe Iranian espionage, German extradition – Denmark extradited a Danish national accused of spying on Jewish Institutions in Berlin on behalf of Iran to Germany, where he could face up to 10 years in prison.
Keeping kids off social media – France declared victory in its efforts to ban social media for children under 15 after the Commission unveiled guidelines to protect minors online.
Patriot purchase – Denmark and the Netherlands are looking to participate in Donald Trump's plan for Europe to buy American weapons for Ukraine. It is not clear how fast deals can be made.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euractiv
8 minutes ago
- Euractiv
Arrest in Russia-linked school bomb threats sparks Czech-Slovak row
Arrest in Russia-linked school bomb threats sparks Czech-Slovak row PRAGUE - Slovakia's arrest of a Ukrainian suspect in last year's school bomb threats has sparked tensions with Czechia after Prague said the man was likely funded by Russian, a detail Slovak authorities left out. The Ukrainian suspect is accused of sending bomb threats that disrupted hundreds of schools across Slovakia and Czechia in September 2024, prompting evacuations and emergency police action. In a Facebook post , Slovak police said the arrest was made in Dnipro, Ukraine, as part of a joint operation with Czech and Ukrainian counterparts. But the Slovak statement, which according to the Czech officials was missing some information, quickly drew pushback. The Czech Security Information Service (BIS) said the Ukrainian suspect was 'likely financed by a Russian actor ' - a detail omitted from the Slovak police statement. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský similarly referred to 'a very likely' Russian actor behind the threats. In a press release , Prague's public prosecutor's office said the case is classified as a threat to commit a terrorist crime, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years under Czech law. However, the case has exposed deeper strains in Czech-Slovak cooperation. According to Czech outlet Deník N , Czech prosecutors had urged Slovak authorities to delay the announcement until both sides could present a complete account - including the Russian connection. 'The Slovaks released it deliberately, to make it look like Ukrainians were behind it,' one source told the outlet. Tensions escalated after Czech police spokesperson Ondřej Moravčík told CNN Prima NEWS: 'It's not that we were cooperating - we were the key players, and they just tagged along.' Although the quote was then removed from the broadcast, an audio recording spread online. Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok defended his police forces and urged Czech officials to exercise restraint - but not say why the Russian link was not disclosed. Slovakia's opposition jumped on the fallout, accusing the government of mishandling the case and calling for Eštok's resignation.
Euractiv
8 minutes ago
- Euractiv
France secures €1.6 bln cut in planned EU budget contribution
Jul 17, 2025 05:51 1 min. read News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. France secures €1.6 bln cut in planned EU budget contribution PARIS – France has secured a €1.6 billion reduction in its planned EU budget contribution for 2026, lowering the expected payment to €27.6 billion, according to L'Opinion . Sources close to Budget Minister Amélie de Montchalin indicated that France's total payment to Brussels would be lowered from the €29.2 billion initially projected. If confirmed, the move would offer relief to Prime Minister François Bayrou, just a day after he unveiled his sweeping austerity plan aimed at achieving nearly €44 billion in savings next year. It also undercuts far-right Rassemblement National's (RN) core demand to slash France's contributions to the EU. RN leader Marine Le Pen said in a post on X that the French had 'massively' endorsed freezing France's contributions to the EU by 'by backing Jordan Bardella's list in the European elections', referring to her party colleague's strong performance in last year's elections. (Laurent Geslin) Euractiv is part of the Trust Project Topics
Euractiv
8 minutes ago
- Euractiv
Europe's alphabet soup: E3, E4, G5, and the rise of super groups
The first German-British friendship treaty revives an old European axis – one of many among a growing alphabet soup of subgroups. Euractiv is part of the Trust Project Nick Alipour Euractiv Jul 17, 2025 06:00 6 min. read Analysis Based on factual reporting, although it Incorporates the expertise of the author/producer and may offer interpretations and conclusions. BERLIN – On paper, Germany is set to sign its first-ever bilateral friendship treaty with the UK on Thursday. In reality, it's just one side of a bigger structure. German government officials have stressed that they see the yet-unnamed document as completing the triangle of friendship treaties among Germany, France, and the UK – otherwise known as the E3. That may be partly to alleviate the FOMO of the French, who have been watching the negotiations with suspicion, wary that bilateral agreements might sidestep EU policy. 'When your two best friends make plans without you, you're bound to take a close look,' a French diplomat told Euractiv last autumn. But more broadly, their concern reflects Europe's growing reliance on flexible groupings of influential states to drive decisions and bypass blockades among the unwieldy EU-27. Alas, the resulting inflation in acronyms – including the E3, E4, G5 and various Weimar formats – is thus a sign of the bloc's dysfunction. And it hardly offers a sustainable solution. Mini-lateral momentum Europe's diversity has long been a catalyst for the formation of smaller, interest-driven subgroups, from Visegrád, which champions the interests of Central and Eastern European countries, to MED9, coordinating the positions of Mediterranean countries . But a select few are defined by their weight, with an elite class of groupings formed around the EU's largest countries seeking to influence the bloc's direction. "With 27 EU countries around the table, it is difficult to reach decisions sometimes,' said one European diplomat. "Larger states can come together more quickly and steer the EU.' A second diplomat compared groups like the Weimar Triangle – a post-Cold War platform between Germany, France, and Poland, named after its inaugural meeting location – to the Group of 7 (G7), used by the world's developed economies to steer global politics. At the centre of nearly all these alliances is the Franco-German tandem – a 'hereditary enmity' that has grown into a deep partnership driven by the horrors of the Second World War. In the 1990s, the pair made up nearly 60% of the bloc's GDP and about 45% of its population. Today, following the EU's enlargement, their share in the EU's GDP has dropped to below half by 2023, prompting both to gradually widen the tandem, most notably, to include Poland. D-Day Subgroups like the Weimar Triangle and the E3 (which originally emerged from talks on the Iranian nuclear programme) have since convened at increasing frequency, even more so in recent months. But the spark that caused the explosion in European subgroups came on 6 November 2024, the day after Donald Trump won the US presidential elections for the second time. The same day, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius rushed to see his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu in Paris, haunted by the prospect of an erratic American president and his impact on Europe's security architecture. They were joined by the defence ministers of Italy, Britain, and Poland – completing the group of Europe's largest defence spenders, who have since called themselves the Group of Five (G5). Just two weeks later, the foreign ministers of those five countries, plus Spain and the EU, followed their example, launching what is now known as 'Weimar Plus,' named such because the first three meetings took place in the Weimar capitals. Subgroups have kept multiplying since. The so-called Coalition of the Willing emerged as a 30-odd-member group focused on Ukraine's post-war security. Shortly after came a yet-to-be-named informal quartet (sometimes dubbed the E4), which comprises Germany's Friedrich Merz, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Keir Starmer, and Poland's Donald Tusk. America's retreat from Europe's and Ukraine's security architecture required European leaders to step up, said Yann Wernert, a political scientist at the Jacques Delors Centre. The absence of EU competences, resources, and institutions on foreign policy – and more limited influence of the Franco-German tandem and Weimar Triangle – forced them to recur to new intergovernmental ad-hoc formats, he said. Another reason behind the proliferation: "Britain must be closely integrated into European structures in terms of security policy, in particular, after Brexit,' said one former German diplomat, who champions the E4 format. The groupings have "facilitated a relatively coherent approach by European leaders to the Trump administration since January,' said Rafael Loss, a political scientist at the European Council on Foreign Relations. They have succeeded 'in making a European voice heard and in articulating common interests,' Wernert agreed. On their first outing, the E4 managed to briefly seemed to impress Russian President Vladimir Putin after a joint phone call with Trump, when they threatened to impose American-backed sanctions if Moscow didn't commit to a ceasefire. Putin's willingness to negotiate collapsed, however, when America signalled it wasn't on board. Still, the first European diplomat called the approach 'a sweet poison." On the one hand, it allows larger states to quickly find common positions, they said. On the other hand, it risks 'undermining the EU's federal institutions," especially given its focus on the UK, a non-member. Format fatigue But while these mini-laterals have streamlined communication, they have so far failed to deliver tangible results. In its heyday, the Franco-German tandem brought about the single market and a joint currency, together with Britain. By contrast, even very modest efforts like the 'Weimar Agenda' – a roadmap for EU foreign policy reform unveiled in May 2024 – have fizzled out. In that regard, the subgroups have been dogged by what has long haunted visions of smaller EU subgroups charging forward with integration. 'That presupposes that France and Germany agree, and they don't agree,' a former French government official remarked – an issue that extends to Poland, let alone the Weimar Plus. Loss noted that 'Macron, Merz, and Tusk lack a shared vision for the EU, but do share extremely challenging domestic circumstances at home," thwarting progress in areas other than foreign policy. Worse still, the increasing number of formats has prompted haggling over seats at the table. When US President Biden visited Berlin last year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited only E3 leaders – excluding Poland's Tusk, which raised eyebrows in Warsaw. "The chancellors' advisors said that otherwise Giorgia Meloni would also have had to be invited," said the former German diplomat, calling it a "disastrous signal" and a "weak" excuse. In more absurd moments, the format inflation has caused confusion rather than clarity. Italy, for example, continues to refer to the G5 as E5, which other countries have reserved for the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Britain, and Spain. The alphabet soup of E3, E4, E5, and G5 has led to what one Polish diplomat called groups that 'sound like food additives.' Ultimately, the first European diplomat concluded, the formalisation of constructs like the Weimar Triangle is mostly 'suitable for Sunday speech' but lacks actual cultural grounding, which makes them fleeting and purpose-bound, rather than a panacea. Still, they are here to stay. They have found an enthusiastic supporter in Merz, the German chancellor, who is likely to use the E4 in particular as a tool to cohesively deal with Ukraine and the US, the diplomat added. (mm) Euractiv is part of the Trust Project
