How Trump is bringing Europe together again

Boston Globe

7 days ago

Advertisement
The bloc still has very real problems. Its population is aging and economic growth remains slow. Populist detractors who criticize it loudly have been gaining momentum, and it is grasping for ways to revitalize competitiveness. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has come under fierce criticism as she tries to overhaul the bloc's budget.
But even in member states like Denmark, which has long been skeptical of the EU's budget and border policies, feelings toward the bloc have turned decidedly more positive.
'Support toward the EU has never been higher,' Marie Bjerre, Denmark's minister for European Affairs, said in an interview.
About 74 percent of Danes said that they trusted the European Union in a recent public opinion survey conducted for the European Commission, up from 63 percent five years ago. That shift is far from isolated — across member states. Citizens are feeling more trusting toward the EU, continuing a trend that outside polls have found.
Advertisement
The turnaround is not solely because of Trump. The bloc's work in organizing a response to the coronavirus pandemic, including securing vaccines, helped to bolster its popularity. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 illustrated to many European governments and citizens that their own national security could come under threat.
Yet America's recent tone toward its longtime allies has also clearly helped to contribute to what Jörn Fleck, a senior director of the Atlantic Council, calls a 'rally around the European Union flag.'
'We have always had a very strong relationship with the US,' Bjerre explained. 'Now, we are met with unjustified tariffs, and we are even accused of not being a good ally. And of course that resonates, and that is why we're turning a lot to the EU.'
Since taking office in January, Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. His administration has called Europeans 'pathetic' in leaked exchanges on Signal, the messaging app. Trump has said the bloc was formed to 'screw' America.
The president has slapped higher tariffs on European goods, and this month, he threatened to impose a new 30 percent across-the-board levy that European officials warned would hobble trans-Atlantic trade.
Trump has also demanded that Europe do more to pay for its defense, and has suggested that the United States would not come to the aid of countries that he felt were not contributing enough to their security.
Advertisement
All of that has pushed Europe further from America — and closer together.
'There's a creeping awareness that all of the European countries are small at the end of the day,' Fleck said. 'That Europe needs to stick together and pool resources.'
He noted that the rehabilitation of Europe's image has taken time, and was down to many factors.
In the face of Russia's increased aggression and America's insistence that European governments do more on defense, EU member states are trying to rapidly step up their military spending. But as countries have struggled to find room in their strapped national budgets to ramp up drone and howitzer purchases, the European Union has stepped in.
The shared interest in increasing Europe's defenses is not the only issue that is bolstering Brussels' brand. When it comes to Trump's trade threats, the European Union is playing an even more pivotal role.
The European Commission negotiates trade deals for all 27 member states. By acting together as the world's third-largest economy, the bloc has more power than any of its individual countries would have on their own.
While there were initially questions about whether some European states might try to cut side deals with the United States — and Trump administration officials have bemoaned that they cannot talk directly with Germany or other individual governments — European officials have mainly stuck together.
Von der Leyen has also been pitching the benefits of Europe to outside partners, working to sign a flurry of new or improved trade agreements with countries including Mexico, South Korea, and Indonesia.
'In Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, we really consider Europe to be very, very important in providing global stability,' President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said last week at a news conference in Brussels, at which he appeared alongside von der Leyen.
Advertisement
'Maybe not many of us would like to admit it openly, but I am here,' he added, in a seeming nod to Europe's bad run in recent years. 'I admit openly we would like to see a stronger Europe.'
This article originally appeared in