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Does Europe Have Foe in Trump White House? It May, E.U. Official Says Does Europe Have Foe in Trump White House? It May, E.U. Official Says
(about 2 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Among the threats facing Europe in an increasingly hostile world, add President Trump’s bellicose pronouncements, the president of the European Council said Tuesday in a letter identifying the American leader as a potential adversary. BRUSSELS — The president of the European Commission warned leaders Tuesday that President Trump was a potential threat to the European Union, including the American leader’s bellicose pronouncements with major geopolitical challenges like Russian aggression, China’s assertiveness on the seas and international terrorism.
The letter by Donald Tusk, which was sent to European Union leaders, included “worrying declarations by the new American administration” with Russian aggression, terrorism and China’s confrontational maritime policies as threats to the bloc’s future. In a letter sent to European leaders, Donald Tusk, the council president, wrote that those factors and “worrying declarations by the new American administration all make our future highly unpredictable.” And he openly questioned whether the United States would maintain its commitment to European security under Mr. Trump’s leadership.
“For the first time in our history, in an increasingly multipolar external world, so many are becoming openly anti-European, or Eurosceptic at best,” Mr. Tusk wrote. The letter was released ahead of a European Union summit meeting in Malta on Friday; Mr. Tusk is responsible for setting the agenda for the meetings.“For the first time in our history, in an increasingly multipolar external world, so many are becoming openly anti-European, or Eurosceptic at best,” Mr. Tusk wrote. The letter was released ahead of a European Union summit meeting in Malta on Friday; Mr. Tusk is responsible for setting the agenda for the meetings.
“Particularly the change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation; with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy,” he wrote.“Particularly the change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation; with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy,” he wrote.
The European Union has been struggling to contend with fractious forces inside the bloc driven mainly by its failure to find unity to address the migration crisis, resolve a debt crisis that has driven many Greeks into poverty, and respond to external pressures like Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The European Union has been struggling to contend with fractious forces inside the bloc driven mainly by its failure to find a consistent, unified response to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers; the difficulty resolving a debt crisis that has driven many Greeks into poverty, and external pressures like Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The letter does not reflect a new policy for the European Union, and member states of the 28-nation bloc are not required to act on Mr. Tusk’s advice when they meet on Friday. Many European leaders have made their differences with Mr. Trump known. The letter does not reflect a new policy for the European Union, and member states of the 28-nation bloc are not required to act on Mr. Tusk’s advice when they meet on Friday. But many European leaders have made their differences with Mr. Trump known.
Even so, the sentiments expressed in Mr. Tusk’s letter push those European leaders’ exasperation with the American president further into the public view. After the United States said it was temporarily blocking refugees from entering the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany felt compelled to point out to Mr. Trump the obligations of nations under the Geneva Conventions to protect refugees of war on humanitarian grounds. And President François Hollande of France said he had reminded Mr. Trump that “the ongoing fight to defend our democracy will be effective only if we sign up to respect to the founding principles and, in particular, the welcoming of refugees.”
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain sought in a meeting with Mr. Trump last week to confirm his commitment to NATO; he was dismissive of the alliance, the bedrock of European security, during his campaign.
Now, the sentiments expressed in Mr. Tusk’s letter are pushing European leaders’ exasperation with the American president further into the public view.
Mr. Tusk has sounded the alarm about the existential crises facing the bloc before, but never with the urgency he displayed in the letter. And he has never before included a longstanding ally like the United States in the list of challenges.
Much of the frustration Mr. Tusk was displaying in his letter stemmed from what Guntram B. Wolff, director of Bruegel, a research organization in Brussels, said was Mr. Trump’s “de facto supporting” of populist forces that could further upend the European order.
Mr. Trump has lauded the vote by Britain to leave the European Union and suggested that country would thrive outside the bloc. Far-right populist challengers in France, Germany and the Netherlands have adopted some of his anti-establishment rhetoric in their own campaigns.
Still, Mr. Wolff said it was unwise to enter into a war of words with the Trump administration. “We need to uphold our values here, but does it mean that we need now a declaration where we put the United States on the same level as ISIS?” he said. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think it that would be helpful in any way.”
Jan Techau, director of the Richard Holbrooke Forum in Berlin, said Mr. Tusk’s letter was a warning to Europeans not to be lured away from union, or to be tempted away from the bloc by favorable bilateral ties offered by the Trump administration. “He is encouraging everyone to fall into that trap,” Mr. Techau said of the American president.
Mr. Tusk, by contrast, is making the case for Europeans to stick together for their own survival. “He wants to remind them that there is something bigger at stake than just what they are going to be talking about in Malta,” Mr. Techau said.