EU
expresses ‘concern’ over Trump
‘There
was no sense of anti-Americanism,’ Maltese prime minister says, but
the US president dominated Valletta talks.
By DAVID M.
HERSZENHORN AND MAÏA DE LA BAUME 2/3/17, 5:43 PM CET Updated 2/4/17,
12:17 AM CET
VALLETTA — Donald
Trump may be worried about bad hombres, but EU leaders are worried
about the U.S. president’s bad attitude.
At a Friday
lunchtime discussion on how to deal with the unpredictable new man in
the White House, EU leaders voiced “concern” over actions taken
by Trump and also over some of the “attitudes” shown by his
administration, according to Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat,
who hosted the summit.
It was a sign of how
deeply unsettled and unfamiliar the previously rock-solid
relationship between the U.S. and its European allies has become that
Muscat felt compelled to note, “There was no sense of
anti-Americanism.”
“Obviously
there was concern amongst the EU 28 on some decisions that are being
taken by the new U.S. administration” — Joseph Muscat
“We had a very
open discussion with regards to the developments in our transatlantic
partnership, developments in the United States,” Muscat, whose
country holds the rotating EU presidency, said at a news conference
with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“Obviously there
was concern amongst the EU 28 on some decisions that are being taken
by the new U.S. administration, and also some attitudes that are
being adopted,” Muscat said.
It was a clear
reference to Trump’s immigration policies, which he imposed
unilaterally and without alerting European allies, and despite the
fact that he had met with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May hours
earlier.
Noting there was no
hostility toward Trump or the U.S., Muscat said, “There was a sense
we need to engage.” But he added, “We cannot stay silent where
principles are involved.”
While officials
tried to keep the tone light, and Tusk even joked that he has a new
nickname — “our Donald” — there was no disguising how shaken
the Europeans seem to be after the first two weeks of Trump’s
shock-and-awe presidency.
The meals at EU
summits are typically reserved for discussing some of the weightiest
and most fraught subjects, such as a dinner discussion in October
over the EU’s future relationship with an assertive Russia.
Instead, Friday’s focus was on the United States, the country that
the EU has regarded as a loyal and protective big brother since the
end of World War II.
One senior diplomat
from a Central European country said several leaders “had urged
restraint and engagement” with Trump during the lunch and that
there was no “clear divide between East and West” on the new U.S.
administration.
Noting that in
recent days May had met with Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the
senior diplomat joked darkly that it was “meet your dictator week.”
Many of the leaders
were especially eager to hear from May, the only European leader who
has met Trump face-to-face since his inauguration.
A U.K. government
official said May told the leaders that she tried to impress upon
Trump that a strong EU was important to the U.S. May said at the
White House that Trump expressed “100 percent” commitment to the
NATO alliance.
“With regards to
engagement with the USA,” the U.K. official said, “she urged
other EU leaders to work patiently and constructively with a friend
and ally, an ally who has helped guarantee the longest period of
peace this Continent has ever known. She said that the alternative —
division and confrontation — would only embolden those who would do
us harm, wherever they may be.”
Muscat said Europe
would not be shy about expressing its view to Trump. “As in any
good relationship we will speak very freely,” he said.
Merkel, at her own
news conference after the summit lunch, said the leaders discussed
the role they saw for Europe in the world now that the Trump
administration had taken office, including a leading role in the
development of Africa.
“We once again
made very clear what our common values are, made a commitment to
multilateralism and also made clear that we want to pursue further
free trade agreements as a European Union,” Merkel said. In her
understated way, it was a pointed warning to Trump not to try to
divide the EU, particularly given reports that trade officials in the
Trump administration had reached out to individual EU countries in an
bid to explore bilateral agreements.
Merkel said that
while there would often be agreement with the U.S. there would
clearly be disagreements, including on Trump’s travel ban.
“There will be
areas on which we don’t agree,” she said. “I have said
repeatedly in the last few days that even the fight against
international terrorism doesn’t justify general suspicion against
people from a particular country or with a particular religion.”
Defense spending
In keeping with
their stated desire to engage Trump, some EU leaders, including
Merkel and French President François Hollande, spoke at the lunch
about their support for increasing military spending — a clear
attempt at outreach by offering to address one of Trump’s loudest
criticisms of the European allies.
“Europe must
organize its proper defense,” Hollande said. “We must reinforce
our capacities,” he added, “put more financial means through a
fund, and put in place in the long run a strategic autonomy.”
Pressed about the
role of the U.K., as it prepares to leave the EU, Tusk said he
expected Britain to form its own relationship with the U.S. and the
EU would have to do the same. “We have no illusions,” he said.
“In the future, we have to count on the 27 because of an obvious
reason, it’s because of Brexit.”
Still, he said that
there was a clearly alignment between May’s view and those of the
other EU leaders. “I have no doubts also after today’s
discussions and what Theresa May said, I have no doubt that today we
can feel some kind of spirit of solidarity among 28 member states,”
Tusk said.
One sign of the EU’s
solidarity was personal. “Maybe the best evidence that we are
together in this context was the fact that some of my colleagues used
a new nickname for me, spontaneously, which is ‘Our Donald’
compared to the new president of the United States.”
That prompted Muscat
to extend the joke, by declaring an architectural shift in Brussels.
“And the new Council Building,” he declared, “the Tusk Tower.”
Charlie Cooper,
Jacopo Barigazzi and Andrew Gray contributed reporting to this
article.
Authors:
David M. Herszenhorn
and Maïa de La Baume
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