Can Europe be the USAID Band-Aid?

 

Can Europe be the USAID Band-Aid?

By Sarah Wheaton

February 7, 2025 7:03 am CET

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/can-europe-be-the-usaid-band-aid/

Brussels Playbook

By SARAH WHEATON

 

A Note to Our Readers from POLITICO’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief

 

POLITICO has been the subject of debate on X this week. Some of it has been misinformed, and some of it has been flat-out false. Let’s set the record straight.

 

POLITICO is a privately owned company. We have never received any government funding — no subsidies, no grants, no handouts. Not one dime, ever, in 18 years.

 

Millions of people around the world read our journalism on POLITICO.com, POLITICO.eu, and in newsletters like this one. It is supported by advertising and sponsorships.

 

POLITICO Pro is different. It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies. They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs — helping them track policy, legislation and regulations in real-time with news, intelligence and a suite of data products. At its core, POLITICO Pro is about transparency and accountability: Shining a light on the work of the agencies, regulators, and policymakers throughout our governments. Businesses and entities within the government find it useful as they navigate the chaotic regulatory and legislative landscape. It’s that simple.

 

Most POLITICO Pro subscribers are in the private sector. They come from across the ideological spectrum and subscribe for one reason: value. And 90 percent renew every year because they rely on our reporting, data and insights.

 

Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes —just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports.

 

Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: POLITICO has no financial dependence to the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy — that’s our job.

 

We stand by our work, our values, and our commitment to transparency, accountability, and efficiency — the same principles that drive great journalism and great business.

 

Now, back to work.

 

Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris

 

DRIVING THE DAY: SOFT POWER VACUUM  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap

HOWDY. Sarah Wheaton back with you here for your regularly scheduled programming in this Friday edition of Brussels Playbook. Nick Vinocur holds the pen Monday.

 

USAID CUTS SLICE THROUGH EU’S PLANS: Since Donald Trump’s reelection and even before that, the theme has been all about hard power. The EU needs to spend more on its own defense, build its own weapons and cultivate “strategic autonomy.” That’s an overarching topic as European commissioners, including President Ursula von der Leyen, gather to spend the day in Gdańsk with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk — and ahead of next week’s Munich Security Conference, which will be a schmooze-fest with defense contractors and strategists (POLITICO will be on the ground to cover it all).

 

Humanitarian hole: With all but 300 of USAID’s 13,000 workers set to go on administrative leave today, the EU might suddenly face demands to fill the hole left by the agency’s $40 billion development budget just when it’s trying to push more toward defense — and when economic pressures mean more demands on social systems at home.

 

Case in point: Germany, the second largest government donor to humanitarian aid after the U.S. Berlin and allies are already stressing over alternatives, Hans von der Burchard reports. After all, it’s not just USAID — Trump’s plans to leave the World Health Organization will threaten pandemic preparedness in Africa, for example. The situation is “very dangerous,” said Nils Schmid, the Social Democrats’ foreign policy spokesperson. “Unlike during Trump’s first term in office, other countries such as Germany are less able to compensate for this because the current budget situation is much tighter.”

 

What’s at stake: Funding for the Balkans is especially likely to dry up, my colleague Eric Bazail-Eimil reports, as will non-military assistance to Ukraine. Over at POLITICO’s EU Influence newsletter, Elisa Braun considers how the loss of U.S. support could hurt democracy promotion efforts in the EU’s eastern neighborhood — clearing obstacles to Russian interference.

 

Pressing the issue with Trump’s team: After months of relative silence, EU foreign ministers are likely to finally meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Trump’s envoy for the Ukraine-Russia war Keith Kellogg, on Wednesday in Paris, Hans hears, though it’s not set in stone.

 

HOW TO FRAME AN ARGUMENT FOR NON-DEFENSE EU FUNDING: “Culture is part and parcel of our work on democracy and our work on strengthening the Union, including our security in Europe,” said Glenn Micallef, who granted his inaugural interview as the youth, sport and culture commissioner to my colleagues Pieter Haeck and Eddy Wax.

 

TRADE WARS  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap1

SHIELDING BIG TECH: The Trump administration will consider new trade action against countries in Europe and around the world that impose digital trade barriers on the U.S., including digital services taxes, trade rep nominee Jamieson Greer told U.S. lawmakers Thursday. “If anybody’s regulating our digital companies, it’s going to be us,” Greer said. More from Doug Palmer here.

 

Who is most at risk in the event of a transatlantic trade war? Giovanna Coi has the analysis and graphics.

 

HEADLINES WE CAN RELATE TO: In Kentucky bourbon country, the prospect of a trade war feels like a hangover that won’t go away, from the Associated Press.

 

Speaking of stocking up … listen up: In the process of recording this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast, we learned that imports of Parmigiano cheese to the U.S. jumped by 10 percent last year as Americans braced for tariffs on European foodstuffs. After all, it’s a key part of the storied Mediterranean diet.

 

“Gastronationalism”: But as our colleague Alessandro Ford explained, it turns out the diet isn’t so healthy anymore. That hasn’t stopped it from landing at the center of Italy’s fight against EU climate and health regs, just one example of the “gastronationalism” sweeping the bloc. Plus, Pieter Haeck has a primer on Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s EVP for tech, democracy and security. Listen here.

 

WHAT ELSE TRUMP HAS BEEN UP TO: The Trump administration is shuttering Task Force KleptoCapture, created in 2022 to enforce sanctions and target Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin, Reuters reports … and Trump signed an executive order issuing sanctions against the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the U.S. and Israel.

 

MEGA MIXER  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap

PATRIOTS FOR EUROPE RAIN DOWN ON SPAIN: The “Make Europe Great Again” gathering of the far-right Patriots for Europe party kicks off today in sunny Madrid. Though nothing official has been announced, senior figures including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally are expected to meet behind closed doors, writes Max Griera, who is on the ground to bring you the latest.

 

The big public show is on Saturday morning when the leaders of the Patriots’ national member parties will take the stage at Madrid’s Marriott Auditorium (next to the airport) with speeches boasting about the winds of change coming to Europe following Trump’s election. Other speakers include Patriots president and Spanish Vox party leader Santiago Abascal, Italy’s Lega leader Matteo Salvini, Dutch PVV chief Geert Wilders and Czech ANO’s Andrej Babiš.

 

AUSTRIAN COALITION TALKS RESTART: Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl will address the MEGA rally via video on Saturday. He’s occupied in Vienna — after a break in discussions, the FPÖ and the center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) are diving back into coalition negotiations, public broadcaster ORF reports. It could see in a Kickl chancellorship.

 

OUR OWN BACKYARD  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap

GANG WARS ROCK BRUSSELS: Kalashnikovs. A metro-tunnel manhunt. Territorial disputes and reprisals.

 

Brussels is reeling from three shootings linked to drug trafficking. On Thursday, Brussels Mayor Philippe Close convened an urgent meeting with the mayors of the city’s different municipalities to discuss the security concerns.

 

Who’s in charge here? Belgium’s newly installed federal governing coalition has pledged a “zero-tolerance” response to drugs around metro stations; Interior Minister Bernard Quintin made a point of ordering more federal police in the subway. But Brussels still lacks a regional government, with Francophone Socialists resisting a team-up with Flemish nationalists.

 

The fierce urgency of … then: “Of course it’s an emergency,” Jean Spinette, mayor of Brussels’ Saint-Gilles municipality, told POLITICO. “But it has been an emergency since I became mayor two years ago.” Read the full article from Elena Giordano, Ketrin Jochecová and Hanne Cokelaere.