The Guardian view on the EU and Trump: unity is strength | Editorial

European leaders, Sir Keir Starmer among them, will gather on Monday in Brussels to informally discuss defence and security issues five years after Britain left the EU. When the meeting was set last year, few expected US aggression toward a European nation to be on the agenda. But initial incredulity at Donald Trump’s bellicose claims on Greenland, a Danish territory, has been followed by shocked expressions of solidarity with Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. A bullying 45-minute phone call between Mr Trump and Ms Frederiksen was described as “horrendous”.

So it begins. As Europe reacquaints itself with Mr Trump’s aggressive “America First” brand of diplomacy, further such provocations can be guaranteed. Fighting talk emanating from the White House will sometimes be a prelude to eventual compromise. But there can be no doubt that the challenges raised by the president’s second coming are substantial and wide-ranging.

Threatened tariffs, levied in response to EU trade surpluses, would hit economies already suffering from anaemic levels of growth and an ongoing cost of living crisis. Mr Trump’s big tech acolytes are determined to undermine Brussels’ attempts to properly regulate social media, and protect their own overweening power to influence debate. On Ukraine, the EU will need to fight to be inside the room to ensure that an unjust peace deal is not imposed by Washington on Kyiv. And the impact of EU environmental regulations on American businesses is set to become another Trumpian cause célèbre.

As Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz argued at a joint press conference the day after the inauguration, unity of purpose will be critical if European interests and values are to be adequately defended. Sadly, the circumstances for achieving that are unpropitious. The French president and German chancellor both preside over countries mired in domestic political crises likely to stretch into the summer and beyond.

Further complicating matters, the rise of populist nationalist parties across the continent threatens Maga-style disruption within the EU, cheered on by Elon Musk. In Berlin, the traditional cordon sanitaire excluding the far right from mainstream politics was ominously breached this week as Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, relied on Alternative für Deutschland votes to pass an opposition motion despite previously pledging not to – drawing criticism from Angela Merkel, his most successful predecessor as Christian Democratic Union leader.

But a brighter scenario would be one in which four more years of Mr Trump catalyse a pragmatic reset that is overdue. As Mr Macron has advocated, the EU has the chance to respond to a transformed global context by leveraging its own strengths as a market of 450 million people, and deepening strategic autonomy in areas such as defence, tech and AI, and the green transition.

That will take economic ambition. Acting on the Draghi report on European competitiveness, Brussels should belatedly abandon the doctrinaire fiscal conservatism that has prioritised debt reduction over investment and growth. If the EU is to stand up to Mr Trump, and fulfil its obligations and pledges to Ukraine, it needs to liberate the collective resources to do so. After four decades of championing free trade, Europe has been slow to adapt to a new era of geopolitical rivalry. Mr Trump’s re-election suggests his brutal, transactional style isn’t an anomaly but is becoming the new normal. To deal with a new kind of United States, a new kind of Europe will be required.

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