...Within 24 hours of one another this week, the German and French leaders made what would have once been remarkable interventions, calling on Europe to establish greater autonomy from the U.S. The common message was it’s time to reassert the continent’s sovereignty in the face of President Donald Trump’s capriciousness.
Both are pushing the EU to take on more global responsibility for defense while weighing a plan to create a separate financial system to ensure European autonomy. As the finance ministers of both countries pick up the discussion during talks in Paris on Wednesday, a question mark remains over whether it’s even feasible for a continent so intertwined with the U.S. to take back control.
“We really are seeing now how Europeans are adjusting their sense of position globally,” said Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels. “The calls for a stronger Europe, on trade as well as on security and defense issues, grow partially out of the frayed trans-Atlantic relationship and also out of concerns over the future of the EU, given rising nationalism in member states and given Brexit.”
A U.S. ‘Foe’
Since winning the White House, Trump has undermined the pillars of the post-World War II order, questioning the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, pulling out of a nuclear accord with Iran that European powers helped negotiate and saying, in the midst of a trade war, that the EU was a “foe” of the U.S. That has prompted Germany and France as the EU’s de facto leaders to consider alternative arrangements.
Yet true financial independence for the EU would imply a currency that could supplant the dollar’s essential global role and a financial framework that could compete with Wall Street, goals that would take many years to attain, if at all. And defense capabilities allowing Europe to safeguard itself look like a tall order for a continent where only five of 29 NATO allies meet the alliance’s target to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense.
A key trigger for moves to establish greater independence was Trump’s decision announced in May to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear accord, forcing European companies including Daimler AG and Total SA to pull out to avoid U.S. sanctions. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas suggested on Monday that EU countries set up payment systems independent of the U.S. to sidestep the new regulations.
“We are determined to work on an independent European or Franco-German financing tool which would allow us to avoid being the collateral victims of U.S. extra-territorial sanctions,” said Le Maire. “I want Europe to be a sovereign continent not a vassal, and that means having totally independent financing instruments that do not today exist.”...
Within 24 hours of one another, they've made what would have once been remarkable interventions.
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