In the face of a new, "highly unpredictable" geopolitical order, the Europeans have no choice but to act in concert in order to exist in a world dominated by hostile superpowers, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said in Tallinn on Tuesday 31 January, following a meeting with the three leaders of the Baltic states.
"For the first time in our history, in an increasingly multipolar external world, so many are becoming openly anti-European, or Eurosceptic at best. 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", Tusk said.
The former Polish Prime Minister called on the European leaders, who will hold an informal meeting of 28 and then 27 in Valetta (Malta) on Friday 3 February, to show "courage, determination and political solidarity". "United we stand, divided we fall", he stressed. He went on to voice his hopes that the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome at the end of March will also provide an opportunity proudly to reiterate what the Europeans have accomplished since the end of the Second World War.
The Europeans gave a scattered response to the recent American 'anti-immigration' decree, which raises the question of possible differentiated treatment for Europeans also holding the nationality of the countries incriminated by the US (see EUROPE 11714). They voiced concerns at the turn taken by American trade policy (idem). On this point, Tusk takes the view that the change in the course of American trade policy should be used to step up the trade negotiations underway between the EU and other interested partners. "The European Union should not abandon its role as a trade supervisor which is open to others (…), remembering that free trade means fair trade". He concluded by calling for the international order based on the rule of law to be defended. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)