On Tuesday 3 September, US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland explained to a group of journalists, including EUROPE, that the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Brussels on 2 and 3 September was intended to “reset” the transatlantic relationship.
The Secretary of State met with the future EU management team: Charles Michel, the next President of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, who is expected to become the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and David Sassoli, the new President of the European Parliament.
According to the ambassador, these meetings provided an opportunity to make initial contact so that the relationship is already well established when they take up their positions.
A positive start, according to the American representative, who described the meetings as " extremely warm and friendly". According to him, there was a "real chemistry" between the four new leaders, Mr Pompeo and himself and everyone was "very optimistic about the future". Sondland added that the new European leaders had views close to the American world view.
The US representative expressed confidence that a new start would be made in transatlantic relations. Indeed, according to him, relations with the current team have reached "multiple impasses in multiple fronts resulted in a lot of uncomfortable, cranky conversations" regretting that they have focused on tactics rather than results.
"We want to remove impasses and sometimes, to do that, we have to change the people on the ground", the American representative said. According to him, changing the members of a team can lead to a change in approach.
Mr Sondland said that Europeans and Americans should identify low-hanging fruit in trade issues on China, Iran, Venezuela and 5G, areas where preliminary agreements could be reached and which would create confidence, before tackling more complicated issues.
China could be one of the subjects of rapprochement between the United States and Europe. "All four have great scepticism about China's attempts. They want a committed and productive relationship with China, but with their eyes open," Sondland said, adding that the differences between Washington and Brussels over China were much less significant than two years ago.
Mr Sondland regrets the downgrading of the EU's diplomatic status
In addition, the Ambassador acknowledged that the deterioration of the status of the EU delegation in the United States - since cancelled - had been a mistake, and that he had apologised to the EU (see EUROPE 12168/12, 12206/15). "It was not done properly and it should never have been done," he said, adding that the error had been corrected. He added that he had organised high-level meetings with the new EU ambassador in Washington, Stavros Lambrinidis, to make him feel welcome. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)