“Escalating tensions with a key ally over tariffs, while our Eastern border is under threat, would have been an imprudent risk”, declared the President of the European Council, António Costa, in Bled on Monday 1 September. In his view, it was crucial to reach an agreement with the United States in order to keep diplomatic channels open and limit the damage caused by tariffs. “We chose diplomacy over escalation”, he insisted.
And to admit that the strength the EU has always prided itself on - its internal market of 450 million consumers - has not been enough to establish a real balance of power.
António Costa set about defending the agreement concluded by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, despite the fact that many stakeholders are critical of its content (see EUROPE 13696/1).
In the coming weeks, the co-legislators will have to give the go-ahead for the removal of tariffs on a whole series of US industrial and agri-food products with a view to implementing the agreement reached. However, the European Parliament is demanding guarantees from the United States and also from the Commission that other tariff threats will not arise in the future. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)