In response to the threats made by US President Donald Trump against Spain in the context of the conflict between the United States and Israel and Iran, the European Commission expressed its solidarity on Wednesday 4 March “with all Member States and their citizens”.
It also said it was “ready to act, if necessary, to safeguard the interests of the European Union (...) through (the) common commercial policy”, as Olof Gill, deputy spokesman for the EU institution, put it.
The European Commission has also reiterated that it expects the United States to comply fully with the commitments made in the joint trade statement of summer 2025, which was shaken by the recent decision of the US Supreme Court to invalidate the US tariffs adopted in 2025 (see EUROPE 13816/6).
The President of the European Council, António Costa, also expressed the EU’s full solidarity”, reiterating that the EU would “always ensure that the interests of its Member States are fully protected”, via the X network. And added that: “We reaffirm our firm commitment to the principles of international law and the rules-based international order everywhere in the world”.
In similar terms, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, expressed France’s “European solidarity” with the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, “in response to the recent threats of economic coercion against Spain”.
The US President hinted the previous day that he would suspend trade relations with Spain, after the Spanish government banned the US from using its military bases as part of its attack on Iran, launched on 28 February.
Pedro Sánchez, who spoke to Mr Costa and Mr Macron by telephone, as well as to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thanked them publicly for their support. The latter has not officially communicated any exchanges with the Spanish leader.
In a televised address on Wednesday, he firmly reiterated his opposition to the current war, saying he did not want to be “complicit” in the American-Israeli attacks on Iran “for fear of reprisals”, by which he meant American reprisals. “NO to violations of international law. NO to the illusion that we can find solutions to international crises by bombing. NO to repeating the mistakes of the past”, he declared. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys and Camille-Cerise Gessant)