"World" editorial. For once, we can't blame the coronavirus. Relations between the United States and the European Union are going from bad to worse, and one man, essentially, is responsible for this constant deterioration: Donald Trump, the President of the United States.
The past week has been another one of great contention. It began, Monday, June 15, with a videoconference of the foreign ministers of the Twenty-Seven with the head of the American diplomacy, Mike Pompeo. What has been officially called "exchanges" has in reality been limited to a series of monologues, which in everyday language is called a dialogue of the deaf. The lack of outcome of this meeting went all the more unnoticed as no outcome was really hoped for.
Then President Trump confirmed his desire to limit the American contingent stationed in Germany to 25,000 soldiers, which currently has 35,400, which implies the withdrawal of 9,500 soldiers. The American military presence in Germany is not exclusively intended for the protection of this country, it also serves as a platform for American forces deployed in other regions. But Trump has many grievances, particularly trade ones, against Germany, and has regularly called on him to increase defense spending. Her latest decision, however, was announced just after Chancellor Angela Merkel's refusal to travel to attend a G7 summit in Washington in late June, which has since been canceled, and may therefore pass for reprisal.
Incessant attacks
The next episode is Polish. Warsaw has been working for a long time to obtain an American base on the eastern flank of the EU and has therefore hastened to offer to welcome the troops withdrawn from Germany. Delighted with this opportunity to divide Europe, Donald Trump invited Polish President Andrzej Duda to come to Wahsington on June 24. The fact that this visit comes four days before the presidential election in Poland, for which Mr. Duda is a candidate, does not disturb either of the two presidents, any more than Warsaw seems embarrassed by this obvious interference in the Polish electoral campaign – without talk about the snub thus addressed to Mme Merkel by Poland.
Then, Thursday, the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, wrote to several of his European colleagues, including the French, to withdraw from the negotiations on the digital taxes that Europeans want to impose on GAFA. Better still, Mr. Mnuchin warned them that the countries that would introduce these taxes would face American sanctions. Bruno Le Maire shouted at the " provocation ".
It is difficult to contradict the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, when he explains to Wall street journal that Trump’s relentless attacks on the EU, which he treats as an organization created to harm the United States, have resulted in the deterioration of transatlantic relations. Europeans must today learn from this deterioration and, without waiting for a possible victory for Democrat Joe Biden in November, who will not return to the status quo ante anyway, give themselves the means for a real foreign policy likely to defend their interests. France, Britain and Germany have rightly stood up to Washington on Friday on the issue of the reimposition of sanctions against Iran: the European interest here is not to bury the Iran nuclear deal.