The EU is a colossus. So why is it cowering before Trump like a mouse?
With its woeful trade deal, Europe prostrated itself before the president. We need a leader who will tell him where to shove it, says Guardian Europe columnist Alexander Hurst
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Due to the trade deficit and the service sector that America has over Europe.
They simply have more leverage
Due to the trade deficit and the service sector that America has over Europe. They simply have more leverage
The U.S. trade deficit with the EU would shrink considerably if and when we account in the service sector, so that's a leverage the EU has over the U.S. rather than the other way around.
You also have the USA still guaranteeing European security while Russia has been more militarily active.
People like to focus on Germany alone, but the EU is still a federal entity that needs buy-in from several nations.
It's very clear though that a major driving force behind this absolute farce of a deal was the German CDU, our chancellor even congratulated on the deal before he noticed the extremely negative public sentiment against this deal. I worry that our current coalition has their heads stuck up too far in the clouds to fix or address any of the issues we currently have and act in the best long term interest of Germany and Europe, bowing down to Trump might be the "better" solution short term but it makes absolutely no sense for the long term. Especially with the tacked on military package, that's just an incredibly obvious trap they fell for.
As a Hungarian, and don't take this the wrong way, how is German politics so fucked up? We watched money flow to Orbán uncounted that he used to very transparently destroy democracy in Hungary as well as provide cheap labour to Germany over the past 10 years, and it basically prevented the EU from being efficient in a response to the Ukraine crisis among other things.
How is it that in Germany, the only people to elect are either Russophilic idiots or people whose relationship to the EU is "how can we ratfuck this thing to the max to get more money out of it"? Who is a halfway decent politician in Germany? Everyone seems mostly both incompetent and malicious to differing degrees.
German politicians and politics are deeply provincial, and most simply don't care about the effects of their politics on other european countries as long as it is good in the short term for some local business from their constituency.
Blatant corruption, party politics and a decoupling of the politicians from reality to an absurd degree
Edit: no offense taken btw, our politics are a shit show
Same as Hungary, which media company should provide the necessary information for a meaningful vote?
Outside of France, it feels like the EU isn't ready to cut itself off from the US when it comes to defense policy. Western European powers seemed to love the peace dividend and Eaten European powers are concerned that a non-US NATO will defend their countries.
Germany may be leading this, but France has been trying to offer an alternative and the rest of the Union seems to be siding with American defense.
the rest of the Union seems to be siding with American defense.
It's more complicated than that. Spain has just canceled a big buy for F-35s. The current leadership has no other option than buy US arms for Ukraine, as it is still cheaper to not let Ukraine fall than to try and defend against Russia without that distraction.
