The news that an American-Russian summit will take place in Alaska on August 15 of this year caught European leaders off guard.
One European diplomat claimed that Europe risks “becoming a footnote in history.” The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the EU, as well as Poland and Finland, tried to convince the Americans that international borders should not be changed by force. They attempted to present their arguments to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who was in the UK at the time. Realizing that Russia is defeating Ukraine on the battlefield, they were forced to agree with the argument that the current front line should serve as the starting point for negotiations.
Reem Momtaz from the Carnegie Foundation summed up this situation with the following words: “Since his inauguration in January, Europeans have been buying unlimited tickets for the Trump rollercoaster. They climbed aboard, buckled up, and have been screaming in terror ever since—but they still can’t get off.”
An Unfair Trade Deal
The trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU, announced at the end of July, dealt a serious blow to the bloc’s global standing and that of its member states—as highlighted by the Financial Times on August 12. According to the report, this regression resulted from the world’s largest trading power voluntarily submitting to open extortion, while President Donald Trump exploited the EU’s structural vulnerability, undermining what was once considered the Union’s key strength—the single market—and exposing this economic giant as a political dwarf, unwilling and unable to fight for its own interests.
Most analysts believe Europe’s predicament is now far more dangerous than before. In their view, Europe has been humiliated: Trump’s actions have once again underscored the continent’s dependence on U.S. hard power and technology. At the same time, tensions are rising on another front of the trade war—China. Now, by using rare earth metals as a weapon, Beijing is ramping up exports, while the EU slides into yet another unequal confrontation.
Brussels’ Short-Sighted Policy
The current ruling elites of major European powers are pursuing a short-sighted policy that has led to a de facto recession in recent years: by imposing anti-Russian sanctions and abandoning relatively cheap Russian gas, these states have effectively harmed themselves.
At the same time, voices calling for abandoning this failed course and adopting a more realistic policy are growing louder in Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and a number of other politicians, as well as various emerging political forces, have been vocal about this. They point, in particular, to growing fatigue over Russian sanctions, which are hurting ordinary people, while the divide between the ruling elite and the population widens.
“The EU must take into account the national interests of its member states” in its new package of measures, Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík said in an interview with Brussels Signal on May 19. In his view, the 18th sanctions package, adopted in July, is “symbolic and ideological,” and the EU is ignoring Slovakia’s national interests. “Slovak citizens do not want to pay double or triple the price just because some European bureaucrats decided to reduce dependence on Russian raw materials,” he said. This is why citizens have prepared a petition, backed by the far-right Slovak Revival Movement, calling for a referendum on completely lifting the sanctions.
In an article by Claire Lemaire in Brussels Signal titled “Russian sanction fatigue sets in, as EU readies ‘massive’ 18th package,” many European officials question the effectiveness of “punishing Moscow” by creating additional obstacles to its trade with the EU, which accounts for just 10% of Russia’s total exports. They also express concern over U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s* collaboration with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on implementing 500% secondary tariffs against Russia, fearing that the Eurocrat will support this initiative even at the expense of the EU’s interests, which risks completely losing commercial ties with the Russian Federation.
Although the European Commission claims these measures are necessary to maintain pressure on the Kremlin, critics doubt that symbolically striking an already crippled infrastructure will have any tangible effect.
“Despite the sanctions, a significant portion of the gas entering the EU is Russian, even though the EU claims it comes from other sources.”
Even though the EU’s sanctions policy primarily harms the populations of its own member states, the European Commission is already working on yet another, 19th sanctions package against Russia. This was announced by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas following an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Europe – A Political Marginal?
The prospects for Europeans are not particularly bright. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto recently stated that the EU has lost its significance in global politics, becoming a weak player on the international stage. As reported by the Italian newspaper La Stampa, commenting on the upcoming U.S.-Russia summit, he said: “Trump is operating in the world as it is. Put bluntly: if Europe carried significant weight as a superpower, he would have to act differently. Instead, Europe has created conditions in which it has itself become an insignificant political player.”
*Lindsey Graham is listed in Russia’s register of terrorists and extremists
Muhamed Amer, Syrian journalist
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