Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
The Israeli occupation targets Deir Keefa in South Lebanon with 2 surface-to-surface missiles
Philippe Lazzarini: The famine in Gaza is a direct result of banning food and other basic supplies for months including from UNRWA .
Philippe Lazzarini: The spread of famine can still be controlled by a ceasefire and allowing humanitarian organizations to do their work and reach starving people with aid.
The United Nations on the Israeli-induced famine in Gaza: The starvation of civilians for military objectives is a war crime.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini: famine is now confirmed in Gaza city. This is starvation by design and manmade by the Government of Israel.
More than 30 people have been martyred in Gaza since Friday dawn in Israeli bombardment targeting refugee camps throughout the blockaded strip.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: The Israeli occupation forces are carrying out demolitions of residential buildings in Gaza's al-Tuffah neighborhood amid intensifying airstrikes.
Israeli media: A man is critically wounded from a shooting near Malachi Hashalom between Ramallah and Nablus, and ambulance crews are on their way to the scene.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: One person was martyred in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a motorcycle in southern Lebanon's Deir Saryan.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent to Southern Lebanon: An Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle in the town of Deir Saryan left one civilian injured

Europe’s summer of submission: US pressure exposes EU fragility - FT

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The Financial Times
  • 31 Jul 2025 13:18
5 Min Read

Faced with Trump’s coercive power politics, the EU has surrendered economically, militarily, and politically—exposing its fragmentation, dependency, and global impotence.

Listen
  • x
  • Europe’s summer of submission: US pressure exposes EU fragility - FT
    US President Donald Trump reads from a paper and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listens after reaching a trade deal between the US and the EU at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP)

In a Financial Times column, Marc De Vos, co-CEO of the Brussels-based Itinera Institute and author of Superpower Europe: The European Union’s Silent Revolution, reflects on the precarious state of transatlantic relations at the outset of the summer.

With NATO, Ukraine, and the global trading system all under threat, Europe appeared poised for a potential rupture with Washington. Yet as the EU heads into its summer recess, De Vos notes that European leaders may be exhaling, for now. The man who once dismissed NATO as “obsolete,” pledged to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, and labelled the EU a “foe,” has thus far refrained from triggering a full break.

Yet that reprieve has come at a steep price. In order to stay onside with Donald Trump, European leaders have, in effect, capitulated, financially and politically, three times over. First, by committing to vast increases in defense spending for NATO; then by agreeing to pay the US for weapons destined for Ukraine; and finally, this week, by accepting a trade framework that allows Washington to escalate tariffs unilaterally, even as Europe pledges over $1.3 trillion in purchases of American energy, arms, and investment.

European negotiators have attempted to temper the optics, pointing to the fact that US tariffs on other nations remain higher, that core EU safety and product regulations are intact, and that US energy presents a strategic alternative to Russian supplies. Weapons purchases, they argue, were already factored into NATO plans. Much of the promised investment is aspirational, and in any case, European capital has long flowed into the US economy.

This may be a tolerable cost for transatlantic economic stability, provided Trump doesn’t reverse course and sectors like steel or pharmaceuticals aren’t next in line for tariff punishment. But there is no escaping the broader truth: the world’s leading multilateral free-trade bloc has been strong-armed into submission. The EU’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, even found herself echoing Trump’s narrative, portraying Europe as a trade offender in a bid to placate Washington.

The ugly truth

Related News

Final UNIFIL draft resol. not yet distributed amid pressure, divisions

Eswatini government faces court battle over US deportee deal

At the heart of the matter lies a sobering reality, according to the FT piece: Europe, as a collective force, lacks the economic weight, military muscle, and shared vision needed to defend its interests on the global stage. It is unable to confront the US in a trade conflict because it is fragmented. It dares not provoke one because it is vulnerable. And it cannot navigate the blunt-force tactics of Trump’s power politics through the procedural machinery for which the EU was designed. Washington has long known this. Now, so does the rest of the world. Europe’s relief masks an impotence born of humiliation, as per the author.

In De Vos's view, the question now is whether this enforced appeasement will galvanise the EU into becoming a serious geopolitical player, or further deepen its divisions and dependencies. So far, the signs are discouraging. While defense spending is rising across the continent, cooperation remains limited to encouraging joint procurement at the national level. Even after three and a half years of war in Ukraine, the EU remains unable to manufacture the weapons Kiev so desperately needs.

Ambitious proposals to bolster Europe’s internal market in strategic sectors, energy, defense, communications, and finance have been put forward in respected policy circles. Yet they continue to stall in the political arena. Efforts to reverse industrial decline are increasingly characterised by state-centric interventions that bypass EU-level coordination. And the mere suggestion of pooling more common European funds remains politically toxic, as evidenced by the wrangling over the next EU budget.

Perhaps the most consequential development of the year has been Germany’s return to militarism, with a €600 billion five-year defense plan. But instead of positioning itself at the helm of a European defense renaissance, Berlin’s “Made for Germany” doctrine reflects a nationalistic turn, one that sidelines any broader European integration.

The Franco-British Lancaster House Agreement, recently revived, follows a similar logic. It cements bilateral military cooperation between two nuclear powers but contributes little to a pan-European defence architecture.

Europe’s founding visionaries, as per the piece, offered starkly different forecasts for the continent’s future. Jean Monnet famously believed that “Europe will be forged in crises,” while Paul-Henri Spaak warned that “there are only two types of states in Europe: small states, and small states that have not yet realised that they are small.”

If Europe is to overcome this period of public subservience and latent fragmentation, "its leading nations must remember Spaak and relearn Monnet".

Read next: Europe slams Trump trade deal as humiliating concession

  • United States
  • trade deal
  • Ukraine war
  • Donald Trump
  • European Union

Most Read

Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, executive director of the defense division of the Israeli National Cyber Directorate, undated (Social media)

Israeli-born US prosecutor drops Israeli officer child sex crime

  • Politics
  • 19 Aug 2025
Displaced Palestinians walk through a makeshift camp along the beach in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025 (AP)

Hamas, other factions accept Egypt-Qatar ceasefire proposal: Exclusive

  • Politics
  • 18 Aug 2025
Palestinian resistance fighters launch mortar shells toward Israeli occupation positions in Gaza, in a scene from a video released by the resistance's military media.

Palestinian Resistance strikes Occupation command posts across Gaza

  • Politics
  • 16 Aug 2025
Those in Occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria – directly affected by Israeli occupation and apartheid – can claim their right to armed struggle under a series of UN resolutions. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Resistance and regime change in occupied Palestine

  • Opinion
  • 17 Aug 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Israeli bill uses archaeology as cover to usurp more Palestinian land
Arts and Culture

Israeli bill uses archaeology as cover to usurp more Palestinian land

Sweden’s pension fund invests in Israeli white phosphorus producer
MENA

Sweden’s pension fund invests in Israeli white phosphorus producer

FSB detains man over car-bomb killing of Russian General
Politics

FSB detains man over April car-bomb killing of Russian general

Iran warns of surprise military hardware in case of renewed aggression
MENA

Iran warns of surprise military hardware in case of renewed aggression

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS