Tag: European Union

EU sighs with relief as Biden readies to enter White House

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top officials breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday that Joe Biden will be taking over as president of the United States, but they warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump and that trans-Atlantic ties will be different in the future.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, hailing Biden’s arrival as “resounding proof that, once again after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”

“The United States are back, and Europe stands ready to reconnect with an old and trusted partner to breathe new life into our cherished alliance,” she told EU lawmakers, hours before Biden was to be sworn in at his inauguration ceremony in Washington. Continue reading.

‘A uniquely humiliating moment’: London journalist explains why allies went from ‘admiring’ the US to ‘feeling pity’

AlterNet logoContrary to the claims of the United States’ right-wing media, most residents of Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada or New Zealand are not longing to move to the U.S. — they have heard all the horror stories about medical bankruptcies, mass incarceration and a lack of upward mobility. The rest of the developed world has continued to hope that the U.S. will overcome its problems, but in 2020 — with the U.S. being rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and huge protests in response to the killing of George Floyd on May 25 — long-time allies are worried. And London-based journalist Tom McTague discusses their worries in an article published by The Atlantic on June 24.

In the past, McTague explains, Europeans felt everything from admiration to envy to resentment where the U.S. was concerned. But in 2020, many of them are feeling “pity.”

“It is hard to escape the feeling that this is a uniquely humiliating moment for America,” McTague writes. “As citizens of the world the United States created, we are accustomed to listening to those who loathe America, admire America and fear America — sometimes all at the same time. But feeling pity for America? That one is new, even if the schadenfreude is painfully myopic. If it’s the aesthetic that matters, the U.S. today simply doesn’t look like the country that the rest of us should aspire to, envy or replicate.” Continue reading.

E.U. to Trump: ‘We are not foes’

Washington Post logoThe past three years have placed heavy strains on the transatlantic relationship. President Trump has cheered the European Union’s dismemberment, called into question American participation in the West’s most important military alliance and used the threat of punitive tariffs to bend traditional allies to his will.

Beleaguered politicians on the continent looked on as Trump scrapped America’s commitments to the Iran nuclear deal — the product of years of multilateral diplomacy and multiple high-wire summits hosted by the Europeans. They watched in dismay as Trump abdicated American leadership on climate action. And their objections were ignored as the White House rolled out a new road map for Middle East peace that contradicted the long-standing approach of both Washington and Brussels.

In this trying time, the E.U.’s top diplomat is putting on a brave face. “The list is long of things” that could be read as signs that the United States is “not very friendly,” said Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union, in an exclusive interview with Today’s WorldView on Friday. But those differences, Borrell added, still can’t supersede a sense of transatlantic solidarity that endures.

Soon, Americans will have to take an extra step to travel to some European countries

Starting in 2021, Americans and travelers from other visa-free countries will have to take an extra step when visiting more than two dozen countries in Europe.

The European Union announced last year that before travel, visitors from all visa-free countries, including the United States, will need to complete an online application and pay a small fee using the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) designed “to strengthen security checks on those persons who travel visa-free to the EU,” according to a fact sheet from the European Commission. It applies to people traveling to Europe’s Schengen Zone, an area comprising 26 countries, including France, Germany and Spain, but not Britain.

U.S. citizens with a valid U.S. passport can visit Schengen countries and stay for up to 90 days without a visa, according to the State Department.

View the complete March 9 article by Lindsey Bever on The Washington Post website here.

Juncker’s secret weapon in trade talks with Trump: color-coded flash cards

The following article by Mike Murphy was posted on the MarketWatch.com website July 27, 2018:

Top EU official reportedly used cards to simplify trade topics

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker walked away from his meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday with a freshly won trade detente, and he may have had flash cards to thank.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Juncker came to the meeting in Washington well-prepared, with “more than a dozen colorful cue cards with simplified explainers,” such as numbers and factoids about complex topics including automotive trade. Each easy-to-read card had, at most, three figures, a senior European Union official told the Journal.

‘We knew this wasn’t an academic seminar. It had to be very simple.’

A senior EU official, on Juncker’s trade strategy

By the end of their three-hour meeting, Juncker and Trump had agreed not to impose any further tariffs and to work toward “zero tariffs.”

View the complete article here.

In a possible rebuke to Trump, Japan and the EU sign a landmark trade deal

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 17, 2018:

“America First” policies leave the U.S. alone on the international stage.

European Council President Donald Tusk during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing, China. Credit: Ng Han Guan,Pool, Getty Images

The rest of the world is moving on without the United States.

The European Union and Japan signed a benchmark trade deal Tuesday that effectively eliminates nearly all tariffs on the products they trade. European Council President Donald Tusk described the deal as the “largest bilateral trade deal ever.”

“The EU and Japan showed an undeterred determination to lead the world as flag-bearers for free trade,” Japanese Prime Ministor Shinzo Abe said at a joint news conference with European dignitaries.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump tried to bribe France to leave the European Union

The following article by Emily Crockett was posted on the ShareBlue.com website June 29, 2018:

Trump tried to make Vladimir Putin’s wildest dreams come true by destabilizing the European Union.

Presidents Trump and Macron. Credit: AP Photo, Evan Vucci

Trump never misses an opportunity to insult America’s closest alliesin Europe — but the problem is much worse than just trash talk. We now know that Trump is actively trying to destabilize the European Union, two European officials told the Washington Post.

During an April meeting at the White House, Trump offered French President Emmanuel Macron a shocking deal: If France leaves the E.U., the U.S. will give France a much better bilateral trade deal than the rest of the E.U. gets.

Yes, a U.S. president actually offered a bribe to try to dismantle a major organization of U.S. allies. Trump tried to con his way into knocking down a pillar of Western democracy and the international liberal order.

View the complete article here.