'Europe should not lose its identity', US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder tells Euronews

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'Europe should not lose its identity', US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder tells Euronews  In an interview with Euronews morning show Europe Today, Washington’s envoy to the EU Andrew Puzder said the United States sees Europe as a natural ally but it must retain its core identity for the relation to work.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/12/10/europe-should-not-lose-its-identity-us-ambassador-puzder-tells-euronews  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Ambassador Puster, thank you so much for joining us. What a day to have you with us here on Europe

00:04Today. There's a lot to digest. But first, let's just start perhaps with President Trump's attempts

00:09to end the war in Ukraine. Is President Trump trying to push President Zelensky into signing

00:14a deal before Christmas? You know, I'm not involved in the negotiations on Ukraine and I'm

00:20reluctant to comment. We've got Ambassador Witkoff, we've got Secretary Rubio,

00:25Jared Kushner, people that are involved in anything I might say, you know, since I'm not

00:30involved, might damage those negotiations. We all want to see peace. But the fact that you're based

00:35in Brussels, you do understand how the Europeans work. So why do you think the Russians are getting

00:39such soft treatment? Again, any comments I made in that respect could impact the negotiations.

00:45And it would be, it just, it just, look, we all want peace in Ukraine. We all want the killing to

00:50stop. And I don't want to make a comment that might damage the negotiations that could lead to

00:55that peace. And since I'm not involved, it would be easy for me to make a mistake and say the wrong

00:59thing. Indeed, especially on live TV. You don't want to make that mistake. But perhaps you could

01:03talk to us about how the US administration feel about the frozen Russian assets. Is the US on board

01:09with this? Again, the United States hasn't taken a position on that. That's a, that's a European

01:13event, a European solution. I'm, I, and the European, I'm not sure that all the Europeans

01:20are granted. I know how the Belgians feel. I know how the rest of Europe feels. So that's not

01:24something, again, that's not something we're going to get into the middle of. That's a European

01:28decision. But there are reports that the US administration have been calling bilaterally

01:32EU capitals telling them not to sign up to this deal. Yeah, I've, I've heard those reports. I don't

01:37know anybody who's done that. And I haven't spoken to anybody at the EU who's gotten that kind

01:41of contact. So again, that's not, this is just not, I'm, I'm happy to talk to you about the economy

01:46or any areas you want to talk about or President Trump's comments. But while there's negotiations

01:50going on to end this horrific, this horrific war in, in Ukraine, it just would be irresponsible of

01:57me to comment because I'm just not involved in those negotiations. You're not involved, but please,

02:02I'm sure our listeners would love you to comment on President Trump's plans and the various comments

02:07we've heard across the last couple of days on the national security strategy. Is this

02:11the campaign, do you think, Ambassador, to dismantle the European Union?

02:14Well, you know, it's interesting that the coverage of the national security strategy,

02:19when I read it, I thought, my, this thing's going to be terrible. I went and read it and

02:23it's really not that bad. The section on Europe is titled A Proposal for European Greatness. It's

02:29not called, we don't like Europe, we want Europe to go away. And if you read down a little bit,

02:35it says that Europe is, I think I'm going to get the quote right, Europe is strategically and

02:41culturally vital to the United States. You read a little further, it says our transatlantic trade

02:48relationship, which is the largest trade relationship in the world, is a pillar of the

02:54global economy and of American prosperity. So I don't, there, I don't, I did not read it at all

03:00as an attempt to dissolve the European Union. But does it suggest going back to nation states?

03:04Well, I think the, the thrust of it is that you do have 27 sovereign states. So it's not going back

03:12to sovereign states. You have 27 sovereign states. The question is how much of their sovereignty did

03:17they give up to be part of an economic union? Did they give up the sovereignty to determine who

03:22comes into or out of their countries? Did they give up the sovereignty on cultural issues that might

03:28be different in Eastern Europe than they are in Western Europe? So when it says Europe's weak

03:32and decaying, who's weak? Who is President Trump referring to? Well, if you, if you look at the

03:36European Union overall, you'll see the GDP, the nominal GDP, and it was, was ahead of the United

03:43States, the European Union in 2011. So that's 14 years ago. For me, that doesn't seem so long ago.

03:49That's recent memory. Today, if you include the United Kingdom, it's about 20% below that the IMF is

03:56projecting for this year. If you take the United Kingdom out, it's almost a third below that this

04:00is a huge drop. And even more impressively, I think for citizens in Europe, for the people of

04:06Europe, GDP per capita, in other words, economic growth in a country per person, GDP per capita in

04:12Germany, the industrial giant of Europe is now below that of the state of West Virginia in the

04:20United, the 49th worst state. I mean, Europeans know that as well. I mean, they don't really need this

04:23document to state it, but just this idea of what is Europe. Well, but you asked, what's the weakness?

04:28And then if you look at Spain, Italy, France, the French economy, and you look at the EU overall,

04:34and include the UK, I'll include the UK in this too, just for fairness, they're below the state

04:39of Mississippi, which is the 50th lowest GDP per capita US state. So when you ask, where's the

04:43weakness? Well, this is an economic weakness. So it's not pointing at a particular, particular

04:48person. And just this idea of Europe staying Europe, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean a

04:52white Christian Europe? No, I think it means, and I would say this for the United States too,

04:58when people are immigrating into the United States, if you're not going to contribute

05:04economically, if you don't want to become a part of the society, if in fact you reject the basic

05:11tenets of that society, it's probably people we don't want. Those are the kind of people that come

05:16in and you see an increase in the crime rate. You see a decrease in the kind of cultural values

05:21people have. I think there are even European cities where the police now are afraid to go in or don't

05:25go into certain sections. They're governed by different legal standards. I think what he's

05:29saying is that we don't want to see Europe lose its identity as Europe, because we're going to have

05:36to leave it there. But do come back to us please again, stay here on Europe Today.

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