Is America Now Europe’s Rival? EU Weighs Response to Major Shift in U.S. Security Strategy

The EU is weighing how to respond after Washington’s new National Security Strategy marks a sharp break from past U.S. policy, shifting away from promoting democracy and adopting a more critical tone toward Europe. The document raises questions over whether the U.S. now views Europe as a competitor rather than a partner, prompting debate in Brussels about how to counter this strategic shift.

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00:00For more on this, we can speak now with Brando Benefe.

00:03He's an Italian member of the European Parliament with the Procresive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats,

00:08and he chairs the Parliament's delegation for relations with the United States.

00:13Welcome to DW.

00:14So, Mr. Benefe, we just heard Donald Trump there doubling down on a key theme in his new national security strategy,

00:21and that is that Europe is headed in a bad direction and needs U.S. prodding to get back on track.

00:27What do you make of that?

00:30Well, I think it's our transatlantic ally, the United States, that is, in fact, going in a bad direction

00:38in the sense that proposing such a national security strategy with such harsh and extreme sentences

00:47regarding the European Union specifically is something that is not helpful for what we have to do together.

00:55I am the chair of the delegation for the relations with the United States, and now we are following

01:03very closely the issue of the trade relations, and we see it clearly that we need to find solutions together,

01:13and these kinds of messages are hindering the complex negotiations that are now on the table.

01:20And when we see an attack on our digital sovereignty, because that's another front of this discussion,

01:30we see a backlash coming from our citizens and our governments, and some of them try to stay away from rebutting to this discourse,

01:44but it becomes impossible at some point, because in fact we have seen that the initial approach that we have seen from people like Kallas,

01:52that you have heard earlier, it has been welcomed with further tension, with further escalation.

02:02So we need to put some answer to what we have heard, because we need to reaffirm that we cannot be pushed in an angle by our transatlantic ally.

02:16Well, maybe you can help us with some of those answers.

02:18The strategy document calls Europe's path civilizational erasure through migration and censorship.

02:27First of all, were you surprised to see that kind of language in this document?

02:31This kind of language is the language I hear when I go to Washington and meet with

02:39ultra-nationalist members of Congress or with some think tanks that are in the Washington bubble.

02:50It's important to talk to these people, to have an exchange,

02:52but this was never an official way of writing of the administration.

03:01Because, to be frank, some form of interference, electoral interference, already happened.

03:08Think of the candidate and now president of Poland that was received by the White House during the electoral campaign.

03:16And if we go back, we could see the acts of Elon Musk during the UK campaign.

03:24But this is another step.

03:25It's putting in written that they want to interfere on our internal politics,

03:31because it says that there must be support for movements that resist this wrong trajectory of the European Union.

03:40And it's identifying the European Union as the problem for Europe.

03:44But unfortunately, the European Union is, in fact, the one that has to negotiate with the U.S.

03:50So, this is not helpful.

03:52I mean, in the next days, I will meet online with representatives from Congress,

03:58and I will meet also with the new ambassador of the U.S. to the EU in person,

04:05and I will convey this message.

04:07This is not helpful for what we need to do together,

04:10and be sure that we will not allow our sovereignty to be overstepped.

04:14At least I would say there are people that think so,

04:18and we will push also our governments to be a bit more assertive,

04:22because we also need to send a message to our people.

04:25Some people are starting to think that U.S. and Russia,

04:30they will find some agreement together.

04:32Look at Ukraine, but more broadly as powers.

04:37They will decide, and the U.S. only to wait and accept.

04:41This is something we can't go in terms of direction,

04:47because it will be the end of European sovereignty.

04:49As head of the EU Parliament's Delegation for U.S. Relations,

04:55how would you describe the transatlantic bond at this point,

04:59and what needs to happen in order to make it better?

05:03Well, I want to be pragmatic and realistic.

05:08I don't think we will change the course of the administration very much,

05:12although we must clarify that putting on an official text such phrases is unacceptable

05:18and must be retracted.

05:20But let's be realistic again.

05:22I think the main thing for us is to build more unity, more sovereignty,

05:26more pooled capacity of action from security to investments to common fiscal capacity

05:35to a more integrated European market,

05:38to be able to stand together in front of a complicated ally as it is today, the United States.

05:46Because if we stay fragmented, if we keep the EU as it is today,

05:49where all our government leaders are only looking for the next elections,

05:54they are ill of short-termism,

05:59I think we will never succeed in building a future for our union.

06:04And so I think it's very important that we take a step forward in sovereignty together,

06:10which means also doing what Mario Draghi was presenting in his report,

06:15not only simplifying rules, but also building common initiatives,

06:20not accepting anymore to have a veto power by one country on foreign policy issues,

06:27for example, and building more common initiatives.

06:33I think we really need to go in this direction.

06:36European Parliamentarian Brando Benefé, thank you very much.

Is America Now Europe’s Rival? EU Weighs Response to Major Shift in U.S. Security Strategy | APT

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