The U.S. seems to be stepping away from the global game for the next four years, this was Donald Trump's inaugural message, which renders prospects for relations with the European Union not quite encouraging, declared MEP Dan Barna, who sits on the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET).
To Barna, Donald Trump's speech at Monday's presidential inauguration ceremony seemed like an Orwellian episode, a kind of a reloaded version of the famous novel "1984".
"For the next four years, America seems to be withdrawing from the global game. (...) Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Basically, it's a sort of variation of Louis XV's adage 'After me, the flood'. Trump says we do this, we do that, we mine, we drill, we burn as much as we can and after that, whatever happens, happens. It's a message that was probably designed to fill with patriotic pride the bulk of Trump's electorate (...)," the Renew MEP told AGERPRES on Tuesday.
"To an equal extent, the prospect of that police-state that he announced, with troops in the streets, in the cities, defending the citizens, or - what do you know - the border (...), sounds nice, but the reality of implementing it may be much more complicated. We'll see what happens," Barna added.
He stressed that "it is worth noting that there was no reference to the European Union, no reference to the transatlantic partnership."
But beyond that, he remarked, "an America that isolates itself, an America that adopts an ultranationalist rhetoric is a bad message for the idea of democracy worldwide. Because up until now America had been a defender of the Euro-Atlantic way of life - democracy, freedom, human rights - all these values that Trump now denies in a more explicit or more abstract form."
"The prospects, at least for the next four years, are in no way encouraging. We will see how reality will look, especially since economy-wise the solutions, in quotation marks, that he presented are in the realm of utopia, because precisely when you set tariffs and protectionism, this doesn't reduce inflation but rather fuels it. In other words, there's a split of logic and coherence between these populist statements - we, the American people are the jack of all trades, the garden and the orchard, the mine and the factory, we do everything for ourselves - this is not how the world economy works today," said the Renew MEP.
However, he stressed, Europe must move forward in its partnership with the U.S. regardless of the context.
"The partnership with the United States is here to stay, because it is the default strategic defense partnership, with shared interests on both sides. Equally, there are large areas of the world we need to start a dialogue with. I saw that the President of the European Commission announced a visit to India, the MERCOSUR agreement with South America that has been in the works for 20 years seems to have reached a maturity and a stage where it will be approved and will start to function," said Barna.
He considers that the call of the new U.S. president for an increase in defense spending to 5% of GDP is a demand for "accountability in the area of defense."
"Europe must definitely increase its own defense and response capabilities, to respond to what the threat from Russia means, which is a real threat, we see it, we experience it, it's no longer just something theoretical from history textbooks. Now, Trump's message in this direction is very clear, he says don't rely only on us because we will not go the extra mile to come to your aid. OK, we have the treaty, we will respect it, but we must see that you also put effort into this construction, just like us," he explained.
Dan Barna said that the EP is currently discussing at committee level the harmonization of the types of weapons produced in Europe, in order to iron out complication in terms of tenders, resource allocation and interoperability problems.
As far as the situation in Ukraine is concerned, Barna remarked that it is obvious that, compared to the declarations made before the beginning of his term, Donald Trump has toned down his discourse regarding the achievement of a quick peace deal with Russia.
"Given the structure of the border between NATO and what the Russian invader means, there can be no realistic conflict-ending scenario without the Europeans. (...) Even if now perhaps the relations between Trump and [Ursula] von der Leyen are not the warmest, that is another reality, the resolution of the conflict will include and must include what the European states, the European Union, mean," the MEP said in conclusion.
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