Two senior former MEPs have voiced concern about the possibility of Donald Trump winning this week’s election in the United States.
Speaking to this website just ahead of Tuesday’s delicately poised presidential poll, former Polish MEP and EU commissioner Danuta Hubner says,
“It is true that for quite a while Europe had lived in this post Cold war peace dividend time when our industrial and defence capacities had been declining.”
She added,
“And we seemed not to see that China has been investing seriously in building its economic and military power. But this blindness is behind us. We have been catching up for a while now, radically increasing our investment in security. Certainly the conventional criminal Russian war played a role in waking us up. Our investment in preserving deterrence and defence capacities on our continent has skyrocketed. That allows me to say that whoever the American citizens choose as the new tenant in the White House will need to accept some form of EU-US cooperation.”
The hugely experienced centre right politician stressed,
“My intention is to make a case for optimism.”
“Indeed, even during the time of the most dysfunctional relations there was a structured framework based on a targeted approach which facilitated bringing the Americans to the table and created a momentum for cooperation. Also now we can imagine a follow up to the well cemented Trade and Technology Council around which we developed a network of transatlantic stakeholders. A new territory can be our defense industrial strategy. I also trust that on American side there will be somebody looking at the cost of not having a barrier free transatlantic market.”
She goes on,
“When the world is clearly moving toward uncertainty and instability, it will not be difficult to see the cost of a not advancing transatlantic cooperation. It is not the time when America can move toward isolationism. Having said that, I am worrying about potential post electoral immediate political stability.
“I am worrying about America not seeing the importance of Ukraine prevailing against Russia which could give the transatlantic alliance the chance to counter the authoritarian axis around Putin. A weakened transatlantic cooperation would send a signal to them that there is a gap they can use to remake the global system of rules and institutions and annihilate democracy.
“So, while knowing that this time around there might be more challenges to the transatlantic global engagement, we must spare no effort to walk the path toward mutually supportive relationship.”
Further reflection on what most must agree has been a largely fascinating, if at times bizarre, election campaign comes from Edward McMillan-Scott, also a former MEP and one of the longest-serving Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament 2004-2014.
He held the portfolio of Human Rights and Democracy but like all Vice-Presidents had additional responsibilities, in his case EU/US relations during his last mandate.
McMillan-Scott was an admirer of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) a Washington-based organisation and its work in the Arab world, up to and across the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’.
The Brit is a kinsman of Col T E Lawrence (‘of Arabia’) who incited the Arab Revolt in 2016, and worked with Liz Cheney, then a State Department official on the Middle East desk, later a strong critic of Donald Trump. In Brussels, the visit by President Obama during his term in office was, for him,
“one of the most poignant in the evolution of EU/US relations.”
Speaking just ahead of election day on Tuesday, he says we are
“approaching the most significant and potentially portentous election in recent world history.”
The signs are not good, he fears, adding,
“all my contacts with US institutions, or those that are based there like the think tanks such as Carnegie or free market American Enterprise Institute are quivering with anticipation or dread. It is a very big moment.”
Pat Cox is a former well known TV present in Ireland and a former president of the European parliament.
Like Trump, Cox went from TV celebrity, in his case in Ireland, to front line politics when he became a polished and popular MEP and president of the EU parliament..
Cox says,
“I think this will be the most consequential US presidential election in more than a century, not just for the United States itself, but also for its allies and for the global standing of democracy in an increasingly contested multilateral environment.”
Pieter Cleppe, editor in chief of Brussels Report, is one of the few canvassed who was more upbeat about Trump assuming control of the Oval Office again.He said,
“Looking at his previous term, one can Trump expect to be protectionist, but also transactional. In other words: Europe could try to make a deal with him that ends up cutting tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic. At least that is what Trump offered back in 2018.”
“As for regulation, he has a track record of boosting the US economy through deregulation. This is hopeful.When it comes to Ukraine, he may well close a dirty deal with Putin, but to think that he will simply sacrifice the whole of Ukraine is misguided. The US now considers this to be their area of influence now.”
