{"id":417092,"date":"2025-01-24T14:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T13:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/24\/donald-trump-davos-ue-zero-reazioni\/"},"modified":"2025-01-24T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:09:27","slug":"eu-dumbfounded-after-donald-trumps-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/24\/eu-dumbfounded-after-donald-trumps-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"EU dumbfounded after Donald Trump’s speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Although\u00a0the new (returning) U.S. President Donald Trump<\/strong>‘s fiery speech deflagrated yesterday (Jan. 23) like a hand grenade on the audience of the World Economic Forum (WEF)<\/strong> underway in Davos, it seems that, for the time being, no one in the upper echelons of the European Union wants to comment on it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Virtually joining the meeting that in the setting of the Swiss Alps brings together annually the bigwigs of global business and finance<\/strong>, the New York tycoon\u00a0launched his tirade<\/a>\u00a0against what he considers the major evils\u00a0of Europe<\/strong>: The follies of the “ridiculous” Green deal<\/strong>, the bet on renewables<\/strong>, the hypertrophic bureaucracy<\/strong>, too-high taxes<\/strong> and alleged trade imbalances<\/strong> with the star-studded economy.<\/p>\n

Yet, no one in Brussels seems interested in responding<\/strong> to the invectives of the most powerful man on Earth as he\u00a0takes a sledgehammer<\/strong>\u00a0to the basic element on which transatlantic relations are (or should be) based: mutual trust<\/strong>. Deafening above all is the silence of Commission Chairwoman Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, who even at the WEF staked out a claim on\u00a0the green policies<\/strong> introduced in her first term\u2014policies that, however, she is now silently busy scaling back<\/strong>, like a modern Penelope weaving her warp by day and unravelling it by night\u2014and launched<\/a> the Global Forum on Energy Transition<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2025 (photo: World Economic Forum via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the few voices heard was that of European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde<\/strong>, also in Davos, for whom Trump’s re-election<\/strong> and his speech yesterday are “a wake-up call<\/strong>” for Brussels and European chancelleries, whose task now is to “act together and respond<\/strong>.” The ECB chief believes that “a big wake-up call<\/strong>” is needed from the Europeans. In her\u00a0interpretation, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven must work together and respond “to external threats,”<\/strong> including the bogeymen stirred up by the U.S. president, such as the reintroduction of heavy tariffs<\/strong> and the tax-dumping promised by the White House<\/strong> to incentivize companies around the world to invest in the United States<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At this historical stage, one of the hottest issues in the relationship between Brussels and Washington is compliance with the EU rules\u00a0to monitor\u00a0digital platforms<\/strong>\u00a0and, in general, any company that\u00a0operates online selling\u00a0goods and services<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bone\u00a0of contention, in this case, is what Trump has repeatedly complained\u00a0<\/a>of\u00a0<\/a>as<\/span>\u00a0an “unfair treatment”\u00a0<\/strong>by the Twenty-Seven against the main U.S. tech companies<\/strong>\u2014above all X<\/strong> and Apple<\/strong>, hit by the twelve-star antitrust with hefty fines<\/strong> in the past months and years for proven\u00a0violations of EU<\/strong> competition and digital regulations<\/strong> (the latter contained in two “twin” legislative measures\u00a0known as DSA and DMA, acronyms for Digital services act<\/i><\/strong> and Digital markets act<\/i><\/strong>, respectively).<\/p>\n

As stressed this morning by the European Commission’s Deputy Head of Spokesmen Stefan de Keersmaecker<\/strong>, these are “very powerful\u00a0rules” designed for “protecting our citizens and companies and the way business is done within the EU<\/strong>.”\u00a0His colleague\u00a0Thomas Regnier<\/strong>\u00a0confirmed that the “investigation against X under the DSA is still ongoing<\/strong>” but that the EU executive has yet to take a final decision.<\/span>\u00a0In any case, Competition and Internal Market spokeswoman Lea Zuber<\/strong> remarked that “we have sanctions in our antitrust systems that we impose on all companies in case they violate European rules, wherever they come from<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, some try\u00a0to pour oil on troubled waters<\/strong>, such as EU Parliament President\u00a0Roberta Metsola<\/strong>.\u00a0We should not be afraid of Trump<\/strong>,”\u00a0she told\u00a0La Stampa<\/em><\/a>, adding that Europeans have “lost some confidence” in their abilities and reiterating the tired refrain that “we and the United States are historical allies<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Roberta<\/a>
EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 23 January 2025 (photo: Benedikt von Loebell\/World Economic Forum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, some\u00a0smugly jump on the bandwagon<\/strong>\u00a0of the newly elected president: “On the Green deal, the European Union got it wrong,<\/strong>” says Italian Vice-Premier\u00a0Antonio Tajani<\/strong>, who will be in Brussels next Monday for the Foreign Affairs Council. According to the Forza Italia leader, “the fundamentalist and ideological environmental policy<\/strong>\u00a0that has been there in past years should be revised,” replacing it with “a pragmatic policy line<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what Trump himself asks for\u00a0(or rather demands), according to whom the Green deal made in Europe<\/i> is “a hoax”<\/strong>. After all, the tycoon\u00a0promised to reopen coal-fired power plants<\/strong> and to return to drilling<\/strong>\u00a0after withdrawing Washington from the Paris climate agreements<\/strong> for the second time, a gesture he had already made during his first term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the newly-elected president’s incendiary speech to the World Finance Council in Davos, in which he accused the EU of treating the United States “very badly,” no particularly unhinged reactions are coming from Brussels. In fact, to be honest, reactions are hard to come by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":417073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26411,26404,26454,25905,25882,26457],"class_list":["post-417092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-davos-en","tag-economy-2-en","tag-green-deal-en","tag-investimenti-en","tag-world-economic-forum-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417092"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417109,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417092\/revisions\/417109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}