Europe & EU March 2025-

Europe & EU

1 March 2025
America Is Gone – Europe Must Replace It
Sławomir Sierakowski
(Project Syndicate) Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s verbal assault on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office will mark February 28, 2025, as an infamous moment in American and world history. The United States is rapidly destroying its good name and alienating everyone except the world’s most brutal dictators. The damage to America’s credibility and reputation will take decades to repair – and may be irreparable.
More broadly, with the end of the postwar US-centered international order, we are witnessing the collapse of any global authority. As rogue states seek to capitalize on the chaos, Europe must step up and assume the role once played by the US. That starts by fully supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. Yes, Europe is not as powerful as the US militarily; but that does not mean it is weak. In fact, it holds all the cards that it needs. Its combined military forces are among the world’s strongest, most experienced, and most innovative. The Oval Office quarrel – which Trump and Vance seemed all too eager to provoke – should be the final impetus for Europe to get its act together, after decades of complacency. It has everything it needs to stand on its own, to support Ukraine, and to deter Russia.
… Europe has a half-billion people and a GDP comparable to the US. We may not be as innovative, but the gap is not as large as pundits would have you believe. If we forge a coalition with Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, we can close it soon – especially now that Trump, Vance, and Elon Musk are destroying the pillars of US power with their own cultural revolution.
As for defense capabilities, Germany’s industrial base is sufficient to arm the continent, while France and Britain’s nuclear umbrella can replace America’s. The five largest European countries and the United Kingdom all currently have responsible, predictable governments that make a mockery of those now in power in Washington. Poland has an especially important role to play in what happens next. Economic trends are on our side. Our army is growing. We made the right arms purchases while there was still time. Not even Trump can find a bad word to say about us. All of Europe can see this. The French (slightly jealous) speak of “le moment polonais.” Poland’s current leaders are among the most experienced, respected, and resolute statesmen to be found anywhere.

28 March
The Romanian mathematician trying to stop Putin and Trump wrecking the West
Elon Musk and JD Vance don’t know enough to judge the country’s election crisis, and Trump should be tougher on Putin, says Bucharest Mayor and presidential candidate Nicușor Dan.
(Politico Eu) The 55-year-old corruption-fighting mayor of Bucharest is standing to be president of the European Union’s sixth most populous country, a contest that has already triggered a constitutional crisis — and howls of outrage from leading figures in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

25-26 March
Ian Bremmer: The end of the transatlantic relationship as we know it
(GZERO media) Donald Trump’s second term is having considerably more impact on the global stage than his first.
Most US allies have no choice but to absorb Trump’s demands and hope for a reset after he’s gone. But Europe is different. It possesses both the collective heft to resist Trump’s demands and the existential imperative to do so.
Three structural forces render the transatlantic rupture permanent.
First, the European Union has the trade competency and market size to punch back against the Trump administration’s aggressive tariff blitz. Unlike most other US trading partners who lack the economic leverage to go toe-to-toe against Washington and have little choice but to fold under pressure, Brussels’ defiance ensures a protracted trade war with no easy resolution.
Second, most Europeans view the Trump administration’s unilateral pursuit of rapprochement with Russia as a direct threat to their national security.
…the third and final driver of the definitive US-Europe break: common values … or lack thereof. From free trade and collective security to territorial integrity and the rule of law, Europe’s foundational principles are now anathema to Trump’s America. Just look at Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland, to say nothing of his willingness to recognize illegally annexed Ukrainian territories as Russian and support Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza. For an EU built from the ashes of World War II, it’s hard to compromise with a worldview in which borders are mere suggestions and might makes right.
Now Europe Knows What Trump’s Team Calls It Behind Its Back: ‘Pathetic’
By Jeanna Smialek, reporting from Brussels, and Steven Erlanger, reporting from Berlin
Trump officials have demanded more European military spending and questioned the continent’s values. Leaked messages show the depth of the rift.
(NYT) The commentary in the exchange is the latest blow to one of the world’s most storied alliances, which took generations to build and strengthen but which the Trump administration has managed to weaken in mere weeks.
“It is clear that the trans-Atlantic relationship, as was, is over, and there is, at best, an indifferent disdain,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of Italy’s Institute of International Affairs, who formerly advised a top E.U. official. “And at worst, and closer to that, there is an active attempt to undermine Europe.”
The European Union is, in many ways, the antithesis of the principles that Mr. Trump and his colleagues are championing. The bloc is built around an embrace of international trade based on rules. It has been at the forefront of climate-related regulation and social media user protections.

24 March
Europe looks for alternative to Starlink (audio)
(The World) Elon Musk recently seemed to threaten to shut down Ukraine’s use of his Starlink satellite communications system. Musk quickly issued a statement saying he would “never” do this but, given the uncertainty surrounding US policy toward Ukraine since President Donald Trump took office, Europe is examining its options and believes it has an alternative.
10 March
4 European satellite firms are vying to replace Starlink in Ukraine
Souring relations between Washington and Kyiv have triggered calls for alternatives to Starlink

23 March
Greenland is hard to defend. As Trump threatens, the Danes are trying.
Danish officials concede that they’ve been slow to replace assets to defend Greenland, mostly because they had other things to do with the money and they didn’t see a threat. Then tensions between China, Russia and the U.S. spilled into the Arctic.
(WaPo) Its location, way out there, in a hostile ocean between North America, Western Europe and Russia, made Greenland strategically vital during the Cold War. After the Soviet Union collapsed, not so much.
Greenland lies along what the old Cold Warriors dubbed the “GIUK Gap,” the pinch point between Greenland, Iceland and Britain that protects the North Atlantic from Russian ships and submarines.
The island is also a waypoint for communication cables that cross the Atlantic — the kinds of cables that European defense officials say Russian “ghost ships” have been attacking by dropping and dragging their anchors across the seafloor.
…Arctic seaways are becoming more navigable each year, and global powers are imagining a day when ships traveling between Asia, Europe and North America no longer need to head south to the Panama and Suez canals, or to round the capes, but can ply new polar routes.
… The Danish Defense Intelligence Service has concluded that the high north is “a priority for Russia, and it will demonstrate its power through aggressive and threatening behaviour, which will carry along with it a greater risk of escalation than ever before in the Arctic.”
“We have not invested enough in the Arctic for many years,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has said. “Now we are planning a stronger presence.”

21 March
Is the Sleeping Giant Awakening?
Europe is a superpower, if it wants to be
Paul Krugman
European productivity has lagged for the past couple of decades, and none of the world’s giant technology firms is European. Yet this is still a rich, highly capable society, with immense capacity to defend its values on the world stage.
Until now, however, Europe has lived in a state of learned helplessness, relying on America for its security. That’s now over. It’s not just the tariffs and Trump’s obvious support for Putin. I don’t know if Americans realize how big a shock it has been that European citizens are being arrested and detained by ICE. Suddenly it’s clear that America is not an ally, may not even be a democracy, and Europe must look after itself.
The question, which I can’t answer, is how quickly Europe can stand up. There’s clearly going to be a shift away from U.S. weapons, and Europe clearly has the technological capacity to do that. Will it be able to do so soon enough to turn the tide in Ukraine? I have no idea.
Nor can we rule out the possibility that Europe will return to form and disappoint everyone.
But big stuff is happening, and team Trump, which seems to believe that nobody can stand up to his whims, may get a rude shock from old Europe.

15 March
Ukraine allies plan meeting of military chiefs next week
Britain’s Starmer announced the London meeting after a call with 29 allies — but not the U.S. Still he insisted any Ukraine peace plan needs an American security backstop.
(Politico Eu) U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the British-French-led talks after he hosted a call Saturday morning with the leaders of Ukraine, 25 other allied nations, NATO, the EU and the European Council — but not the U.S.
Serbians stage huge protest in Belgrade against their president
Farmers and bikers join students in climax to movement that Aleksandar Vučić labels an ‘imported revolution’
(The Guardian) A vast demonstration has been gathering in Belgrade, marking the climax of more than four months of student-led protests and the biggest challenge to President Aleksandar Vučić in the 11 years of his increasingly autocratic rule.
Vučić stoked tensions in the run-up to yesterday’s mass protest, suggesting there would be an attempt to overthrow him by force and calling it an “imported revolution” with the involvement of western intelligence agencies, but he provided no evidence for the claims. The demonstrations against government corruption and incompetence have so far been overwhelmingly peaceful.
Massive crowds flood Belgrade as months of protests reach boiling point
After sweeping the country, ever-growing anti-government demonstrations have circled back to the Serbian capital.

14-15 March
Romania bans second far-right hopeful from presidential election rerun
Diana Șoșoacă’s exclusion follows expulsion of front-runner Călin Georgescu from race amid rising tension around poll
On Saturday, an electoral commission statement said it had also taken the “decision to reject the candidacy of Diana Șoșoacă”.
It noted that the country’s constitutional court had already banned her from standing last November for making declarations “contrary to democratic values”.
The electoral office did, however, validate the candidacy of George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). Following the exclusion of Georgescu, he is the most prominent figure on the far right still in the running.
MAGA’s new pet European project
(Politico) MAGA has zeroed in on another European fellow traveler, one more character to knit into its global, far-right populist alliance: Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu.
The 62-year-old Georgescu has campaigned for president on a message of making Romania great again, insisting that under his leadership the country will not be treated as second-class in the European Union and NATO. He’s styled himself as the Romanian Trump, while also expressing admiration for Russian culture and declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a patriot. He’s the rare candidate who can boast support from both the Trump administration and Putin.
But there’s one big problem: Romanian authorities just barred Georgescu from running for president.
In the first round of Romania’s presidential election last November, Georgescu came out of nowhere to capture a plurality of the vote, edging out multiple establishment candidates. In the immediate aftermath of the election, observers credited Georgescu’s TikTok campaign that took off just weeks before the election.
But that online effort immediately came under scrutiny. First, Romania’s election authority accused the Chinese platform of violating the country’s election rule by not identifying Georgescu as a political candidate, thus boosting his profile at the expense of other candidates. TikTok rejected the accusations.
In addition, declassified intelligence documents disclosed after the first election round alleged Georgescu had benefited from a Russia-style booster campaign and that paid influencers, along with members of extremist, right-wing groups and people with ties to organized crime, had promoted his candidacy online.

14 March
EU’s Massive Retaliation Just Begun — Counter-Tariffs to Cripple the BIGGEST U.S. Industry! (YouTube)
US–EU Trade War 2.0: How Tariffs and Retaliations Reshape the Transatlantic Economy
Launch of fresh US tariffs and their March 12th implementation
Trump’s goal to close the US trade deficit with Europe
Why these measures signal a more transactional transatlantic relationship
EU’s €26 Billion Countermeasures in Two Phases
Phase One from April 1st: Bourbon, jeans, motorcycles, etc.
Phase Two from April 13th, needing EU member-state approval, targeting a broader range of American goods
A strategic approach to hit iconic US products and influence political pressure in Republican states
Structural Pressures & Historic Context

12 March
Europe’s economic outlook is being clouded by policies ‘unthinkable only a few months ago.’
(NYT) Policymakers are grappling with “exceptionally high” uncertainty, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, said on Wednesday, just hours after the European Commission announced tariffs on U.S. imports in response to levies imposed by the Trump administration. Later, Canada announced a new round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports.
The unpredictability of trade policy and geopolitics, which is likely to mean more large economic shocks, will make it harder for central bankers to keep inflation at their 2 percent target, Ms. Lagarde said.

Out of Putin’s war and Trump’s treachery, a new Europe is being born
Nathalie Tocci
The EU has its Trojan horses and Nato’s cornerstone has crumbled. But European allies, including the UK, are bound by an urgent shared purpose
… The bleak reality is that Europe still faces an unprecedented threat and notwithstanding signs of progress for Ukraine at talks in Jeddah, we face it alone.
Worse, we now have to confront it with the US working against us. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appear to share a plan: a Vichy-like regime in Ukraine and a European continent split into spheres of influence, which Russia, the US (and perhaps China) can colonise and prey upon. Most European publics sense this. A critical mass of European leaders gets it too. They are beginning to act.
Their response is forming the basis for a different kind of Europe from the one we have known for decades. …it is easier to say what it is not than what it is. It is not the EU, or not the one we have long taken for granted. The 27-country union is simply not equipped to take decisions with the speed and level of ambition necessary to confront the dramatic, life-or-death, fast-changing geopolitical and security moment its citizens face. Moreover, the EU now includes Trojan horses such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and the populist nationalist Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, who are plainly working on behalf of Putin’s Russia and Trump’s US.
EU retaliates against Trump’s trade moves and slaps tariffs on produce from Republican states
(AP via CBC) The European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25 per cent.
The world’s biggest trading bloc was expecting the U.S. tariffs and prepared in advance, but the measures still place great strain on already tense transatlantic relations. Only last month, Washington warned Europe that it would have to take care of its own security in the future.
The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($40 billion Cdn) — and not just steel and aluminum products. Textiles, home appliances, agricultural goods will be hit with tariffs, as will motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, the latter of which were also taxed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term.
The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. The tariffs — taxes on imports — primarily target Republican-held states, hitting soybeans in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana, and also beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska. Produce in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia is also on the list.
EU retaliates against Trump tariffs with €26bn ‘countermeasures’
(The Guardian) The EU has announced it will impose trade “countermeasures” on up to €26bn (£22bn) worth of US goods in retaliation to Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, escalating a global trade war.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the 25% US levies on global imports of the metals “unjustified trade restrictions”, after they came into force at 4am GMT on Wednesday.

11-13 March
What Greenland’s elections mean for the island — and the U.S.
(NPR) Greenland will soon have a new government led by a pro-independence party — signaling what could be an eventual split from Denmark. Is that a win for President Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to annex the island?
For starters, the Demokraatit party has also been highly critical of Trump’s rhetoric, insisting that their island — the world’s largest — has the right to self-determination. The party’s leader and Greenland’s likely next prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has called Trump “a threat to our political independence.”
The Demokraatit party also favors a go-slow approach to independence, with a gradual strengthening of the island’s economy, which is heavily reliant on fishing exports and direct subsidies from Denmark, before going it alone.
Greenland’s pro-business opposition wins election amid Trump control pledge
Greenland voting in parliamentary elections
Independence the key campaign theme after Trump interest
Trump says Greenland vital to US security, wants control
Naleraq party comes second, aims for secession deal with Denmark
(Reuters) – Greenland’s pro-business opposition Demokraatit party won Tuesday’s closely watched parliamentary election, beating the incumbent left-wing coalition in a vote dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to take control of the island.
Demokraatit, which favours a slow approach to independence from Denmark, secured 29.9% of the votes with all ballots counted, up from 9.1% in 2021, ahead of the opposition Naleraq party, which favours rapid independence, at 24.5%.
Background
Polls opened in Greenland for early parliamentary elections Tuesday as US President Donald Trump seeks control of the strategic Arctic island. The self-governing region of Denmark is home to 56,000 people, most from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, and occupies a strategic North Atlantic location. It also contains rare earth minerals that are key to driving the global economy. … Voters…will instead elect 31 lawmakers who will shape the island’s debate on when and if to declare independence in the future.

8 March
Trump Is Nero While Washington Burns
‘Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you.’
By Claude Malhuret
Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, the French senator Claude Malhuret gave a powerful speech about the implications for Europe of the reversal of American policy toward Ukraine. Malhuret is the former mayor of the town of Vichy as well as a doctor and an epidemiologist, and the former head of Doctors Without Borders. He is a member of the center-right Horizons party representing the district of Allier. The speech, whose dark urgency and stark rhetorical force made it a social-media sensation, follows, translated and adapted by The Atlantic.
Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.
This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you.
The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.
Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to the enemy. Never has one supported an aggressor against an ally, issued so many illegal decrees, and sacked so many military leaders in one go. Never has one trampled on the American Constitution, while threatening to disregard judges who stand in his way, weaken countervailing powers, and take control of social media.
This is not a drift to illiberalism; this is the beginning of the seizure of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution. …

7 March
Europe’s New Power Trio
Simon Toubeau
Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is politically aligned with the European Union’s two most powerful politicians: Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber. This trio of Christian Democrats could increase European defense spending – as illustrated by the recent announcements of fiscal reforms – and competitiveness.
(Project Syndicate) The victory of Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany’s recent federal election, which all but assures that Merz will be the next chancellor, is an encouraging development for the European Union. The high level of political alignment between German and EU leadership will enable the bloc to implement economic reforms, determine how to boost public spending in vital areas, and develop a new fiscal framework.

5-6 March
Legal basis matters for moves on Russian assets, Lagarde says
(Reuters) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday she expected any decision by Western countries on what to do with currently-frozen Russian assets would take into account international law.
European leaders want to use $300-350 billion of Russian assets – mostly European, U.S. and British government bonds – to help rebuild Ukraine, but are yet to agree on how to avoid legal challenges or set a problematic international precedent.
The ECB has long raised concerns about how such a move could affect investors’ willingness in future to hold assets in euros.
Europe Races to Craft a Trump-Era Plan for Ukraine and Defense
European leaders are gathering in Brussels Thursday to discuss how to support Ukraine and fend more for themselves on defense.
(NYT) European leaders find themselves plunged into a hostile new era of less cooperation from the United States, a greater threat from Russia, and an increasingly uncertain outlook for Ukraine. On Thursday, they will gather in Brussels to try to figure out what to do about that.
They will need to walk a fine line: Figuring out how to support Ukraine and bolster their own defenses while avoiding further alienating their tempestuous allies in Washington.
The specially called and much anticipated gathering will include the heads of state or government from the European Union’s 27 member countries and is the latest in a series of quickly arranged summits focused on defense.
They are expected to discuss how to finance a ramp up of European military spending, hoping to make the continent better armed to deal with Russia without as much backup from across the Atlantic. They will also review what a peace plan for Ukraine might look like, and how they can support it.
France Open to Discussing Extension of Nuclear Deterrence, Macron Says
In a televised address, President Emmanuel Macron warned that Europe needed to deal with a retreating America and a bellicose Russia.

4 March
Europe’s Powerful Tool Against Russia
Andrew Kosenko and Joseph E. Stiglitz
(Project Syndicate) If European leaders want to follow through on their statements in support of Ukraine following America’s betrayal of the country, they must seize the moment by seizing Russia’s assets. Europe has become the world’s bulwark against the rising tide of authoritarianism, and it can no longer afford to hide behind legalistic excuses.
… The most immediate tasks are to create a self-sufficient defense force and to decide what to do with the $220 billion in Russian sovereign assets (out of the $300-350 billion immobilized in 2022) currently held in European jurisdictions. In June 2024, the G7 agreed to use the interest ($50 billion) from these assets to provide financial aid to Ukraine, and the European Commission made the first disbursement of $3 billion in January 2025. But with the US likely to end its own financial assistance, this half-measure is no longer sufficient. Europe must go further by seizing all the Russian assets under its control.
Will Trump Trigger a Eurozone Debt Crisis?
Desmond Lachman
Given Germany’s shrinking economy and serious public-debt problems in both Italy and France, Donald Trump’s proposed import tariffs risk triggering a Europe-wide recession and another eurozone debt crisis. Trump’s “America First” trade agenda would soon blow back on the United States – not least on his beloved stock market.
(Project Syndicate) At the first cabinet meeting of his second term, US President Donald Trump declared his intention to impose a sweeping 25% tariff on all imports from the European Union. But before opening a European front in his trade war, Trump might want to consider the continent’s economic malaise: the German economy has been experiencing a prolonged downturn, while Italy and France are struggling with serious public-debt problems. Maybe then Trump will grasp that his tariff actions – part of his “America First” agenda – risk triggering a European-wide recession and another eurozone debt crisis.
Some might argue that Trump has no interest in Europe’s fate. But given how badly the 2010 Greek debt implosion shook US and world financial markets, similar crises in France and Italy, the European Union’s second- and third-largest economies (and many times the size of Greece’s), would have truly catastrophic consequences for markets and the global economy. That is the last thing Trump needs on his watch.

1-3 March
UK’s Starmer says Europe is at ‘crossroads in history’ as leaders agree to steps to Ukraine peace
The meeting had been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding that took place on live television at the White House. Starmer used the opportunity as part of his broader effort to bridge the gap between Europe and the U.S. and also salvage what had seemed like the start of a peace process before Friday’s spat.
Starmer said he had worked with France and Ukraine on a plan to end the war and that the group of leaders — mostly from Europe — had agreed on four things.
The steps toward peace would: keep aid flowing to Kyiv and maintain economic pressure on Russia to strengthen Ukraine’s hand; make sure Ukraine is at the bargaining table and any peace deal must ensure its sovereignty and security; and continue to arm Ukraine to deter future invasion.

Europe Races to Repair a Split Between the U.S. and Ukraine
European leaders pledge to assemble a “coalition of the willing” to develop a plan for ending Ukraine’s war with Russia, which they hope could win the backing of a skeptical President Trump.
Gathering in London at the invitation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, the leaders vowed to bolster support for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine after his bitter clash with Mr. Trump last week. But several also expressed hope that the two could repair their breach, underscoring Europe’s reluctance to cast off a trans-Atlantic alliance that has kept the peace for 80 years.
Mr. Starmer said he believed that despite Mr. Trump’s anger toward Mr. Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr. Trump was committed to a lasting peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. He said Britain and France, working with other European countries, would develop their own plan with Mr. Zelensky.
… On Sunday in London, Europe wrapped Mr. Zelensky in a warm embrace. He won gestures of support from the 18 assembled leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.

Europe’s Moment of Truth
The Transatlantic Alliance Is Under Grave Threat—but Not Yet Doomed
Wolfgang Ischinger, President of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Council and former German Ambassador to the United States
(Foreign Affairs) In European capitals, panic has set in. Some policymakers and analysts are speaking of the end of NATO, or the end of the West. They are terrified about U.S. intentions: Does Washington intend to actively undermine the long-term survival of Ukraine as a sovereign and free country? Is Trump trying to execute a “reverse Kissinger,” by charming Russian President Vladimir Putin into abandoning his marriage to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and making an unholy alliance with the United States? A huge chasm has opened in transatlantic trust—one that is bad for Washington’s global power projection and for its image as a benign hegemon, and potentially catastrophic for transatlantic cohesion and the vitality of NATO.
… Above all is the urgent need for a new kind of European leadership. In order to defend their strategic security interests and rebuild the frayed alliance, European powers must show that they are able to shoulder a more substantial burden that enhances the collective power of the alliance. France, Germany, Poland, and other like-minded neighbors should launch a major defense initiative, shaped around a core group of powers that are prepared to speak with one voice on security issues. This European Defense Union—the EDU—would agree on majority decision-making and include as close participation from the United Kingdom as possible. Major objectives would include building a consolidated and unified defense market and supply chain; the joint development, procurement, and maintenance of military equipment; and the joint training of military staff. France and the United Kingdom, as nuclear powers, would be encouraged to examine options for an enhanced EDU contribution to extended deterrence.
The best and most elegant way for the Trump administration to include both Europe and Ukraine—as well as European partners such as Turkey—in the peace deal would be to reestablish the tested and proven contact group format, introduced in the 1990s to create a sense of unity and common purpose under U.S. leadership. We might remind Washington that it should be proud of that innovative and successful diplomatic format—a U.S. invention. In Ukraine, it could provide the crucial ingredients needed to ensure that the war really ends.

UK, European leaders join forces to draft Ukraine peace plan to take to US
Starmer hails ‘coalition of the willing’
Europe must boost defence spending, says von der Leyen
UK, France and Ukraine to present deal to Trump
Zelenskiy meets King Charles at his residence
(Reuters) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday European leaders had agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to take to the United States, a vital step for Washington to be able to offer security guarantees Kyiv says are vital to deter Russia.
More governments pledge to join UK and France in sending peacekeepers to Ukraine
(Politico Eu) Speaking to reporters after a summit of European and world leaders in London on Sunday, the United Kingdom’s prime minister insisted the “coalition of the willing” plan must have United States backing. Donald Trump’s America was a “reliable ally,” he said.
Starmer and Macron to work on Ukraine peace as leaders meet for London summit
Britain and France step in to heal Trump-Zelenskyy rift while Italy’s Meloni says she’s willing to be a bridge-builder.
European and Canadian leaders are set to meet in London later Sunday for a security summit on Ukraine, which Zelenskyy will join.