Europe’s strength is its unity, its weakness is its fragmentation

The delegitimisation of Zelensky and the whitewashing of Putin to negotiate a ‘dirty peace’ in Ukraine, suspending military aid and intelligence sharing, have caught the EU wrong-footed.

Macron’s efforts, in convening two informal summits and taking a quick visit to Washington, are reminiscent of Sarkozy’s commendable but fruitless attempts in Georgia in 2008.

No matter how many summits are held in Paris, London or - like yesterday - Brussels, Europe, which is unable to guarantee its own security outside the Atlantic Alliance, will not be able to prop up Ukraine without the US.

While the plan devised by Macron and the British PM aims to soften the rougher edges of Trump’s version, it will find it hard to get out of the role assigned to Europe by the latter: ceasefire, acceptance of the territorial solution, deployment of a mainly European international force, reconstruction costs and the lifting of sanctions on Russia.

It seems clear that Von der Leyen’s proposal, in the best-case scenario and depending on each Member State’s domestic circumstances, will not allow the EU to shift quickly from the current defence spending level of 326 billion euros to the additional 800 billion needed. It’s going to take time - and unfortunately, Ukraine cannot wait.

While sincerity is sacrosanct, in politics mistakes can be very costly. Europe has been dealt a hard lesson, without a seat at the big table and relegated to a secondary player in the conflict taking place on its own continent.

June will mark 40 years since the signing of Spain’s accession treaty to the European Communities. Much has happened since then: the Europe 92 project, the birth of the single currency, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Balkan War, German unification and the various enlargements with successive amendments to the Treaties.

At the end of the 1980s, thanks to Jacques Delors’ Commission Presidency coinciding with a series of extraordinary personalities (John Paul II, Gorbachev, Regan, Kohl, Thatcher), the European project experienced a surge in momentum and became, for two decades, a great economic, commercial and financial power. It was the epitome of ‘soft power’, lazily assigning its defence needs to its ‘American friend’ through the transatlantic link that has been part of its genetic code since the signing of the Washington Treaty in 1949.

After facing successive crises, in 2008 the Union entered a decline, in which it seems unable to cope with the continuous renewal of the American economy, the economic and technological strength of China and the unstoppable emergence of other players in the Global South.

In 2019, China overtook the EU as the world’s second largest economy. This year, India will overtake Japan in fourth place and will soon surpass Germany in third.

On top of this, the old Continent is becoming an old continent. In 1950, six of the 10 most populous countries in the world were European. Today, the only European nation in the top twenty is Germany.

The European Union must shake off its lethargy and take a decisive step in the right direction, in a sense that covers both dimensions of the project: the internal dimension - Single Market and Economic and Monetary Union - and its external projection.

For the former, the roadmap is laid down by the Draghi Report. The Commission has already put forward proposals: the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal and two of the three Omnibus Communications on simplification. There is an urgent need to create, once and for all, a Capital Markets Union and a European Treasury.

On the external dimension, the European Union needs to speak with one voice. We have witnessed the spectacle of a Member State voting at the United Nations with Russia, Belarus, Iran and North Korea. Europe’s strength is its unity; its weakness is its fragmentation.

On Defence, the first duty is to meet the commitments made in Cardiff and Madrid, since the Union is currently unable to guarantee its defence needs outside the Atlantic Alliance. Next, we must build on the progress made in recent years to create a credible security and defence policy that will allow us to tackle conflicts and crises together, protect our citizens, contribute to international peace and security and respond to new threats.

With the US, we have the deepest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, with annual trade in goods and services exceeding 1.5 trillion euros, representing 30% of global trade and 43% of worldwide GDP.

In the face of this ludicrous trade war, the EU needs to rapidly and unapologetically complete its network of preferential agreements with third countries. In 2017, Trump abandoned talks on the ambitious Trade and Investment Agreement (TTIP), which sought zero tariffs for both sides.

Also, and most importantly, the EU must equip itself with a decision-making procedure that shakes off institutional paralysis. In politics, timing is decisive. While Trump signs Executive Orders from one day to the next, the EU has taken more than 16 years to negotiate and ratify the agreement with Canada, and 25 years to do likewise for the draft Strategic Agreement with Mercosur.

The EU project is an imperfect one that is still under construction. It is a project that, according to an American President of this century, is the most democratic, most solidarity-based, least unjust, and most diverse project that humanity has ever known.

It is one that could not have arisen without the decisive contribution - in blood and material aid - of the United States.

While Donald Trump won 77 million votes and is a legitimate President, his project should be put into perspective. Running for a period of four years, it will have to be revalidated halfway through with the complete renewal of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.

Great powers come and go, as do political leaders. History changes, but neighbours and geography do not. History is being shaped as we speak, and in the present we are living through, the European Union must emerge as one of the key players.

But let us not fool ourselves: the Europe we believe in will not be built by an invisible hand but by the leadership, vision, ambition and determination of leaders who are able to anticipate the future - which, as Victor Hugo said, is ‘impossible for the weak, unknown for the fearful and ideal for the courageous’. This is what the brave people of Ukraine, with their immense courage, deserve and have earned.*

* This article was first published by the Spanish national daily newspaper ABC on 6 March 2025.