After a year of Trump, EU leaders begrudgingly learn to live with the reality of an unreliable ally

BRUSSELS AP Over the subject of a new reality has sunk in for Europe The United States long its strongest ally has chipped away at the European Union s unity economies protection and even its democracies setting the backdrop for an EU summit this week at the end of an exceptionally trying year After putting an indefinite freeze last week on Russian assets in Europe EU leaders face a new test of strength at Thursday s summit Ukraine is in dire financial straits and they have promised to meet Kyiv s economic and military necessities for the next two years majority of maybe through a new reparations loan It s crunch time for Europe and Ukraine warned Danish Foreign Minister Lars L kke Rasmussen whose country holds the EU s rotating presidency We need to take this decision in order to secure the Ukrainian market system but also in order to send a signal to the rest of the world which will include the White House in Washington D C that Europe is a strong geopolitical participant As the continent s biggest land war in decades rages on the Europeans have been tested by President Donald Trump s threats his promotion for Europe s far right and his camaraderie with Russian President Vladimir Putin At first they responded with flattery Less so in contemporary months Since January as the leaders have tried to keep Ukraine in the fight against its bigger neighbor Trump has switched back and forth appearing to promotion Kyiv one month Russia the next He has mostly remained critical of Europe and that criticism now has a sharper edge European leaders have worked to fill the gap and shore up military advocacy for Ukraine but they concede that the United States is an irreplaceable partner and Trump is the only person Putin might talk peace with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned last week that we are really witnessing a watershed moment now and nothing is the way it was before We re living in a different time and this time requires different responses than we ve given in the past Europe starts to respond Weeks after Trump returned to office in January his administration signaled that U S measure interests lie elsewhere Europe must now look after itself and Ukraine whose president was humiliated at a White House meeting in February Days later Vice President JD Vance met with a far-right leader in Germany claiming that free speech is in retreat in Europe sparking assertions of electoral process interference Vance s themes were developed this month in a U S National Precaution Strategy The text also attacked EU migration agenda suggesting that Europe faces the prospect of civilizational erasure and might not be reliable as an American partner Judy Dempsey from the Carnegie Europe think tank mentioned that Europe has no choice but to respond Europe and the rest of the world now know how poorly this U S administration regards them and they cannot keep pretending otherwise she mentioned Merz is already speaking more forcefully We in Europe and so also in Germany must become much more independent from the U S in terms of precaution procedures This is not a surprise but it has now been endorsed again he revealed Poor plans and new contract deals Another troubling document for the EU was circulated last month the Trump administration s -point plan to end the war drafted with Russia It contained old Kremlin demands promises of Russian business opportunities and a call to rehabilitate Putin on the world stage It was mostly unacceptable to Ukraine and its European backers Not so to Russia as it tries to drive a wedge between the U S and the allies Trump Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reported is the only Western leader who shows an understanding of the reasons that made war in Ukraine inevitable Back in April on so-called Liberation Day Trump reported sweeping tariffs across the globe to protect national prevention He reported that our country has been looted pillaged raped and plundered by other nations including U S allies in the world s biggest defense organization NATO Trump declared an economic crisis By July he and the EU had agreed a agreement framework setting a tariff on preponderance goods staving off far higher import duties The response of the EU has been to seek deals with other jilted partners notably throughout Asia The world s biggest trading bloc has also accepted that higher tariffs were allegedly the best price to pay for continued U S encouragement in Ukraine Off with the EU defense brake Unsettled by the agreement rift Europeans at NATO still agreed to Trump s demand that they invest of GDP on defense although it remains unclear whether countless will hit the target by the deadline when they have struggled to meet the old target Still the EU has since taken its foot off the defense spending brakes and aims to be capable of defending against outside attack by Bureaucrats believe Putin could order an attack elsewhere in Europe in three to five years should Russia defeat Ukraine In fresh warnings this week Blaise Metreweli the new head of the U K MI spy agency declared that Putin s export of chaos is likely to continue until he is forced to change his calculus British Armed Forces head Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton revealed that the Russia leader s aim is to challenge limit divide and ultimately destroy NATO Thursday s EU summit with its focus on funding Ukraine s financial system and military effort over the next two years is another step alone without the United States EU Council President Ant nio Costa who will chair the meeting has threatened to keep the leaders at EU headquarters for days until an agreement is reached Source