N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Last week, the Big Question during the World Economic Forum in Davos was: what will be the EU’s answer to a world with Donald Trump? Complaining, capitulating, paying, fighting? The best and the most difficult answer is of course: become stronger yourself!
The results are irreversible, Trump and his Republican Party won the vote of the American people in the elections convincingly. He comes to power at a moment when the US economy is doing well; US technology companies dominate the world; when China is going through an unprecedented and difficult economic period and when Russia is seriously weakened by the Ukrainian war. In Davos, Trump’s ‘spirit’ was noticeable. In previous years at the WEF, American companies often talked about sustainability. Now the tone has changed. The goal of business in the US is once again to make money.
The conclusion in Davos was that the EU is the big loser in this new world. The way the EU tackles the climate problem is marginalised and it does not play a role in the global diplomatic world. The irony is that it is not the US that needs Elon Musk to cut bureaucracy but the EU. The speech of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was well received, but the question that remains is, whether action can follow. No real answer can be found anywhere other than in EU’s own strength. But Berlin and Paris being politically unstable at the moment, the EU is still no further than a report written by Mario Draghi...
