The bloc’s future shouldn’t depend on the outcome of the US election, according to top EU official Charles Michel, who implied that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would continue their protectionist policies.
“There are some differences between Harris and Trump for sure,” outgoing European Council president Michel said in an interview Thursday with the European Newsroom of which AFP is a part.
“In the short term, it will be different. But in the mid term, in the long term, are we certain that it will be fundamentally different?”
EU nations are anxiously awaiting next month’s tense election that might restore unstable former President Trump to power on the other side of the Atlantic.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour Ukraine approaches its fourth year, the vote comes at a crucial moment for the EU.
By threatening to disrupt NATO, striking a hasty agreement with Moscow about Ukraine, and enacting trade tariffs, Trump has alarmed Washington’s European friends.
“In terms of economic partnerships, do you think that with or without Harris, or with or without Trump, the United States will not be any more a protectionist country?” Michel said.
“They are a protectionist country, I regret this situation.”
Michel said the 27-nation bloc should “not reflect in terms of we are afraid because we don’t know who will be the next president of the United States.”
“I don’t want that my children will depend on who will be the next president of the United States, who will be the president of China, of Russia,” he said.
“I want my children, my grandchildren to be in control of their destiny, because it is in Europe that we decide what is our future and what is our destiny.”
In what many Europeans see to be an existential conflict for the security of the continent, the United States and EU countries have provided Kyiv with the majority of their assistance.
Trump, however, has questioned if the US will continue to support Ukraine.
After Western nations claimed that North Korea had transferred troops to Russia, Michel stated that the EU should increase its “military support, financial support” to Kyiv.
“This again is an escalation by Russia,” he said.
