One day after Donald Trump’s inauguration in the United States, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, outlined at the Davos Forum the European response to the challenge of the new Trump era. The community leader expressed this Tuesday the European willingness to negotiate with the new US Administration without renouncing its principles, but outlined the contours of a European strategy to weather the new wave: a strong push for international cooperation with other partners, although be authoritarian, wherever there are mutual interests, and a great leap in community integration.
In a time of expected deterioration in relations with the United States, Von der Leyen’s message was clear: “This new commitment to countries around the world is not only an economic necessity, but also a message for the world. We want more cooperation with everyone who is open to it. Our values do not change. But to defend these values in a changing world, we must change the way we act. We must look for new opportunities wherever they arise. This is the time to commit beyond the blocks and taboos. And Europe is ready for change.”
The president noted that the first trip of her new Commission will be to India, and explicitly expressed the will to: “deepen our relationship with China and, when possible, even expand our trade and investment ties,” while seeks to reduce the risks of dependency. “Our message is simple: if there are mutual benefits in sight, we are ready to cooperate,” he said.
Von der Leyen used the recent trade agreements with Mercosur, Mexico and Switzerland as evidence of a strategy that makes sense and has a future in view of the geopolitical changes, and reiterated European attachment to the Paris Agreement after Trump’s scare.
The other leg on which the European strategy must be based in this time of turbulent change, according to the President of the Commission, is a leap in community integration. Von der Leyen pointed out three specific areas.
The first, the construction of an authentic common capital market, which allows the large savings of Europeans to be properly channeled – around 1.4 trillion euros compared to 800,000 million for Americans, according to their data – towards investments in strategic sectors. .
The second is the creation of a legislative and bureaucratic environment more conducive to innovation. To this end, he underlined the idea of creating a kind of legal State number 28 of the Union that makes it easier for innovative companies to operate throughout the common market with a single set of reference standards. Sources from the artificial intelligence sector consulted in the Forum observe with great hope these steps forward and the awareness that this technological race is a challenge that requires a unified response.
The third is to complete the energy union, a fundamental issue to guarantee European competitiveness and help keep costs low for citizens. Von der Leyen announced that the Commission will present a plan for this purpose in February.
After Von der Leyen, Ding Xuexiang, Chinese Vice Premier, spoke at the Davos Forum. The representative of the Asian giant launched, without mentioning Trump, broadsides against protectionist impulses and tried to continue cultivating the message that seeks to position Beijing as a stabilizing force in turbulent global waters. Ding expressed China’s will to sustain “inclusive economic globalization,” arguing that the only way to correct the distortions created by the process of global economic integration is through the development of that model, not by reversing it.
Ding also underscored China’s aspiration to maintain a multilateral global governance system in times of increasing fragmentation and polarization. Asked about China’s role in this period, Ding cited a Chinese proverb according to which people should be judged as much by what they say as by what they do. In this second aspect, it is worth remembering that China, for example, did not respect a ruling by an international court on the law of the sea, a clear emblem of the multilateral system that it claims to defend.
