Trump-Putin's phone call: Europe's latest reality check

BrusselsThe European Union has shattered many of its taboos during the war in Ukraine. For the first time in its history, the community blog has provided arms support to a third country, Ukraine, to defend itself from the invasion of Vladimir Putin's regime. It has spent more money than the United States and has already allocated more than 88 billion euros, according to data from the EU itself. But beyond these multi-million euro aids, Russian expansionism and the return of Donald Trump to the White House have reminded the European club why it has completely changed its mentality, and wants to recover its military autonomy and be a decisive player on the geopolitical chessboard.

The latest dose of reality in this regard is the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. Once again, despite all its efforts, no one in Europe takes it too seriously. It doesn't matter that it was the region of the world that suffered most directly from the consequences of the invasion - energy crisis, inflation and economic recession - or that everyone takes for granted that it will be the main financier of the reconstruction of the Ukrainian country. Trump, without warning either in Kiev or in Brussels, suddenly announced on Wednesday that he had already agreed with Putin that Negotiations begin "imminently", and European leaders have barely raised their voices.

The US president deigned to call Zelensky afterwards to personally announce the news. However, in the EU no one received any call or notification from the White House. Then, several European foreign ministers - Germany, France and, among others, Spain - signed a letter in which they claimed to have a say in the resolution of the conflict. And, in the same vein, some defence ministers charged at the NATO summit on Thursday against the Trump administration for the fact that it has accepted some of Putin's main maximum conditions before starting negotiations: giving up Crimea and part of the east of the Ukrainian country, and Ukraine's accession to NATO. "It would have been better to first talk at the negotiating table about the possible accession of Ukraine to NATO or the possible territorial losses," said the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius.

Beyond these complaints, the European Union knows that it does not have much power to demand a negotiating chair and that, in any case, it depends on the good will of the United States, which is in the hands of Trump, or on the insistence of Zelensky, who also sees himself in an increasingly weakened position as he finds himself in the middle of the meeting. In fact, this Friday, at the Munich Conference, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, neither made this request explicit nor did she criticize all the concessions of the White House to the Kremlin before sitting down to negotiate, although Zelensky assured after meeting with her that he would only negotiate with Putin.

The last time

That is why Von der Leyen has focused a significant part of her speech on looking to the future. She wants this to be the last time that the United States does and undoes without even consulting the EU. But how can we avoid this? By abandoning the language of soft power and recovering hard power. That is, by ceasing to play a role of global influence with only commercial relations, as Europe has done since the end of the Second World War, and achieving the longed-for military autonomy. "The message I want to convey to them is this: Europe is adapting and is taking a step forward," said the President of the European Commission, who stressed that the member states "need to considerably increase" military spending.

In fact, the European Union, as with Trump's tariff war, was hoping that the new administration would not make good on everything it promised during its election campaign. That is why community sources pointed out just last week that they were breathing easier in the face of the New York magnate's first moves on Ukraine. But reality is stubborn.

In this context, as the former head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, insisted, the European Union wants to learn "to speak the language of power" and avoid finding itself in situations of weakness again in the face of a powerful United States and Russia or even China. "If you are not on the geopolitical board, you are on the menu," warned the former socialist leader at his last European summit.