In freezing progress on a deal that had been in the works for over 25 years, the European Union sent a signal around the world that it is so riven by internal rivalries that it can no longer deliver.
“I don’t know exactly who is going to be ready to negotiate the trade agreements with the European Union. That’s going to be a huge setback,” said Ignacio García Bercero, who was the European Commission’s chief negotiator on deals with the United States and India.
“It’s going to weaken the Commission very, very significantly. Politically, that is also a very strong signal that the European Union has become so inward-looking that it’s not really able to act externally,” added García Bercero, who became a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank after he retired from the Commission in 2024.
It’s a sudden, and serious, reversal.
The European Commission president had only just signed the long-stalled pact with Mercosur after revamping the EU’s partnership with Mexico and wrapping up talks with Indonesia. She even, somehow, managed to shake hands on a trade deal with mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump.
At the end of 2025, von der Leyen’s trusted trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, dared to take a small victory lap.