{"id":365419,"date":"2025-08-22T19:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365419\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:43:09","slug":"eu-needs-reform-to-tackle-trumps-brutal-wake-up-call-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365419\/","title":{"rendered":"EU needs reform to tackle Trump\u2019s \u2018brutal wake-up call\u2019 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The crucial challenge comes from a &#8220;very brutal wake-up call from Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had to resign ourselves to tariffs imposed by our largest trading partner and long-standing ally, the United States,&#8221; he said of the shift in policy under the U.S. president. &#8220;We have been pushed by the same ally to increase military spending, a decision we might have had to make anyway \u2014 but in ways that probably do not reflect Europe&#8217;s interests.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite its economic power, the EU plays only a &#8220;marginal&#8221; role in Trump&#8217;s peace efforts in Ukraine, was &#8220;an observer&#8221; of the massacre in Gaza and &#8220;China has made it clear that it does not consider Europe an equal partner.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Europe is ill-equipped in a world where geo-economics, security, and stability of supply sources, rather than efficiency, inspire international trade relations,&#8221; Draghi, also a former Italian prime minister, warned. &#8220;Our political organization must adapt to the demands of its time when they are existential.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Returning to his familiar call to boost Europe&#8217;s competitiveness, Draghi noted that the International Monetary Fund estimates that if EU internal barriers were reduced to the level prevailing in the U.S., the bloc&#8217;s labor productivity could be about 7 percent higher after seven years. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"622\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/8948585-1024x622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7049370\"  \/>Mario Draghi said the bloc should issue common debt to boost spending on defense, research and development, common infrastructures and disruptive technologies. | Sergei Ilnitsky\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>Those internal trade barriers are also making Europe&#8217;s defense buildup less efficient. Although EU countries intend to increase their military investment by \u20ac2 trillion by 2031, &#8220;We have internal barriers that impose a 64 percent tariff on equipment and 95 percent on metals,&#8221; Draghi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crucial challenge comes from a &#8220;very brutal wake-up call from Trump.&#8221; &#8220;We had to resign ourselves to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[3420,2825,7057,32,2000,7704,8954,299,5187,7058,1699,2199,33109,479,1219,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-365419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-bonds","9":"tag-debt","10":"tag-defense-budgets","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-eu-us-military-ties","14":"tag-eu-us-trade-talks","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-defense","18":"tag-european-union","19":"tag-italy","20":"tag-mario-draghi","21":"tag-tariffs","22":"tag-trade-war","23":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115074131808307784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}