Watchword, unit. In the difficult negotiation that from here to August 1st will see the EU with the United States engaged, the word is repeated as a mantra in the commission. The reality, however, could soon say more. Since the beginning of the match on the duties, the capital, albeit in a non -blatant way, have taken significantly different positions, thus dividing themselves among the hawks – that is, those who do not close the door to a real commercial war with Donald Trump – and the doves, linked to the soft line. And it is in this second group that Giorgia Meloni’s Italy is placed.
The hawks
The intransigent front is led by two capital: Paris and Madrid. In France Emmanuel Macron, In the hours following the imposition of 30% by Washington pattes, he urged the president of the Commission Ursula von der leyen To prepare “credible countermeasures”, making all the tools available on the table. On the sidelines of the EU trade council, through the Minister for EU Affairs, Laurent Saint-Martinevoked the need for a change of method and the preparation of the so-called bazooka, or the anti-coercion tool. Spain of Pedro Sanchez, Since the sensational “no” in Trump on 5% to NATO and also thanks to political distances with the US administration, it is part of the countries in favor of a more muscle position. Austria asked to prepare countermeasures that hit the big tech with stripes. Denmark, whose position is mitigated by the fact that it is president of the EU on duty, has never denied the temptation to respond to the blow to Trump, also burned by the Greenland issue.
The doves
To guide them is above all a goal: to avoid a commercial war at any cost with the USA. In Italy in the government, with different shades, they reiterate it a little everyone, starting with the premier Melonswho for months has offered herself from the Pontere between the EU and the USA. 30% of Trump’s letter risks thinning the group of doves, but the most appear to resist. Like Germany, who after asking the commission to act with pragmatism did not send any minister of weight to the EU Council on trade. Ireland is forced to prudence also by the close relationship with the American big techs while among the Baltic (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) caution is motivated by the fears of a Washington disengagement on Ukraine as a possible retaliation to a strong response of Brussels on the duties. The Poland of Donald Tusk is also prudent, traditionally linked to the transatlantic context at least as regards the European one. The Hungary of Viktor Orbanlinked to double thread to Trumpism in an anti-EU key, it could not fail to take this opportunity to launch a new attack on the commission, accused of inability to treat.
The Commission
At the moment Ursula von der Leyen seems to prefer the soft line. The countermeasures are in preparation, but for now they limit themselves to the goods sector. The anti-coercion tool, through which the EU could exclude the US companies tout court, is evoked with shyness. And Palazzo Berlaymont seems oriented to take it into consideration only with one – at the moment impossible – unanimously of the 27.