For EU, Trump ‘a thing of the past’
Leaders eager to renew relationships with U.S.
BRUSSELS — For European Union nations, Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration as the next U.S. president cannot come fast enough.
After the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, most national governments have shed any inhibition at aiming criticism at a sitting U.S. president. Several already embrace his rival as a beacon of hope to rebuild trans-atlantic ties that have crumbled over the past four years.
“President Trump is already a thing of the past,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa of Portugal, which holds the EU’S rotating presidency, said Thursday.
“I don’t dabble much in provocation, but for me this page is turned,” EU Council President Charles Michel said.
All eyes are now on the future and Biden. “Above all, I am looking forward to the new American president,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said. The sentiment was shared in much of the 27-nation bloc.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Italy “can’t wait to work together with President Biden.”
Two simple moves from Washington would please the EU: rejoining the Paris climate accord, the 5-yearold global deal that commits participating nations to curb the worst of pollution and warming excesses, and the World Health Organization, which is focusing on the coronavirus pandemic.
President Barack Obama joined the Paris climate pact, but Trump pulled out, much to the Europeans’ dismay.
The same goes for the WHO, which Biden has also promised to rejoin.
“One of Biden’s first gestures will be to include the United States in the Paris agreement, and this will allow us to face up to the reality of climate change,” Costa said.
The Portuguese prime minister also said he hoped the incoming president will reinvigorate U.S. standing in multilateral bodies like the United Nations.
“This will mean that there is hope,” he said.
Trump often criticized European allies for cowering under the
U.S. defense and security umbrella while seeking economic advantage through subsidies and other trade tactics.
“The truth is that contacts at the highest level between Trump and the EU were very limited, and not only the past few weeks,” Michel told RTBF network.