EU chair labels Trump a 'threat' as Europeans debate US ties

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Donald Trump has joined Russia, China and radical Islam as a threat to the European Union, EU leaders were told on Tuesday by the man chairing a summit where they will debate relations with the United States.

European Council President Donald Tusk, a conservative former premier of Poland, wrote to EU national leaders to lay out themes for discussion when they meet in Malta on Friday to discuss the future of their Union as Britain prepares to leave.

In vivid language that reflects deep concern in Europe at the new US president's support for Brexit, as well as his ban on refugees and people from several Muslim countries, Tusk called on Europeans to rally against eurosceptic nationalists at home and take "spectacular steps" to deepen the continent's integration.

Saying the EU faced the biggest challenges of its 60-year history, Tusk named an "assertive China", "Russia's aggressive policy" towards its neighbours and "radical Islam" fuelling anarchy in the Middle East and Africa as key external threats.

These, "as well as worrying declarations by the new American administration, all make our future highly unpredictable," he said.

Laying out issues leaders may address in a 60th anniversary declaration at Rome in March, Tusk said the EU unity built after World War Two and the Cold War was needed "to avoid another historic catastrophe". He also said Americans should not weaken Transatlantic ties fundamental to "global order and peace".

"The disintegration of the European Union will not lead to the restoration of some mythical, full sovereignty of its member states, but to their real and factual dependence on the great superpowers: the United States, Russia and China," Tusk wrote to the EU leaders. "Only together can we be fully independent."