The summit between Giorgia Meloni, JD Vance And Ursula von der leyen It was celebrated as an opportunity to relaunch the transatlantic relationship. “Today is a new beginning,” said the premier, while Vance called it “a large bridge” between the United States and Europe. But a bridge, however well designed, needs two solid banks and the European one is crumbly, marked more by cracks than a foundation.
Each agreement presupposes two effective contractors: Two subjects endowed with will, identity and strategic autonomy, but is the European Union? Internationally it behaves like a sum of vetoes and mistrust. The war in Ukraine has seen forced cohesion under American influence, but on crucial dossiers – Israel, China, Africa, Energy – Member States Marcian in scattered order. Everyone recites their part, often against others, more busy distinguishing than converging. Like Renzo’s cappons, linked to the legs and dragged towards the slaughterhouse, European governments argue together while history pushes them towards crises that would require compactness.
On the economic level, the integration remains unfinished. The coin is common, but tax policies remain national, the European budget is reduced to less than 1% of the Union GDP – against 25% of the American federal one – and the redistributive capabilities are small: 0.25% of the European GDP circulates between Member States, against 1.5% of the US GDP flowing between the US states. A treasure is missing, a common direction is missing, there is no industrial strategy. Each country plays for themselves: The Germans protect their manufacture, the French their interventionism, the Mediterranean chase economic survival. Here too, the logic is that of the Manzonian capponi: one gets caught, while the pot is approaching.
On level identity, the European construction is firm: There is no European people. Political participation is still played in the national parliaments and Europe has lived as a distant bureaucracy, not as a community. Missing the demosthere is also a strong political legitimacy. The crucial knot then remains the military one. Europe does not have a common army or shared foreign policy. Its armed forces are separated, disorganic, dependent on NATO, that is, from the United States. The American bases are everywhere in Europe and not vice versa. The EU simply has neither strength nor the will to be autonomous. In the military field, it is more a protected than a partner.
We can therefore build bridges, multiply the leaders, celebrate mediation roles, but until Europe is a real contractor-with its own political will, a unique voice, a common force-any attempt to relaunch the Euro-Atlantic relationship will be unbalanced. Meloni can also bridge the two banks of the Atlantic, but if one of the two is not a mainland, it will always be the other – the American one – to dictate conditions and objectives.
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