Europe will stand firm against the US’ threats of tariffs and react “immediately” if they are introduced, European Parliament president Roberta Metsola vowed.
Metsola was addressing an audience at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University on Thursday.
Her speech comes at a delicate juncture, as European leaders increasingly feel sidelined by the new Trump presidency on issues as wide-ranging as the Ukraine war and trade.
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on key trade partners, not least the EU.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, US Vice President JD Vance accused Europe of ignoring voters’ concerns over migration and suppressing free speech in a fiery address at the Munich Security Conference.
But Metsola hit back on Thursday, saying Europe “has never and will never retreat” from the principles of individual liberty and freedom of speech.
Harking back to some of Europe’s seminal moments over the past century - from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the post-war Marshall Plan - Metsola argued that the transatlantic alliance between Europe and the US (“the most successful alliance in history”) is built on shared principles of freedom.
Tariffs
Metsola rebutted the implicit accusation in Vance’s speech that Europe is a relic, arguing that just as the continent was a driver of the Industrial Revolution in the past, it was now at the forefront of a global industry.
But that industry is built on “free, open and fair trade with our allies”, Metsola said.
“That’s why I think we should be talking about trade agreements rather than tariffs. Pulling ourselves up together rather than the opposite,” she insisted, before issuing Europe’s warning to the US.
“So allow me to be clear: The EU will react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, including when tariffs are used to challenge legal and non-discriminatory policies,” she said.
Ukraine
Metsola’s speech also touched upon the ongoing debate on Europe’s defence spending and ongoing talks for peace in Ukraine.
Describing the EU as “first and foremost a peace project”, she nonetheless warned of threats on the horizon.
Despite EU member states increasing their defence budgets by a third since 2021, Europe “needs to go further,” she argued. “We agree that we need to match our responsibility with the level of threat we are facing. And that threat is high”.
In a rebuke of the ongoing peace talks between the US and Russia that have shut out Ukraine, Metsola warned that “peace not based on the principle of ‘anything about Ukraine without Ukraine’, is no real peace at all”.
“A Ukraine that is not supported, that does not have the strength to resist, will not be in a position to find that elusive peace. That’s why we stood with Ukraine. That’s why we will not abandon them,” she promised.