Published:
25 Nov 2022 17:32 GMT
The economic disagreements lead many EU politicians and diplomats to raise the question of whether or not their transatlantic partner is still an ally.
US subsidy policies and high energy prices are increasingly overshadowing Washington’s relations with its European Union allies and exposing them to the risk that EU public opinion will turn against military support. to Ukraine and the transatlantic alliance, reports Political.
The digital medium spoke with officials from different countries of the European Union who were “furious” with the Biden Administration. His indignation is basically based on the fact that the United States is “the country that is benefiting the most” from the armed conflict, “because it sells more gas and at higher prices and because it sells more weapons,” said one of the officials consulted.
On the one hand, the interruption of normal trade in Europe is leading the region’s economies into recession, while the biggest point of tension in recent weeks has been the subsidies and tariffs approved by Biden, measures that, according to Brussels, they unfairly alienate the EU from trade with the US while threatening to destroy European industry.
unheeded complaints
The EU bloc is trying to reduce its dependence on Russian energy by turning to US gas, but the price paid by Europeans for it is almost four times higher than those paid by US consumers. It is also likely There is a surge in orders for US-made military equipment after European armies have seen their arsenals depleted following their massive arms shipments to Ukraine, the online newspaper notes.
For all these reasons, ministers and diplomats from EU countries are frustrated and expressed their disapproval of the Biden Administration, which simply ignores the impact of its economic policies on its European allies.
Thus, the newspaper reports, the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, asked Washington to respond to European concerns by denouncing the “economic impact” caused in the community states by the decisions they make on the other side of the Atlantic. Likewise, Germany’s finance minister, Robert Habeck, called for more “solidarity” from the US and to cut energy costs, but to no avail.
Thus, when European leaders raised the issue of high gasoline prices with Biden at the G20 summit in Bali last week, the US president simply seemed unaware of the problem, according to the senior official cited above.
Change of game
In the opinion of a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, it is the US Inflation Reduction Act that “changes everything.” For Biden, it is a historic climate achievement, while in the EU it is seen in another way, as a set of “discriminatory subsidies that will distort competition”, according to another French diplomat.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is very worrying,” said Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher. “The potential impact on the European economy is very large,” she criticized.
“The US is following an internal agenda that, unfortunately, is protectionist and discriminates against US allies,” denounced Croatian MEP Tonino Picula.
One of the respondents pointed out that after the granting of subsidies to ‘green’ industries for a total value of 369,000 million dollars, it is legitimate to raise the question of whether the North American country continues to be an ally of the EU or not.
“The US does not see an ally in the EU”
“If the European economy is not doing well, it is beneficial for the US,” a country that “sees an economic rival in the European Union,” the deputy director and head of the Geopolitics and Anti-imperialism area of the Spanish magazine La Comuna told RT Pablo Garcia Varela.
“He doesn’t see an ally, he doesn’t see friends” whom he is going to help “while they are having a bad time and Russia has to be stopped,” Varela continued. “By raising the cost of energy and making their industries [rivales europeas] are less competitive, the US can better position itself in international trade,” he concluded.
Source: Actualidad
