European Union leaders meet to confront pressure from Russia, China and Trump

Belzen-Hosselt, Belgium — Leaders from across the European Union meet on Thursday in a Belgian castle to face off against the 27-nation bloc Hostility from US President Donald Trumpstrong economic tactics of China and Hybrid threats From Russia – challenges that have prompted a reconsideration of Europe’s approach to diplomacy and trade.

“We all know that we must change course, we all know the direction,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said at a meeting with some European leaders on Wednesday. “And yet, sometimes it feels like we are standing on the bridge of a ship and staring at the horizon without being able to touch the helm.”

But there are competing visions about how the EU should change. Thursday’s meeting aims to formulate proposals for another summit in late March.

As leaders prepare to walk across the drawbridge to the 16th-century Alden Basin Castle, the fault lines in the battle for Europe’s future become clear.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lead a wing of the bloc calling for deregulation and restart. Europe’s relationship with Washington And make business deals like the last one Hit one with Mercosur countries From South America.

“We must liberalize every sector,” Merz said on Wednesday.

But they are at odds with France.

A key issue is how much EU defense spending should be limited to purchases from EU arms companies. French President Emmanuel Macron says EU companies should get priority, while Merz and Meloni say purchases should be from foreign and European companies.

Macron urged the EU to protect its industries generally by applying a “European preference” in key sectors such as clean technology, chemicals, steel, the automobile industry and defence.

“We need to protect our industry. The Chinese are doing that, and the Americans are doing that too,” Macron said in an interview with several newspapers, including Le Monde and the Financial Times, published on Tuesday.

Without some European preference on strategic sectors, “the Europeans will be pushed aside,” Macron said. “This is defensive, but necessary, because we face unfair competitors who no longer respect World Trade Organization rules.”

EU leaders will also discuss new financial instruments to protect the bloc in a global trading system rocked by Trump’s blitz of tariffs and sanctions. China restricts An important mineral export.

Macron renews his call for the European Union to be able to borrow money, which he described as “euro bonds of the future” and which would provide an opportunity to “challenge the dominance of the dollar.”

He avoids Mears and Meloni Economic revitalization and modernization strategy Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, called for deregulation. – Diversifying business relationshipsDeep investment in infrastructure, regulatory integration and simplification across the bloc.

On Thursday, Germany and Italy will call on the leaders to act by cutting red tape in the EU, strengthening the single market and “ensuring an ambitious trade policy based on common rules and a level playing field.”

This reflects the focus on economic security of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who like Merz is a senior figure in the European People’s Party, the largest bloc in the European Parliament and which counts 13 EU heads of state as members.

In her speeches on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, Belgium, von der Leyen said economic strength underlies everything else.

“Our strength on the global stage depends largely on our strength on the economic front,” she said.

Citizens across the bloc are hungry for a stronger European Union More unified, stronger and more ambitious leadership Amid military threats, economic pressures and climate instability, according to an official EU poll, Eurobarometer.

“There has never been a better time for European leaders, national political leaders, to actually capitalize on these European citizens’ demand for greater European action,” said Alberto Alemanno, professor of European Union law at HEC Paris Business School.

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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.