‘A threat to Europe’s political life’: EU reels from new US security strategy

Three days after the US government codified its contempt for EU institutions in a startling new national security policy, the bloc’s leaders finally broke their silence on Monday, with European Council President Antonio Costa lambasting Washington’s “threat to interfere in Europe’s political life”.

“The United States no longer believes in multilateralism, nor even in a rules-based international order. They speak of the so-called rules-based international order, and they say climate change is a lie,” Costa said at a Paris event hosted by the Jacques Delors Centre, a think tank.

“Allies do not threaten to interfere in one another’s domestic politics. Allies respect each other. They respect each other’s sovereignty … we cannot accept this threat to interfere in Europe’s political life,” the Portuguese said, adding that the bloc must “protect ourselves not only from adversaries but even from allies who challenge us”.

Costa’s remarks landed as Europe reeled from a US national security strategy that openly set Washington on a collision course with the bloc and painted a bleak portrait of Europe and the Western order.

“Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP … but this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure,” the document read.

It accused the EU of working to “undermine political liberty and sovereignty”, while slamming migration policies for “transforming the continent” and the “loss of national identities and self-confidence”.