A good time for EU to pursue strategic autonomy

It was a year before I took up my assignment in Brussels when then newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron spoke passionately about the European Union's strategic autonomy in a speech at Sorbonne University in 2017.

In the past seven years, I have heard various EU leaders using words to assert a new identity for the bloc and to rouse public sentiment, but the concept has largely remained empty rhetoric.

The reasons are simple: The US exerts its influence in every field in Europe, be it security, the economy, news, universities and/or think tanks. Europe's decades of excessive dependence on the US, especially for defense, has become a habit that is hard to break.

That is why Macron triggered an uproar two years ago when he urged Europe to assert its independence and strategic autonomy by reducing its dependency on the United States and avoiding being caught in a dispute between the US and China on the Taiwan question.

More Europeans have been calling for the EU's strategic autonomy in the past few months after members of the Donald Trump administration were vocal about their waning interest in being the EU's babysitter and security guarantor.

Both the US president and vice-president have attacked the EU on a range of issues, from freedom of speech to migration to economic and trade policy.

The US' new approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, its withdrawal from international treaties such as the Paris climate accord, and its pulling out from critical international entities such as the World Health Organization have finally awakened Europeans to the fact that they no longer share the same values and principles with the US.

Even the Europeans who assumed this was a short-term phenomenon in the US that will go away have begun to realize that it could be something permanent for Washington.

Some EU officials and pundits believe that the current US policy has provided a great opportunity for the bloc to achieve strategic autonomy.

Indeed, the EU has started talking about beefing up the defense industry of the 27 member states and reducing military procurement from the US, as the US no longer seems to be a reliable security guarantor.

While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said months ago that she sees no need to de-risk relations with the US, she also talked about how the EU is diversifying its trade and investment relations. The hidden message: We are de-risking from the US, too.

To me, that is a no-brainer for the EU, a bloc that aspires to play a greater role in international affairs. You won't be able to play that role if your policy is more or less manipulated by Washington.

Von der Leyen's words this week that "in a more and more unpredictable global environment, countries are lining up to work with us" indicate the EU's departure from Washington despite the fact that she seems quite disappointed that Trump still shows no interest in meeting her for talks.

There is no doubt that the global governance system that came up after World War II has suffered huge damage. And since the US only accounts for 13 percent of global trade, the EU should not hesitate to take the lead and join others to preserve the system for the remaining 87 percent of world trade. They should include countries with differences because sustaining the global system is far more important than anything else at the moment.

It will not only help preserve the global system that has benefited many countries, including the 27 EU member states, but also help the EU realize its long ambition of achieving strategic autonomy.

The EU should not waste such a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity.

The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn