EU advised to consider strategic autonomy

Amid the "America First" policy pursued by the current United States administration and escalating great power rivalries, European experts echoed that the geopolitical turbulence puts Europe in a tougher position, one in which the continent must seriously consider its strategic autonomy.

They made the remarks recently at the Caixin London Atlantic Dialogue, hosted by the Chinese media group Caixin.

In the "Expecting Unexpected: How We Navigate an Unfamiliar World" panel, Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-European think tank, said the US policy shift represents a "secular trend" and, fundamentally, an ideological reversal, as the US appears no longer aligned with Europe in upholding the consensus around the so-called rules-based international order that has governed the West for the past 80 years.

"What is particularly difficult for Europeans to get their heads around is that the US is moving from being the upholder of this rules-based order and becoming a normal country, which puts itself first and sees a lot of the things that were previously regarded as assets now as weaknesses," he said.

Pointing to a series of events, such as the announcement of "reciprocal tariffs" and the US-Russia rapprochement, Leonard said these moves have turned the US into a "systemic rival" from the perspective of Europeans.

Philipp Roesler, former vice-chancellor of Germany, said the geographical focus of the US shifting from Europe to the "Indo-Pacific" region is not totally new, but has been accelerated by the current administration.

Roesler added that while he agrees the sentiment in transatlantic relations is "truly different", he still believes the US and Europe share similar values.

Roesler mentioned the reform of the debt brake in Germany as "the beginning of the changes happening" — in a way, for the first time, waking up to the geopolitical whirlwind. The debt brake is a constitutional requirement introduced in 2009 that limits the German federal government's annual borrowing to 0.35 percent of its GDP.

But "what is not gonna happen is that everything gets done by the EU at 27", Leonard said. "They are making a difference between unanimity and unity within the EU."

Regain competitiveness

In the "Europe: Economic Renewal amid the Quest for Strategic Autonomy" panel, the discussion centered on Europe's economic reform agenda, with experts agreeing that the region must seek to regain its competitiveness amid the great power game — or risk being squeezed by an increasingly competitive, even hostile, environment.

Emre Peker, director for Europe at the risk research and consultancy Eurasia Group, said the challenges facing the EU are long-standing — namely, a sluggish economy, fiscal challenges, an aging population, declining innovation competitiveness, and other issues — and that the US now merely "adds more fuel to the fire" that has been burning in the EU for a long time.

In the case of the UK, Mark Logan, a former member of the British Parliament and former vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on China, characterized the British political leadership as like those "who only change whenever there is a crisis in front of them" and that the US has, in a twisted way, pushed the UK to reflect on how to really improve as a nation.

Looking ahead, experts emphasized the importance of a long-term industrial strategy to catch up in the race.

As the EU and the UK share the twofold challenges, Anton Spisak, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, suggested that the two neighbors cooperate in a more structured and coordinated manner.