The European Union needs to “close ranks” in response to new US president Donald Trump’s “transactional” approach to global politics, the EU’s foreign affairs chief has said.
Foreign ministers from the 27 EU states met in Brussels on Monday for the first time since Mr Trump’s return to the White House last week. The meeting discussed EU-US relations, the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
Speaking afterwards, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said the union was an “economic heavyweight” and big geopolitical player in its own right. “As the United States shifts to a more transactional approach, Europe needs to close ranks,” she said.
Ms Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, said she would be willing to visit Washington DC “as soon as possible” to meet representatives of the new US administration. An open-ended invitation had been sent to US secretary of state Marco Rubio to join a future meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Ms Kallas said. It was a positive development, she added, that Mr Trump appeared to want to put pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
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Speaking earlier, Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said the EU had enjoyed “good relations” with the United States during Mr Trump’s first term in office. “There is no reason to be in panic mode,” he said.
During the meeting on Monday ministers agreed to renew wide-ranging economic sanctions the EU placed on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. The sanctions must be rolled over every six months. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban’s far-right government had delayed signing off on the renewal, causing concern among diplomats from several EU states.
After several days of intense talks, Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó agreed to the sanctions renewal on Monday. In a statement he said his government had received guarantees around “energy security”. Hungary and Slovakia have complained about being cut off from Russian gas that Ukraine has refused transit through its territory into central Europe.
EU officials and diplomats are working on a further package of sanctions, which would be the 16th since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Officials are aiming to have a list of new Russian entities to be targeted ready for approval by late February.
Lithuanian minister for foreign affairs Kęstutis Budrys said his government had legal advice that supported the “seizure” of billions of euro of Russian assets that are frozen in the EU, to further bolster Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The EU, US and other western allies last year agreed to use the windfall profits from the assets to fund a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. However, debate is ongoing about whether the EU and others would have the power to confiscate the underlying funds themselves, and give them to Ukraine. One high-ranking EU official recently speculated that a decision would be made on the frozen assets “sooner or later”.
Foreign ministers also agreed to a “road map” that would lift some sanctions put on Syria during the previous autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad. The EU has been working to build relations with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group who led opposition forces to overthrow the Assad regime late last year.
Sanctions will be lifted on a step-by-step approach, starting first with ones that would most help Syria rebuild its society, after several decades of brutal dictatorship and 13 years of civil war. The plan includes scope to quickly re-introduce sanctions if HTS fails to follow through on promises to respect freedoms and the rights of minorities.
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