By LORNE COOK
BRUSSELS (AP) — Throughout 2025, a new reality has settled in Europe. The United States, long its strongest ally, has weakened the unity, economies, security and even democracies of the European Union, setting the backdrop for an EU summit this week at the end of an exceptionally difficult year.
After indefinitely freezing Russian assets in Europe last week, EU leaders face a new test of strength at Thursday’s summit. Ukraine is in dire financial straits, and they have promised to meet kyiv’s economic and military needs for the next two years, probably through a new reparations loan.
“It is a crucial moment for Europe and Ukraine,” warned Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU. “We must make this decision to secure the Ukrainian economy, but also to send a signal to the rest of the world, which will include the White House in Washington, DC, that Europe is a strong geopolitical player.”
As the continent’s biggest ground war in decades continues, Europeans have been tested by President Donald Trump’s threats, his support for the far right in Europe and his camaraderie with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At first they responded with flattery. Less in the last few months.
Since January, as leaders tried to keep Ukraine in the fight against its larger neighbor, Trump has been changing his stance, appearing to support kyiv one month, Russia the next. For the most part, he has remained critical of Europe, and that criticism now has a harsher tone.
European leaders have worked to fill the void and bolster military support for Ukraine, but recognize that the United States is an irreplaceable partner, and Trump is the only person with whom Putin could talk peace.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned last week that “we are truly witnessing a decisive moment now and nothing is as it was before. We are living in a different time, and this time requires different responses than we have given in the past.”
Europe begins to respond
Weeks after Trump returned to office in January, his administration signaled that America’s security interests lie elsewhere: Europe must now take care of itself and Ukraine, whose president was humiliated in a White House meeting in February.
Days later, Vice President JD Vance met with a far-right leader in Germany, claiming that free speech is declining in Europe, prompting accusations of election interference.
Vance’s arguments were developed this month in a US National Security Strategy. The text also attacked the EU’s migration policy, suggesting that Europe faces “the prospect of civilizational erasure” and may not be a reliable partner for the United States.
Judy Dempsey of the Carnegie Europe think tank said “Europe has no choice but to respond.”
“Now Europe and the rest of the world know the bad opinion that this United States government has of them and they cannot continue to pretend otherwise,” he said.
Merz is already speaking more firmly. “We in Europe, and therefore also in Germany, must become much more independent from the United States in terms of security policy. This is not a surprise, but it has now been confirmed again,” he said.
Poor plans and new trade agreements
Another worrying document for the EU circulated last month: the Trump administration’s 28-point plan to end the war, drafted with Russia. It contained long-standing demands from the Kremlin, promises of Russian business opportunities and a call to rehabilitate Putin on the world stage.
The text was largely unacceptable to Ukraine and its European supporters. Not so for Russia, which is trying to drive a wedge between the United States and the allies. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump is “the only Western leader” who shows “an understanding of the reasons that made the war in Ukraine inevitable.”
In April, on so-called Liberation Day, Trump announced widespread tariffs around the world to protect his national security. He said that “our country has been looted, robbed, raped and plundered” by other nations, including America’s allies in the world’s largest security organization, NATO.
Trump declared an economic emergency. By July, he and the EU had agreed on a trade framework that set a 15% tariff on most products, avoiding much higher import tariffs.
The EU’s response has been to seek agreements with other rejected partners, notably across Asia. The world’s largest trading bloc has also accepted that higher tariffs are likely the best price to pay for continued US support in Ukraine.
The EU lifts the brakes on defense
Unsettled by the trade breakdown, Europeans in NATO still accepted Trump’s demand that they spend 5% of GDP on defense, although it is unclear whether many will meet the target by the 2035 deadline when they have struggled to meet the old 2% target.
Still, the EU has taken its foot off the brakes on defense spending and aims to be able to defend against outside attacks by 2030. Officials believe Putin could order an attack elsewhere in Europe in three to five years if Russia defeats Ukraine.
In fresh warnings this week, Blaise Metreweli, the new head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency, said Putin’s “export of chaos” will likely continue until “he is forced to change his strategy.” The head of the British Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, said the Russian leader’s goal is to “challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy NATO.”
Thursday’s EU summit, with its focus on financing Ukraine’s economy and military effort over the next two years, is another solo move without the United States. EU Council President António Costa, who will chair the meeting, has threatened to keep leaders at EU headquarters for days until a deal is reached.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
