The EU capital urged Brussels to engage in any potential retaliation against Donald Trump's tariffs until the NATO summit in June, deeming a deal with the U.S. president on medium-term security in Europe must be a priority.
Diplomats and officials told the Financial Times that the government’s call for a halt of any major U.S.-related decisions, including substantial defense investment, until the results of the NATO gathering in The Hague next month are obvious.
NATO officials were also urged to reduce the summit of the military coalition as much as possible to minimize the potential for conflict with Trump, due to uncertainty about what he could do in the game.
Trump has asked European allies to commit to spending 5% of GDP on national defense and passed a plan to "balance" defend the continent's responsibility, which has been relying on the United States for decades.
In addition to the fierce talks by European leaders and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on how to appease Trump at a gathering from June 24-25, the capital also urged the European Commission to avoid confrontation with the White House in propaganda.
This includes avoiding inflammatory discussions about trade retaliation against Trump’s tariffs, delaying defense procurement decisions, involving direct choices between European and U.S. programs, and avoiding criticism of the U.S. approach to Ukraine and its comments on the annexation of Greenland, officials said.
Trump imposed a 25% tariff on European steel, aluminum and cars, and a 10% tax on blankets imported from the EU. Until early July, he stopped to increase this flat tariff to 20%, waiting for negotiations with the group. Officials say the EU must retaliate against its own trade measures if negotiations on the “balance” agreement break down.
A senior EU official who participated in the discussion said: "There was a lot of tension before the Hague, and the general idea was to do everything we could (Trump) to be there, tell him what he wanted to hear, and leave him again without any disaster."
"We need to come up with a reliable plan to achieve an orderly transition (from the United States to Europe)," said a senior NATO official. "It's a single key priority...and most importantly."
Although the EU and NATO are different, 23 countries are members of Brussels-based organizations, and Rutte has a close working relationship with the committee chairman Ursula von der Leyen.
U.S. officials told their NATO allies that despite Trump's plans to attend the summit, he could decide to cancel a no-pre-arranged agreement between NATO's other 31 members to spend more money and assume more responsibility to defend Europe.
NATO is studying the current capabilities of its members in detail to inform complex discussions about existing European dependence on the United States, how to reduce this situation and in which regions the United States can expand its presence without jeopardizing the security of the African continent.
European officials privately estimate that as average defense spending approaches 4%, as European military expands, plans to reach an agreement with the United States are delineated in certain key areas, so a five-to-10-year timeline is feasible.
Given that he will be his first Secretary-General and will be held in his hometown, the The Hague Summit was initially expected to be a high-profile event for Rutte.
But it has been reduced to two days, and he is under pressure from the Allied capital to minimize the number of discussions among leaders to reduce the risk of any fire with Trump.
Many European leaders feared that the 2018 NATO summit could be repeated, when Trump hijacked the next day's talks during his first term as president and threatened to withdraw from the coalition. This sparked a chaotic fight to get him pledged to increase defense spending, which involved Rutte's tenure as Dutch prime minister.
"Money, money, money, money," said a European diplomat involved in the preparations. "He doesn't want to talk about anything else, (other topics) can wait."
Officials say this may see the characteristic policy areas of previous annual summits, including membership in Ukraine, relations with Asian partner countries, and issues related to climate change, which are significantly less important.
"Europe should wash their hands for the United States," Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on Wednesday. "It's a viable task. There's a way to it...but we can't pretend we haven't heard what Americans are telling us."