Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has urged the European Union to stay “united” and respond in a “clear and firm” way to US President Donald Trump’s warning that he planned to introduce tariffs on products from the bloc.
Tusk did, though, hold out an olive branch in the shape of proposing the EU remove any restrictions on the purchase of US arms.
The PM, who was President of the European Council during Trump’s first term in office, made his remarks in Brussels on February 3 on the sidelines of an informal summit of EU leaders on security matters.
Tusk opened the door on concessions to the US when he promised he would attempt to “convince all European leaders” against the idea of “limiting or eliminating the spending of European money on American weapons”.
He said that was not to do with “sucking up to someone in Washington” but about “finally taking security seriously as our top priority”.
“American weapons and the best possible relations with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Norway – when it comes to defence – must be at the centre of our attention,” he added.
The remarks on buying US weapons seemed a bid to placate Trump who has regularly criticised NATO countries in Europe for failing to spend enough on their defence, accusing them of “free-riding” on US military power.
His comments were also seen as a pivot away from the push within the EU, led by France, for the bloc to become more self-sufficient militarily.
Under the European Commission’s industrial strategy on defence unveiled in 2024, the EU set a goal of spending half of member states’ procurement budget solely on EU-made arms by 2030, with that target rising to 60 per cent by 2035.
Despite that, Tusk made clear he would also urge EU leaders to stand firm in their opposition to US tariffs and in responding strongly should they be imposed.
“We must be able to take care of our relations with the US but we must also have a sense of our own dignity and strength,” he said.
“Europe must show a lot of common sense, calmness and responsibility.
“We must remain united and do everything possible to avoid a conflict between allies,” he added, citing the threats from Russia and China requiring a united Western response.
“But we must also say loudly and clearly that starting some kind of tariff or trade wars is a big mistake,” Tusk continued, concluding that he hoped “such a clear, friendly, but firm European position will reach the American administration”.
Trump had recently claimed “the European Union has treated us so terribly” and warned that tariffs on the bloc would be levied “pretty soon”.
He justified his stance by saying that the imbalance of trade between the EU and the US, estimated to be in the order of $131 billion (€126.67 billion), according to data from the Office of the US Trade Representative, was “no longer acceptable”.
Trump told reporters on February 3: “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them; millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products.”
