Priporočam članek Thomasa Fazija o škandaloznem trgovinskem fiasku von der Leynove, ki gre v srž evropskega kolektivnega problema. Če so nas evropski politiki do sedaj še nekako uspešno “farbali” z mitom, da smo v evropski integraciji skupaj močnejši, kot bi bili kot samostojne države (mimogrede, v bivši Jugoslaviji je bil natanko to eden izmed temeljnih naukov v “politički nastavi”), pa Ursulin oziroma kolektivni fiasko “pogajalskega teama” Evropske komisije zgolj brutalno razkriva mračno stran te evropske integracije. Rad imam EU, svoj prvi ekonomski model (30+ let nazaj) sem naredil za simulacijo učinkov ekonomske integracije EU, toda na žalost skupaj nismo močnejši, pač pa vsakogar izmed nas (članic EU) evropska pravila glede industrijske politike, politike državni pomoči, politike konkurence, monetarne politike, fiskalnega pravila in regulacije poslovanja itd. delajo šibkejše tako navznoter kot navzven. Ker nam jemljejo fleksibilnost v vodenju ekonomskih in drugih politik in nas omejujejo pri zasledovanju naših lastnih strateških interesov. In ta kolektivna šibkost se najbolj jasno izraža v razvojni sklerozi – nizki gospodarski rasti in trendnem razvojnem zaostajajnju za primerljivimi državami, ki niso članice EU. Ki lahko vodijo samostojne ekonomske in druge politike in so zato uspešnejše. Edino, kar je res vredno v EU, je prosta trgovina na trgu s 450 milijonov potrošnikov. Vse ostalo, kasneje navešeno na to ogrodje, nas dela šibkejše.

In še nekaj, von der Leynova (ki je morda ameriški agent, kot je bilo kar nekaj visokih evropksih politikov v preteklosti, ali pa samo nesposobna in škodljiva kreatura na čelu Evropske komisije) je s tem škandaloznim trgovinskim fiaskom zgolj pokazala, da je EU zgolj zbirka vazalnih držav, reducirana na vlogo Washingtonovega protektorata. Smo gospodarsko, vojaško, tehnološko in politično Washingtonu podrejena zbirka držav. Brez dovoljenja Washingtona ne smemo prdniti. Če v Washingtonu rečejo, da nes memo kupovati poceni ruskega plina, ampak 4-krat dražjega ameriškega, v EU to ponižno in z nasmehom naredimo. Če v Washingtonu rečejo, damoramo dati 5 % namesto 1.5 % BDP za nakup ameriškega orožja, mi to ponižno naredimo. Če v Washingtonu rečejo, damoramo brezpogojno podpirati izraelski genocid nad Palestinci, mi to ponižno naredimo. Ker je Washington naš gospodar, mi pa njegova kolonija.

A few lessons can be drawn. First, the deal should finally shatter the longstanding myth that the EU strengthens its member states by increasing their negotiating power. For decades, Europeans have been told that only by pooling sovereignty into a supranational bloc could they wield enough collective clout to stand up to global powers. This was always a convenient fiction. In reality, the opposite is true: the EU systematically erodes the ability of individual nations to respond flexibly to domestic and external challenges based on their own economic and political priorities.

The EU’s rigid framework — its multilayered and bureaucratic decision-making structure, chronic lack of democratic accountability and suffocating regulatory overreach — only compounds these weaknesses. The result is exactly what we have just witnessed: the EU accepting worse terms than those negotiated even by the UK, post-Brexit and far smaller.

Indeed, the EU is practically the only major partner that has capitulated so completely to Trump’s aggressive trade tactics. China, India and even mid-sized economies in Asia and Latin America have resisted US bullying with far greater success. This underscores a broader reality: Europe’s structural subordination to the United States has reached a level unseen in the postwar era, and the EU itself has been the principal vehicle of this dependency.

By locking European nations into a supranational straitjacket, Brussels has deprived them of the sovereign tools — industrial policy, trade flexibility energy independence — needed to defend their own interests. Moreover, the EU has always been ideologically and strategically wedded to Atlanticism — and its progressive integration with NATO in recent years has only deepened this subordination to the US. This alignment has become embarrassingly apparent under von der Leyen.

As a result, far from making Europe “stronger together”, the EU has delivered an unprecedented loss of leverage and autonomy. The bloc now resembles the very thing it was supposed to overcome (at least according to its official mythos): a collection of vassal states, unable to chart an independent course and increasingly reduced to the role of Washington’s economic protectorate.

Finally, as I’ve written before, Trump is not entirely wrong when he accuses the EU of engaging in unfair trade practices. Over the past two decades, the EU has embraced a hyper-mercantilist, export-driven growth model — one that systematically suppresses domestic demand in order to bolster price competitiveness on the global stage while keeping imports low. In other words, it has consistently prioritised trade surpluses over internal economic development.

This model has come at a steep cost. European citizens have paid the price through stagnant wages, precarious employment and chronically underfunded public services. Meanwhile, the EU’s trading partners — most notably the United States — have been forced to absorb Europe’s ever-growing export surpluses, feeding an increasingly unbalanced global economic relationship.

A rebalancing was indeed long overdue. But this agreement represents the worst possible kind of rebalancing. Instead of using this moment as an opportunity to rethink its fundamentally flawed economic strategy — by raising European wages, boosting internal demand and accepting that exports might become less competitive as a result — the EU has doubled down on the very model that hollowed out its own economic resilience. Rather than shifting towards a healthier, more domestically-driven growth path, Brussels has chosen to preserve its export-led paradigm at all costs — even if that now means exposing Europe’s industrial base to a flood of imports, accelerating deindustrialisation and deepening its dependence on foreign markets.

Vir: Thomasa Fazi