OPINION: Europe’s Humiliation

It’s now official. For all the blather of recent years about ‘strategic autonomy’ and a ‘Geopolitical Commission’, we discovered this week just how small Europe really is on the world stage.

That’s clear by looking at whom Donald Trump didn’t call this week: Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. Hell, he didn’t even call Giorgia Meloni – the one major European leader he supposedly likes.

The reason is clear: he doesn’t have to. Trump can cut deals with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, with or without the rest of Europe. All he wants from the Europeans is that they send and pay for peacekeepers, which they will inevitably do. So why even bother discussing it?

There’s nothing new about Europe’s dependence on America’s security umbrella. It was ever thus (at least in most of our lifetimes). Yet never before has Europe allowed itself to be put on a leash by an American administration and paraded around like a prized bitch.  

And make no mistake, that’s exactly what happened during the extraordinary appearance at NATO headquarters on Wednesday of US Secretary of State Pete Hegseth (who knows a thing or two about meting out abuse).

In the space of a few minutes, Hegseth disabused Europe of any remaining hope it might have had about playing a role in the discussion over the future of Ukraine.

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To sum up: no pre-2014 borders for Ukraine, no NATO membership and no NATO protection for any peacekeepers.

Peace talks will begin “immediately,” according to Donald Trump. While Ukraine will probably be invited, Europe is likely to be nowhere to be seen.

Ukraine will be sold down the river and Europe can sit on the banks and watch.

It’s tempting to say that Europe should ‘think about its options’.

But the sad reality is that it has none. And everyone, especially Trump and his henchmen, knows it.

This article by Matthew Karnitschnig is reprinted from Euractiv. See the original here.

All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author(s), not Euractiv Media or Kyiv Post.