Europe must not let itself be divided

US President Donald Trump’s ‘America first’ proclamation in his inaugural address has left the historic allies, especially Europe, in the lurch. His message was loud and clear — bear your own burden.
He said in his speech that a new vision was going to govern America. And if Trump intended to put Europe in notice, he succeeded.
Undoubtedly, Brexit was a huge setback for European Union. It has triggered a rise of populism across European countries, which are witnessing the surge of right wing political parties exploiting the situation.
The emerging trend has made the EU leaders to sit and decide future course of the union. Trump’s barrage of criticism has prompted pledges to stick together and revive support for the European Union. Germany’s Angela Merkel vowed to maintain unity through continuous dialogue with other members. Mark Rutte of the Netherlands called for a fresh focus on the economy, while European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans warned critics not to underestimate the bloc’s determination.
But far too little has been done to address the pressing issues. A blueprint for integration drawn up by commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, EU President Donald Tusk and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi is languishing in a drawer in Brussels, while a post-Brexit initiative to step up defense cooperation has so far amounted to little more than vague pledges.
Trump rocked the EU by branding it a vehicle for German domination. He said other countries would follow the UK in leaving and called the Nato ‘obsolete’. It is also a fact that no region benefited from US unwavering security support since World War II than Europe. It brought unprecedented stability in Europe paving way for more integration and prosperity. It, perhaps, made Europe complacent too.
At the same time Trump has been heaping blandishments on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The new US president said that he didn’t even care if European Union survived.
Europe’s biggest worry is that Trump plans to pursue a deal with Russia that could leave it in the cold. What can be inferred from Trump tweets is that China and IS extremists top the list of Trump’s foreign policy priorities. If Trump decides to enlist Putin in those quests, Europe could be left on the wayside, leaving it vulnerable to Russian threats. Countries could forge new alliances within the region, dividing the Continent once again.
Europe’s problems are coming to a head as governments in the Netherlands, France and Germany—three of the EU’s six founding members—face elections in which voters who feel they’ve been left behind or neglected by the establishment consider abandoning the EU to pursue narrower, nationalist interests. While Trump and the Brexit campaign harnessed that discontent, Europe’s leaders are struggling to articulate how they will turn things around for their voters.
“We are lacking that vision,” Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said during a panel discussion in Davos last week. “That is the challenge that Trump is posing and that Brexit is posing. They have a vision, we don’t.”
Trump’s impact is that Europe has to decide very quickly what kind of Europe it wants to be. The be-all and end-all is that Europe doesn’t let itself be divided.