| "Nobody in Europe wants to escalate,” António Costa told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
But appeasement hasn’t necessarily worked so far. Trump raised tariffs on Europe’s steel and aluminium from 25% to 50% during the trade negotiations and threatened to raise all tariffs to 50% on May 23 – eliciting no equivalent response from Brussels.
The EU is on the defensive when it comes to political strategy too. It has been forced to deny Trump’s claims that EU digital laws to rein in big tech are on the table in the secretive trade negotiations. Ominously for Europe, Canada folded on its own digital tax after pressure from Trump.
Meanwhile, the Commission has been walking back surprising comments by Ursula von der Leyen last week that the EU was thinking of circumventing the US and using a trans-Pacific trading bloc called the CPTPP to build a new global trading system. The president yesterday reiterated her support for reforming the brain-dead World Trade Organisation.
At a meeting Monday, the Commission told diplomats it prefers a scenario in which neither the EU nor the US imposes tariffs on each other. A “best-case” scenario would be a so-called “framework agreement”, similar to the one agreed in May between the US and the UK, according to EU diplomats briefed on the discussion, who spoke to Euractiv.
“We are advancing well on the talks,” Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson, said Monday. The next update that ambassadors will get is on Friday, once Šefčovič is back.
Commissioner for Slovenia
Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, has given an interview to a Slovenian magazine where she states: “I don't want Slovenia to have a Janez Janša government again.” Europe’s 27 commissioners are bound by the treaties to serve the general European interest, which is typically interpreted as a need to remain above the fray of domestic politics. Her spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Currently in opposition, Janša’s SDS party is leading in the polls ahead of a 2026 election. His MEPs in Brussels – part of the EPP – immediately leapt on the interview, decrying political bias and interference in domestic politics. This is the latest chapter in the standoff between Kos and Janša – who did everything he could to stop her being confirmed as commissioner last year. Kos has not given any interviews in English since starting the job in December. And as it happens, the magazine, Mladina (“Youth”) that spoke to Kos, is where one famous Slovene made his name as a journalist campaigning against the Yugoslav regime. His name? Janez Janša.
EU clinches Ukraine deal, with scant details
The EU has clinched a long-term trade deal with Ukraine, replacing the wartime tariff-free regime that expired on 5 June.
Commissioners Šefčovič (trade) and Hansen (agriculture) announced the agreement Monday, but details remained scant. The new framework includes limited openings for sensitive agri-food products like poultry, eggs, and sugar, capped with small quota increases.
MED5 to Commission: Not so fast, Paris
Mediterranean countries are pushing back on France’s migration diplomacy with the UK. In a letter sent to the European Commission – first reported by the Financial Times – the group of five Mediterranean countries, led by Italy and Spain, and supported by Malta, Cyprus, and Greece, raised concerns over Paris' reported asylum return arrangement with the UK.
The 20 June letter – excerpts of which were seen by Euractiv – slams the initiative on both substance and process, warning that any bilateral deal with London on irregular migration runs counter to previous understandings among EU capitals.
One diplomat described the letter as a simple request for clarity from the Commission on how the France-UK deal will proceed and whether it could affect other member states under EU asylum law.
The Commission confirmed it received the letter and is in touch with French and UK authorities “to ensure the necessary clarifications are made”, an EU spokesperson said.
Greens set sail in Copenhagen:
Euractiv's Magnus Lund Nielsen caught up with co-chair of the Green group, Bas Eickhout, on a Danish-presidency-related boat tour in Copenhagen this week to ask what he sees on the horizon.
Struggling for clout in a parliament where centre-right chieftain Manfred Weber is both king and kingmaker and picking his majority as he pleases, Eickhout believes the tide will soon change. “Once the summer heat really kicks in, people will start talking about climate again,” Green co-chair Eickhout said.
The party is down to just 53 seats in the 720-seat European Parliament after last year’s elections and another recent projection has them winning just 36 seats if an election were held today.
Still, Eickhout says: “We might not be talking about climate right now, but that can change – just like it did between 2016 during Brexit and Trump's initial election and 2019 when we rocked the vote.” | 