De Wever: ‘The more indulgent you are towards Trump, the more brazen he becomes’
Europe must make it clear to Donald Trump that enough is enough, prime minister Bart De Wever says: “The more indulgent you are towards him, the more brazen he becomes.” Speaking in Davos, he also emphasised the need for the EU to become more competitive, De Standaard reports.
De Wever made the comments in Switzerland, where political and economic leaders are meeting for the World Economic Forum. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron are due to address the meeting on Tuesday, followed by Trump on Wednesday.
For De Wever, restoring Europe’s competitiveness is an absolute priority, but on top of that come Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and his economic retaliation to countries that stand in his way.
He is due to meet the US president on Wednesday with King Philippe and NATO chief Mark Rutte. “That is if that one goes ahead; you never know with Trump,” he said.
On Monday, Trump threatened to impose 200 per cent tariffs on French wines and Champagne in response to Macron’s refusal to join his “Board of Peace”, his own international peacekeeping body. It comes on top of threats to impose 10 per cent import tariffs on the European countries who have sent troops to Greenland, rising to 25 per cent in June.
Trump also shared screenshots of a private conversation with Macron on his Truth Social site, in which the French president said: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”
In another post, he commented on the UK’s decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY”, despite the US previously backing the move. Both the UK and France are among the countries with troops in Greenland.
New alliances
For De Wever, the priority for Europe must be strengthening its single market and ensuring it is competitive again, while being more ambitious and forging alliances with other countries.
"We have to arm ourselves," he said. "The European Council must drive the agenda and say: do this, and nothing else."
In Davos, he will meet representatives from French AI company Mistral, Apple boss Tim Cook and leaders from the chemicals, pharma and energy sectors, hoping to hear from them what prevents companies from investing in Belgium.
"If we cannot bring in even that transformative investment, you have a huge problem"
He says the fact that Danish company Vioneo’s investment in Antwerp did not go ahead is a huge alarm signal. Vioneo, a subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk, cancelled its planned 1.5 billion euro green plastics factory in the port of Antwerp last week, deciding to build it in China due to better access to green methanol and lower overall costs.
“It is a leading investment in sustainable chemistry. Isn’t that what Europe has been betting on in recent years?” he said. “If we cannot bring in even that transformative investment, you have a huge problem.”
An industrial summit is due to take place on 11 February in Antwerp, followed by a meeting of European leaders on 12 February in Alden Biesen, Limburg. The theme of the two meetings is competitiveness.
© PHOTO MARTIN BERTRAND / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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