President Trump has warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he will not allow her to create an EU superstate – vowing to do everything in his power to prevent a “United States of Europe” from rising to power.
Trump’s pick for EU ambassador, Dr Ted Malloch, was chosen to deliver the warning to France and Germany, telling them that the creation of a Brussels superstate runs counter to American interests.
Express.co.uk reports: The Republican academic blasted the rest of Europe as “ungrateful” for the massive US support in rebuilding the continent after the war and said it was riven with “anti-Americanism”.
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But in contrast he heaped praise on Britain, which is leaving the club, saying it shared the strongest ties with America and would be front of the queue for a trade deal.
Dr Malloch said the EU had “failed” and had to abandon its dreams of ever-closer union or collapse during a combative speech to the Open Europe think-tank in Brussels this afternoon.
New French president Emmanuel Macron is pushing for further integration of the eurozone including a centralised EU finance ministry and budget – a proposal which for the first time Germany is not openly opposing.
But Dr Malloch, who has no official capacity but is close to the Trump administration, warned the US would fiercely defend its interests against any increased “protectionism” from Europe.
He blasted: “The failure, frankly, of the present European integration project I think is becoming more and more self apparent.
“It’s something that Roosevelt or Churchill would have questioned and the EU has become some would argue more undemocratic, more bloated certainly by bureaucracy and more rampantly anti-American.
“The Trump administration is steadily making it clear that the US is not interested in the old form of European integration.
“In fact I think it’s trying to in some ways encourage a reversal of its accelerating path towards a protectionist United States of Europe.”
He raged: “This movement should be seen for what it is. It’s very harmful to US business interests, to US investment policy, to US security and it is categorised by over regulation, low growth, high unemployment, structural rigidity as its outcome.
“These are not policies that the US prefers the more I travel around Europe they’re not things that the Europeans want either.”
And in a warning shot to Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron he said the idea of a “euro government centralised in Brussels” was now detrimental to American’s economic and foreign policy interests.
He said: “The US should therefore definitively encourage more trade with Europe and make firm its opposition to any kind of federal Europe by saying a definite no to what some signal as a future Euro government, single government all powerful centralised in Brussels.”
Dr Malloch insisted Mr Trump wanted Europe “to succeed” and insisted the US did not want to see the bloc collapse, but also said Brexit had shown the project was “weak” and other countries could leave.
In contrast he had extremely warm words for Britain following its decision to leave the club, which the academic said could lead to a new trans-Atlantic balance of power centred on the US and the UK.
He said: “No one wants Europe to fail. No one wants it to collapse. I certainly don’t want it to disintegrate and I don’t think it will.
“But we do know that the US and the UK, at least from a historical or political economy perspective, are different from Europe, have different notions of accountability.
“Some of the European continent have different notions of accountability and democracy, so should the US continue to promote a European model that is under question, which is alien to our own traditions?”
In a thumping attack on eurocrats, he blasted: “The cure to Europe’s calamities, I believe, is genuine democracy.
“Government by the people, not by unelected bureaucrats parading as experts. Members of the EU Commission are not elected – they are unaccountable to any parliament.
“Such a globalist elite and its attendant superstructure is detached from the people and therefore entirely anti-European.”
In his controversial speech Dr Malloch also accused mainland Europe of being “so ungrateful” for the US’ contribution to its redevelopment after the war and said that “anti-Americanism still abounds in Europe today”.
He claimed that the EU Commission deliberately targets American companies with its trade policies to lock them out of the market and attacked the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for distorting world trade.
Asking why so many European leader dislike America, he said: “The answer is I think in part European resentment of American power. Anti-Americanism is not an abstract idea in Europe.
“I’ve seen it up close and personal, I’ve also seen it in its universities. It’s not confined to the leftist usual suspects, it influences much of European culture and policy making I hope it does not affect the future of the EU because that would be detrimental.”
Dr Malloch concluded by insisting good relations between the US and Europe were still “essential” but said Mr Trump would look to deal on a bi-lateral basis with individual countries in future.
The academic said a return to a community of nation states was the only way to save the bloc from extinction, but such a strategy is sure to be resisted first and foremost by Mrs Merkel.
Referring to the idea of an “ethic for the nation state”, he advised: “This is where Europe should look for answers, not through a project of further integration but back to those nation states.
“The US interaction with Europe is changing and I think it will continue to be reevaluated and to evolve. It is very much a different world and one that Trump will help to forge.”
