By using forced-labour claims to justify tariffs and threaten Europe’s digital and climate rules, Washington is testing whether the EU dares to turn its own powerful regulatory arsenal against American companies.
The US supplies a quarter of EU plasma, and now they’re in a supply crisis. Although that doesn’t mean an imminent emergency in Brussels, the EU needs to get ahead in its external dependence on life-giving products like plasma.
Throught data, defence and AI, Palantir is worth €278bn. They owe the EU €12m in taxes, but member states keep indulge the multi-national’s monopoly of public procurement contracts. That seems to be changing.
The US has formally launched a review of its military presence in Europe, aiming to push allies to take greater responsibility for defence. While the move could accelerate Nato’s Europeanisation, it could also create a dangerous “transition gap” before the continent’s capabilities are ready.
While an internal panel cleared Karim Khan of misconduct, US and Israeli pressure has pushed ICC governments toward a politically charged removal vote that quietly rewrites the court’s own rules.
Each new multi-million euro fine on Google, Apple and Meta raises a blunt question for Europeans: are tougher rules on online giants worth the risk of higher US tariffs?
EU companies have largely escaped any downfall from Trump’s tariffs. “The people who pay US tariffs are the importers,” said one EU official.
![[Interview] The US Democrat trying to convince Brussels to stand up to Trump on methane](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/07/Captura-de-Pantalla-2026-07-13-a-las-18.28.15.png)
US congressman Sean Casten, a longtime champion of methane rules in Washington, recently wrote a letter urging EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen not to cave to US pressure to weaken the regulation. EUobserver asked him why he believes delay is a mistake.
Nato pledged billions more for Ukraine and vowed to contain Russia and Iran. Although Donald Trump’s musings about quitting Europe militarily and strong‑arming allies over Greenland underlined how dependent the continent’s security still is on a single, volatile, leader.
The EU methane regulation “has become a defining test of Europe’s ability to maintain ambitious climate and energy policies” the US lawmakers wrote.
Since Donald Trump’s return, Europe has consistently failed to get into the rooms where straight answers exist. What Europe has not done is structurally engage enough with the one constituency that can actually give it clear eyes: the opposition.
Donald Trump has been granted even more powers after a Supreme Court ruling that undermines the independence of the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces privacy safeguards of a EU-US data transfer deal.
From a mysterious diamond ring gift to a journalist being ejected after the ambassador called the police, the Brussels bash played out less like a birthday party and more like a meticulously stage-managed piece of Trump-era political theatre.
“We can no longer accept that digital payments are largely dependent on the goodwill of a few foreign providers. This package changes that,” said Markus Ferber, economy spokesperson for the conservative European People’s Party group, after Tuesday’s vote.
Voters see Donald Trump’s personal abuse, even if the politicians pretend not to. Ties to the Trump administration are now politically toxic in Europe. Meloni, whose roots are in the Italian far-right, is fending off a challenge from the even more rightwing National Future party, led by a fire-breathing, pro-Kremlin retired general, Roberto Vanacci.
The EU has denied that foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas will attend Dialog, the secretive society event hosted by German-American billionaire and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, after a leak revealed her name on the list of attendees.
As Trump piles on new tariff threats and breaks past promises, EU negotiators are quietly swallowing an uneven deal rather than risk another blow to already suffering European exporters.
MEPs on Tuesday passed legislation for a three-year trade deal with the United States. But they have successfully tacked on a series of safeguard mechanisms should the Trump administration backtrack on its tariff promises.
What the string of elections Europe faces in 2027, from France to Greece, demands is a crystal-clear conceptualisation of foreign interference, stated without qualification: the illegitimate manipulation of a member state’s democratic processes is unacceptable, whether it emanates from a hostile state or a presumed ally.
Europe helped design the last Iran nuclear deal—yet this time, as ships, warplanes and diplomats converge around the Strait of Hormuz, the key decisions on sanctions, nukes and reparations may be taken in talks where the EU barely has a seat.