Macron’s aim of EU unity on China undone

French officials were in
damage control mode on Tuesday as they tried to contain anger,
division and confusion sparked by President Emmanuel Macron’s
comments on Europe’s dependence on the United States and its
relations with China and Taiwan.
Macron’s comments came in an interview on a trip to China
that was meant to showcase European unity on China policy, with
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also taking
part, but highlighted differences within the European Union.
In the interview with French daily Les Echos and news portal
Politico published on Sunday, Macron called for the EU to reduce
its dependence on the U.S. and to become a “third pole” in world
affairs alongside Washington and Beijing.
As European politicians and diplomats returned to work after
the long Easter holiday weekend, they were still struggling to
digest Macron’s comments, in which he also cautioned against
being drawn into a crisis over Taiwan driven by an “American
rhythm and a Chinese overreaction”.
While many of the remarks were not new, the timing of their
publication – at the end of a high-profile trip to China, as
Beijing carried out military exercises near Taiwan – and their
bluntness annoyed countries in eastern Europe.
Many governments in that region see ties with the United
States as sacrosanct, particularly given Washington’s key role
in helping Ukraine defend against Russia’s invasion.
“The return of geopolitics means that we have to see more
clearly who is our ally and who is not. Strong transatlantic
relations between Europe and the U.S. are the foundation of our
security,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told Reuters.
“Europe must invest more in its own security, but I do not
see that as an obstacle or a limit for cooperation with the
USA,” he said via a spokesman.
A senior diplomat from Central and Eastern Europe, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said: “President Macron is not
speaking for Europe or the European Union. He is unwittingly
helping Beijing to dismantle transatlantic unity at the time of
war in Europe, when it is most needed.”
Marcin Przydacz, a foreign policy adviser to Polish
President Andrzej Duda, made clear Warsaw was not in favour of
any shift away from Washington.
“We believe that more America is needed in Europe,” he told
Polish broadcaster Radio Zet. He added pointedly: “Today the
United States is more of a guarantee of safety in Europe than
France.”
Such criticism prompted French officials and diplomats to
stress that Macron did not suggest Europe should be equidistant
geopolitically from Washington and Beijing, simply that Europe’s
interests will sometimes differ from those of the United States.
The French foreign ministry cancelled a planned debrief on
the trip for foreign diplomats in Paris on Tuesday as officials
scrambled to make sure they had a consistent message and to
limit any fallout with Washington.
The initial response from Washington was measured. Without
directly addressing Macron’s comments, the U.S. State Department
spokesperson and the White House lauded the bilateral
relationship with Paris and its role in the Indo-Pacific region
and Ukraine. But there was broader unease.
If Europe doesn’t “pick sides between the U.S. and China
over Taiwan, then maybe we shouldn’t be picking sides either [on
Ukraine],” U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in a video
drawing parallels with the conflict in Ukraine.
SYMPATHY AND FRUSTRATION
Even some of the president’s closest allies in France
recognised Macron had misspoke. “There’s a problem with the
president’s communication. It’s a disaster,” one Macron ally
said on condition of anonymity, saying the timing and location
of what he said, although right on substance, were problematic.
“The idea now is to reassure the Americans and tell them
there is nothing new and that on Taiwan we have the same
position as before,” said a senior French diplomat.
“The difficulty I think will ultimately not be with the
Americans. I think it will be more complicated with the
Europeans, notably the Baltics, Nordics, Eastern Europeans.”
Other governments in Europe, however, are at least more
sympathetic to Macron’s push for “strategic autonomy” – making
Europe less dependent on others when it comes to defence,
technology and supplies of critical raw materials.
Countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain have also backed
strong EU engagement with China, even as Washington takes a
harder line with what it sees as an increasingly belligerent
Beijing.
“I think we cannot just turn our back to China and try to
ignore it. It is a key trading partner, a very large player,”
Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said in discussion hosted
by the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
“We have a shared interest, I think, in ensuring that they
engage constructively to put an end to the war in Ukraine as
soon as possible and to avoid global market fragmentation, which
is going to be lose-lose for everyone.”
But even some of those broadly supportive of Macron’s agenda
lamented the handling of the China trip, in which von der Leyen
received a much more muted welcome than the French president.
Nils Schmid, a foreign policy expert and member of
parliament for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats,
said both Scholz and Macron had long favoured the idea of
“European sovereignty”.
But, he added: “The problematic thing about Macron’s visit
is that he deliberately pulled out the European card and took
… von der Leyen with him. But then he allowed her to be put in
the second row. This has destroyed the hoped-for impetus for a
common European policy on China.”
He added: “China is playing the card of dividing Europe. We
must prevent that.”