EU must find courage to stand on its own two feet

In the west, a trade dispute with the United States, in the east, the conflict in Ukraine and worsening relations with Russia. In addition, the confrontation with China, which is not very encouraging for the continent, continues. Things are bleak for the European Union.

With EU policymakers reflecting on the situation they now find themselves in, the failures of handling relations with the US, Russia and China, especially when it comes to the EU's strategic autonomy, have led to questioning of the European Commission's submission to Washington's will.

Having given full trust to the previous Joe Biden administration and let the United States influence and even dictate EU policy on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EU gave up diplomatic efforts over the past three years on the Russia-Ukraine crisis by blindly following the US on a path of escalation.

The worsening EU-Russia relations have caused huge damages to both sides economically and posed a long-term threat to European security. The possible walkaway by US President Donald Trump from the current Ukraine peace talks if they fail could spell an even bigger disaster for the European continent if EU leaders still refuse to pursue diplomacy with Russia.

The European Commission also bowed to the Biden administration by freezing the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which was achieved after seven years and 35 rounds of talks and whose huge potential benefits for European companies were widely touted by EU trade officials.

The commission has pushed for the ban on Huawei 5G, the tightening of screening Chinese foreign direct investment in the EU, bad-mouthed China's Belt and Road Initiative and helped spread the "China threat" theory, all clearly at Washington's bidding.

It is all far removed from the days when Angela Merkel, who served as German chancellor for 16 years, emerged as the de-facto European leader.

Merkel, a trained quantum chemistry scientist, known for being coolheaded, rational and pragmatic, never blindly followed the diktats of the US, as demonstrated by her refusal to join the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011, which turned out to be a disaster for the country and the region.

Having spent half of her life in then East Germany enabled Merkel to have a better perspective of the diverse world and not see everything as simplistic as black or white.

Her 12 visits to China, more than any other Western leader, also helped her better understand the complexities of the nation.

Merkel did not like loudspeaker diplomacy or smear campaigns as favored by many Western politicians. She favored dialogue, including engaging with China and Russia on key differences. She played a pivotal role in concluding the CAI negotiations between China and the EU in December 2020. She firmly opposed the US efforts to decouple from the Chinese economy, and its bid to divide the world into confrontational blocs and force countries to choose sides.

During her years in office, Merkel showed leadership, wisdom and most importantly, strategic autonomy for Germany and for the EU. No wonder surveys from the Pew Research Center to YouGov and other agencies all showed her as the most popular global leader and most trusted to do the right things on the global stage.

Hopefully, the EU in its reflections will heed the lessons to be learned from her pragmatic diplomacy and once again exercise strategic autonomy in handling international relations.

The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn