Former ECB director says Trump handed EU ‘a brutal wake-up call’
(MENAFN) Former European Central Bank president and ex-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said that US President Donald Trump has delivered a “brutal wake-up call” to the European Union, exposing the limits of its geopolitical influence despite its economic weight.
Speaking at a conference in Rimini on Friday, Draghi argued that the EU’s long-standing belief in its global clout derived from its 450 million-strong consumer market had collapsed this year under pressure from Washington.
Trump has pushed NATO’s European members to increase defense spending, secured a new trade agreement that imposes a 15% tariff on most EU exports while scrapping duties on US industrial goods, and expanded American access to European markets. The deal has sparked anger among EU leaders, who see it as disproportionately favoring the US.
According to Draghi, Trump’s broader policies have reduced the EU to a “marginal” role in Ukraine peace talks, left it sidelined in crises involving Gaza and Iran, and convinced China that Europe is no longer an equal partner.
“These events have ended the illusion that economic power alone guarantees geopolitical influence,” Draghi said. “Trump has given us a brutal wake-up call – now we must regroup.”
He pointed to the bloc’s “passivity and rigidity” as its greatest weaknesses and called for structural reforms, including eliminating internal trade barriers and issuing joint debt to finance defense, infrastructure, and innovation.
Critics warn that common debt could undermine national control over budgets and stir tensions between wealthier northern states and fiscally weaker southern nations. Still, institutions such as the IMF have cautioned that without sweeping reforms, the EU risks long-term stagnation.
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