The Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has echoed a former US president, as EU leaders confront the prospect of Trump-led protectionism.
“Don’t ask what the US can do for you, ask what Europe should do for itself”, Ms Meloni said during a summit in Budapest, mimicking the words of John F. Kennedy. The assassinated US president said during his inaugural address in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
Meloni and her EU counterparts met in Budapest, Hungary, and European competitiveness was top of the agenda, amid concerns that President-Elect Trump will slap tariffs on foreign imports when he resumes his place in the White House.
Ms Meloni said, “Europe must find a balance” rather than relying on its transatlantic partner. In a seven-word warning, she added: “We know what we have to do.”
Hosting the summit, Viktor Orbán borrowed the catchphrase of Mr Trump, saying that EU leaders needed to “make Europe great again”.
He added that competitiveness was “not ideological – it’s just pragmatic”. Mr Orbán drew the ire of EU leaders in recent weeks, after flying to Georgia to congratulate the winners of the country’s domestic election, despite serious concerns raised in Western capitals that the vote was not free and fair.
Leaders arrived in Budapest following the release of a bombshell new report from former Italian PM Mario Draghi. He warned of a “slow and agonising decline” unless EU countries reformed.
“We have postponed too many important decisions in order to find consensus [among EU member states],” Draghi said.
“That consensus did not come, and as a result we have suffered lower economic growth, and now stagnation.”
Earlier he said that the “sense of urgency today is greater” than it was a week ago – a nod to Trump’s presidential triumph.
