The European Union has diplomatic missions around the world and at the United Nations, but it's not a country. Despite their lack of sovereignty and absence of a standing army, Brussels has inserted itself in the U.S.-brokered Russian-Ukraine peace talks that drag on. While the EU meddles in defense procurement policy, it’s simply the latest version of a European customs union that relies on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, i.e., the United States, for security. So why would the EU want to act like a bad partner?
The European Economic Community started under the guise of a modern European customs union but morphed into an empire of sorts. It’s comprised of 27 declining European social welfare states that believe they are dependent on a European single market for survival. But instead of free-flowing trade and a common currency, the cumbersome EU has enacted a multitude of directives, regulations and decisions that are often at odds with their member states and in conflict with historic allies like the United States.
Despite the political elevation of this customs union, it's still difficult to decipher who speaks for Europe. "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?" U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger allegedly asked decades ago. According to the EU, contemporary secretaries of state should call the EU foreign policy chief. But why should a sovereign nation call a burgeoning customs union to discuss foreign policy?
Worse, if the president of the United States asked this same question, the EU would need to discuss which of their three presidents – European Parliament, European Commission, or European Council – should take the call. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, is the most well-known, but she's not the leader of the European Union. That's because there is no single leader of the EU.
But let's ignore a parliamentary union designed to safeguard centrist power, where the average European doesn't have the opportunity to vote directly for any of the three presidential positions. Instead, let's look briefly at the union's performance. Between 2008 and 2023, the World Bank suggests the U.S. economy grew by 87%, while the EU only grew by 13.5%. Poor EU public policies have targeted previously strong economies like Germany, creating a demographic crisis in the rapidly aging block. The EU itself recently commissioned a study called, "The future of European Competitiveness," led by former Italian Prime Minister and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. The resulting report outlined numerous policy failures and called for immediate reform, investment, innovation and integration to correct the self-inflicted economic damage of previous decades.
Without referencing the lack of gratitude for the rebuilding of Europe under the Marshall Plan, the cost in blood and treasure of nearly a century of American security, or the massive trade deficits in the post-Cold War decades, it seems like the European Union might be a bad partner that’s possibly choking the life out of its member states. But whether Europe is a bad partner is a nuanced question when one considers America has direct relations with the 27 sovereign nations comprising the EU. So, if the president of the United States wants to call someone in Europe, he normally goes directly to the leader of an actual country, not the latest version of a European customs union.
But while the European Union has been a questionable partner for the United States, European countries have been good partners for Alabama. Many Alabamians depend on European companies for their livelihoods. Most people have heard of Mercedes-Benz, but a quick search for how many European companies operate in Alabama suggests that there are approximately 300. The top three European countries represented are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the latter of which withdrew from the European Union in 2020.
After decades of poor EU policies, and in line with America's revised national security strategy and trade policies, Alabama should make every effort to attract additional European businesses. Audi and Porsche don't have any U.S. factories, BASF already has an Alabama presence and is currently restructuring, and numerous other European companies are reducing their European facilities due to detrimental environmental policies, lack of access to capital, high energy/operating costs, overregulation, high taxes, and increased tariffs.
The new National Security Strategy of the United States impeccably captures our nuanced relationship with Europe. It says that despite all their faults, America still has a special relationship with the European continent and that it’s not too late for the countries of Europe to recapture their former greatness. Only time will tell if the countries of Europe want to stay on the wayward path of stagnation, overregulation, mass migration, and political repression under the suffocating customs union banner of the European Union – or if there are dedicated nationalists on the European Continent that believe their countries are worth fighting for.
Western allies are hard to come by, so let’s hope Europe can find a way to save itself.
Dr. Tobias Vogt von Heselholt (shortened to “Vote”) is a retired U.S. Army officer, former professor, author, and elected member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. For more, see his author page at Amazon.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
