The agreement on the EU’s framework agreement with the US on a basic 15% import tariff on most European goods and averting a transatlantic trade war between the two allies has been met with mixed reactions in the union’s countries.
‘It is a gloomy day when an alliance of free peoples, united to assert their common values and defend their common interests, resigns itself to subordination,’ was how French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou characterised the situation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in his usual style, sharply criticised the arrangements, saying it was not an agreement. ‘The US has achieved everything it wanted,’ he said.
There were other opinions, in particular the prime ministers of Spain and Italy, Pedro Sanchez and Giorgia Meloni, said that reaching an agreement was a positive fact. That said, as long as all the details are unknown, it is difficult to express a more precise assessment.
