Can Trump be the new "glue" of Europe?

Trump is the 45th President of United States. 

We cannot predict what he will do, but for sure he will have a totally different approach of his predecessor and for sure his Presidency will have a huge impact in the World.

Definitely huge effects are expected in the relation between US and Europe. Few days ago Trump attacked the European Union institution, pointed out the uselessness of NATO, stated the will to improve the relations with Russia and drafted an economic policy based on autarchy more than on globalization.

Under those considerations, which Europe can we expect in the next 4 years?

Few points should be highlighted.

First, the declarations of Trump had the effect to compact the Eu Leaders. The pride to be Europeans came up suddenly. We love to criticize Eu, but sometimes we are also able to see how positive can be, and we will probably see it more after Brexit.

Second, and this can be considered a good news, the TTIP seems definitely over. New US President wants to renegotiate even NAFTA, o we cannot expect free trade agreement with Europe and it is probably better for us. 

Third, if Trump will go ahead with a release from NATO of US, countries like Poland or Baltic States will be somehow forced to get closer to Eu. And Eu will be forced to take care by herself about the security of the Region.

We are already missing Obama, probably not so much for what he really did, but for what he represented. But maybe this change will give new life to Europe and, this is my wish, we will see a united power trying to fight against terrorism, iniquity, social conflicts.

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Do we really need the TTIP?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States.

US and EU together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services. The barriers between the two most important economies in the world are already law, but the purpuse of the TTIP is to consolidate the relations, improving the trade between the parts, facilitating the competition and creating new jobs.

This agreement is strongly criticized for the method of the negotiation and for the potential effects of it. In fact, the negotiation is held in a confidential way, that doesn't allow the public opinion to know the details of the agreement and it doesn't facilitate a public discussion.

Moreover, this agreement could bring damages to the consumers, to the workers and to the environment. From one side, there should be specific Institutions that could judge about the litigations between States and private companies outside the national jurisdiction. This could give more power to the biggest private corporations. From the other, Us didn't ratify many agreements related to labor rights and environment protections, and this could bring a sort of social dumping against Europe.

We can draft two kinds of considerations. First, more economic freedom can raise the level of competitions in the markets and this is reflected also in the prices: but which is the social cost of it? Second, the negotiations must be subjected to the public opinion, because the effect of TTIP will deeply touch our life.

The 10th of June the European Parliament had to express an opinion about TTIP in a special session in Strasbourg. Thanks to the pressure of a huge majority in the Parliament, the vote and the discussion has been postponed. We will see how much force the Parliament and the voice of the public opinion can have in the future discussion, also considering the pressure of G7 to reach an agreement.

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