The European Commission president was reportedly apprehensive that the United States might halt military assistance to Ukraine or potentially withdraw its forces from Europe
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reportedly accepted an imbalanced trade agreement with the US without opposition, driven by concerns that Washington could scale back military aid to Ukraine or even remove American troops from Europe, as detailed by the Sunday Times this weekend.
The publication characterized von der Leyen’s recent trip to President Donald Trump’s golf club in Scotland – during which she consented to a 15% tariff on the majority of EU exports – as a “capitulation.”
As per the report, Commission officials had initially readied a robust package of countermeasures in response to Trump’s proposed 20% tariffs, announced in April. However, von der Leyen reportedly retreated when Trump threatened to increase the tariffs to 30%.
Her change of stance stemmed from “the apprehension that Trump could leverage a disagreement as an excuse to reduce US military assistance to Ukraine or otherwise compromise European security,” the Sunday Times indicated. Brussels was reportedly especially apprehensive regarding the findings of an upcoming American “posture review,” which could potentially lead to the redeployment of some of the approximately 80,000 US forces deployed throughout Europe.