EU Leaders Meet to Counter Pressure    02/12 06:01

   Leaders from across the European Union are meeting Thursday in a Belgian 
castle as the 27-nation bloc faces antagonism from U.S. President Donald Trump, 
strong-arm economic tactics from China and hybrid threats from Russia -- 
challenges that have prompted a rethink of Europe's approach to diplomacy and 
trade.

   BILZEN-HOESELT, Belgium (AP) -- Leaders from across the European Union are 
meeting Thursday in a Belgian castle as the 27-nation bloc faces antagonism 
from U.S. President Donald Trump, strong-arm economic tactics from China and 
hybrid threats from Russia -- challenges that have prompted a rethink of 
Europe's approach to diplomacy and trade.

   "We all know we must change course, and we all know the direction," Belgian 
Prime Minister Bart De Wever told a meeting of some European leaders on 
Wednesday. "Yet it sometimes feels like we're standing on the bridge of the 
ship staring at the horizon without being able to touch the helm."

   There are competing visions of how the EU should navigate these troubled 
times. Thursday's meeting is to shape proposals for another summit in late 
March.

   Before crossing a drawbridge to the 16th-century Alden Biesen castle, 
leaders told reporters they were focused on competitiveness and economic 
security.

   "We need to continue our very proactive trade policy and protect our 
companies from unfair competition, from economic coercion," said European 
Council President Antnio Costa just before the meeting started. He highlighted 
energy costs and cutting bureaucratic barriers to trade.

   There are clear fault lines in the battle for Europe's future

   German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 
lead a wing of the bloc calling for deregulation, rebooting Europe's 
relationship with Washington and forging trade deals like the recent one struck 
with the Mercosur nations of South America.

   "We must deregulate every sector," Merz said Wednesday.

   But they are at odds with France.

   One key issue is how much of the EU's defense spending should be restricted 
to buying from EU arms companies. French President Emmanuel Macron argues that 
EU countries should buy exclusively from European producers, while Merz and 
Meloni say purchases should be from both foreign and European firms.

   Macron has urged the EU to protect its industries overall via applying 
"European preference" in key sectors like cleantech, chemicals, steel, the car 
industry and defense.

   "We need to protect our industry. The Chinese do it, the Americans do it 
too," Macron said in an interview with several newspapers including Le Monde 
and The Financial Times published Tuesday.

   Without some European preference on strategic sectors, "Europeans will be 
swept aside. This is defensive, but it is essential, because we are facing 
unfair competitors who no longer respect the rules of the World Trade 
Organization," Macron said.

   Facing the financial challenges of the US and China

   EU leaders will also debate new financial instruments to protect the bloc in 
a global trading system rocked by Trump's blitzkrieg of tariffs and China's 
restricting of critical mineral exports.

   Macron is renewing his call for the EU to be able to borrow money, which he 
described as "Eurobonds for the future" that would provide an opportunity "to 
challenge the hegemony of the dollar."

   Merz and Meloni are following an economic stimulus strategy called for by 
Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank. The plan includes 
cutting regulations, making infrastructure investments and establishing trade 
ties with more countries. Draghi will address leaders assembled in the castle.

   "We have way too many barriers that prevent money and capital from moving 
from one country to another, way too many obstacles to simplification," said 
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament. "No more words, but more 
action."

   Germany and Italy are expected to call on leaders to act by cutting EU red 
tape, strengthening the single market and "ensuring an ambitious trade policy 
based on shared rules and a level playing field."

   That echoes the economic security focus of European Commission President 
Ursula von der Leyen, who like Merz and Metsola is a leading figure in the 
European People's Party, which is the largest bloc in the European Parliament 
and claims 13 heads of EU states as members.

   "Our power on the global stage depends greatly on our strength on the 
economic front," she said in a speech Wednesday.

   Citizens across the bloc are hungry for a stronger EU and a more unified, 
stronger and ambitious leadership amid military threats, economic pressures and 
climate instability, according to an official EU poll, Eurobarometer.

   "There has never been a better time for European leaders, national political 
leaders, to actually leverage on these European citizens' demand for greater 
European action," said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at the HEC Paris 
business school.