Trump’s attacks on NATO, his threats to annex Greenland — reiterated on Wednesday — as well as the tariffs he’s imposed on allies and the Iran war are all undermining European confidence in America.
The European Pulse survey, conducted by Cluster17 for POLITICO and beBartlet, polled 6,698 Europeans across Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Belgium from March 13 to March 21. It found that only 35 percent of those polled saw the U.S. as a close ally or a partner while 60 percent saw it as a competitor or a threat.
The U.S. “has an influence into how Europeans look at NATO,” Kubilius told POLITICO in an interview airing at the European Pulse Forum, adding that the survey shows that “if trust in the transatlantic partnership is going down,” that also affects perceptions of NATO.
The survey did find that 76 percent of people would favor sending their country’s military to help a NATO ally under attack, but there is also strong backing for Europe to develop its own defense capabilities — backed by 86 percent of those polled — with 69 percent favoring the creation of a common European military force.
Kubilius flew to Washington for talks at the Pentagon on Friday about boosting the bloc’s defensive capabilities.
Kubilius told POLITICO that the poll show that shows the “trust of Europeans in themselves, in their capability, in what we can call independent capability is becoming quite high,” underlining his own position favoring the establishment of an EU army. However, other senior officials like Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, have rejected the idea.