European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. president Donald Trump have sealed an economic agreement that, far from defending Europe’s interests, reinforces its strategic, energy, and commercial submission to Washington.
The deal sets a 15% tariff on most European products exported to the U.S., in exchange for massive purchases of American energy and military equipment worth more than $1.3 trillion.
The Commission presented the agreement as the “lesser evil,” arguing that it averted Trump’s threat to impose 30% tariffs starting August 1st. However, many analysts and European industrial sectors see this as an unacceptable capitulation. Europe is thus abandoning principles of trade fairness and strategic autonomy in favor of a lopsided relationship.
Among the agreement’s clauses is the European commitment to purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy over the next three years—replacing Russian gas and oil—and to invest another $600 billion on American soil, primarily in defense-related sectors. This is in addition to a substantial increase in the purchase of U.S. military equipment, when several member states, especially Germany, are transforming their defense capabilities.
Despite Von der Leyen’s statements calling it a “balanced agreement that brings certainty,” the facts say otherwise. Washington managed to impose a fixed 15% tariff on key European goods—cars, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals—while only granting exemptions to some agricultural, chemical, and aeronautical products. There is no real reciprocity: the European market is wide open to American goods and industrial standards without any equivalent counterbalance.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made it clear: “The EU will fully accept our automotive and industrial standards for the first time in history.” And Trump, in a triumphant tone, celebrated that Europe “will buy a vast amount of energy and weaponry” from his country. In other words, Brussels has bought temporary stability at the cost of long-term sovereignty.
This agreement highlights the gap between what EU leaders say and what they do. While they often talk about making Europe more independent in areas like energy, defence, and technology, this deal does the opposite. It locks the EU into deeper dependence on the United States. Moreover, the supposed “concessions” from the U.S. are minimal and strategically calculated to maximize access to a 450-million-consumer market without yielding anything essential.
In the words of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán: “It’s Donald Trump eating Von der Leyen for breakfast.”
European industrial sectors, especially the German automotive industry, may breathe a sigh of relief for now. But what is gained in the short term may cost it dearly in the medium and long term. Europe, caught between trade blackmail and energy insecurity from both East and West, has renounced building a truly sovereign project.
