(Bloomberg) —
The European Union is discussing a possible delay of upcoming trade talks with the U.S. following French outrage over a canceled Australian submarine contract that was scuttled in favor of a new defense pact with Washington and the U.K.
France asked the European Commission to postpone the first meeting of the Trade and Technology Council that was due to gather in Pittsburgh on Sept. 29, according to EU diplomats who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.
The EU was seeking to use the Pittsburgh meeting to hammer out a framework to screen potentially hostile foreign investments, cooperate on export controls, discuss artificial intelligence and address critical supply chain gaps of goods like semiconductors. But more importantly, it would have symbolized a reconciliation after four years of transatlantic trade conflict with former President Donald Trump.
“When you give your word it has some value between allies, between democracies, between partners. And in this case, this word was not respected,” France’s minister for European affairs, Clement Beaune, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. “We have to be firm, not as French but as Europeans.”
The Financial Times reported earlier on the French bid to delay the trade meeting.
‘Not Acceptable’
The French request met resistance because some member states saw it as shooting themselves in the foot, according to one diplomat. Some criticized France for failing to show solidarity in separate cases, like a border clash between Lithuania and Belarus. The issue is still undecided and will be studied by EU ambassadors on Friday.
French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne said Tuesday that the two nations needed to “rebuild trust” after his country was “deliberately kept outside” of the submarine contract negotiations, while disputing the idea that French actions risked isolating the country.
“We need a serious conversation between the United States and the European Union,” Etienne said in an interview with MSNBC. The flap created the “right opportunity” for Europeans to recognize they need to “develop their own actions and be a partner that takes a greater role.”
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, is studying the impact that the new defense pact will have on the schedule for the trade and technology council meeting, a spokesperson said.
Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told CNN that “a lot of questions” must be answered about the submarine deal.
“One of our member states has been treated in a way that is not acceptable, so we want to know what happened and why,” von der Leyen said, adding that the situation must be clarified “before you keep on going with business as usual.”
EU foreign ministers meeting in New York expressed solidarity with France, according to comments the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, made to reporters on Monday. Borrell also called for “more cooperation, more coordination, less fragmentation” among allies.
“This is once again a wake-up-call for all of us in the EU to ask ourselves how we can strengthen our sovereignty,” Germany’s minister for European affairs, Michael Roth, told reporters. “How can we use our economic and political weight to contribute to security and multilateralism and entrench our values on a global scale.”
(Updates with French ambassador in paragraphs 7-8.)
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