A fading Europe struggles to be heard in new world order

On matters of economics as well as war and peace, the EU's attributes no longer serve it well in the hardball politics of today.

- Jonathan Eyal

Germany is the European Union's biggest economy and China's most important EU trading partner. So, when a senior German politician visits China, he can expect the red-carpet treatment.

No longer. When Mr Johann Wadephul, Germany's foreign minister, recently tried to arrange a visit to China, he was told that, apart from a single encounter with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, nobody of importance in Beijing was available to meet him.

"The trip cannot take place at this time," a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Oct 24, shelving the visit that was to have started this week.

When asked about Beijing's tepid response, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman delivered a boilerplate response about both sides having to treat each other as equals for "win-win results".

Nor is this the only sign of the times. After warning for months that the EU would retaliate against US President Donald Trump's tariffs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meekly accepted in July a trade deal that set a 15 per cent tariff on most EU exports, a rate about nine times higher than that prior to Mr Trump's return to office in January.

The terms of the deal had then French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou railing against it as a cave-in and a "dark day" for Europe, while a European lawmaker lamented that European strategic autonomy had been buried "under a golf course".

It did not escape notice that the venue of the deal was in Britain, an ironic choice given Brexit. But that was where Mr Trump had his golf resort, and the meeting with Dr von der Leyen came after he finished a round of golf first with his son.

On the security front, if Russian President Vladimir Putin will one day agree to stop his military invasion of Ukraine, that will come as part of a deal concluded with the US President, above the heads of Europe. The Europeans may not even be consulted about their fate.