Trump puts Europe in a bind

On Sunday morning, a little more than 24 hours after the US attacked Caracas and special forces seized Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, the European Commission posted on social media.

- Jon Henley

The EU's executive said nothing about an operation that multiple national leaders outside Europe, opposition politicians inside it and pretty much every available legal expert had denounced as a gross violation of international law.

Instead, it wished Europeans a safe return from their holidays and pointed out that if they could travel across borders with only their ID cards and were guaranteed refunds or compensation in the event of bus, train or plane delays, it was thanks to the EU.

This stuff - free movement, consumer protection, holiday entitlements - the EU can do.

Condemning a powerful, longtime ally and standing up for liberal democracy, multilateralism and the rules-based international order? Not quite so much.

The EU is in a deep bind over Donald Trump's Venezuela move - just as it is over his assertions that the US "absolutely" needs to take control of Greenland, a selfgoverning territory of Denmark.

"If Europe acquiesces in US actions against the Maduro regime, it risks weakening the legal principles that underpin its opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine," said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law, neatly summing up the dilemma.