The next obstacle to the trade deal between the European Union and the United States won’t come from the Oval Office — but rather from the second-biggest party in the European Parliament.
The European Socialists have come out against the accord that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck with U.S. President Donald Trump in July. That will make her job of building the majority she needs to enact the tariff truce a tough one — and failure to do so could plunge the transatlantic trade relationship back into turmoil.
“We firmly oppose the agreement,” Iratxe García Pérez, president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) parliamentary group, told POLITICO.
The Socialists’ opposition imperils the EU’s efforts to present the pact as guarding transatlantic unity against Moscow. It also deepens a rift with von der Leyen’s center-right allies the European People’s Party (EPP) — who support the deal — and have in the past worked with the S&D to pursue a moderate agenda.
The standoff comes just weeks after von der Leyen had to make long-term commitments on social spending to secure the support of the Socialists to win a high-stakes motion of no confidence.
The S&D lost leverage in the 2024 European election, when an electoral shift made it possible for the EPP to pass measures with the support of political groups on the right of the political spectrum. As their presence in the Commission and in national governments has dwindled, the Socialists have become increasingly strident in their criticism of the EU executive and the EPP — and are eager to leverage their remaining political weight to extract political concessions.
Posted by John3262005
1 Comment
There is no trade deal, though.
The reporting on this whole thing is awful. The Commission doesn’t have the authority to negotiate and sign trade agreements on its own. It’s just a vague framework to kick the can down the road.