EU distances itself from the US and resigns itself to a possible Trump comeback
The average per capita income of European citizens is currently 27% lower than that of their North American counterparts. In the case of Spaniards, this difference is close to 40%, with our rate of convergence with the EU in this area having gone from 92% to 84% after the five years of Pedro Sánchez's government.
The consultancy firm McKinsey, author of the report presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, thus shows that the gap between Europe and the United States has never been so wide since 1970. The World Bank, for its part, underlined this by pointing out that US per capita income in 2023 was twice that of the EU in nominal terms, as well as being 1.4 times higher in purchasing power parity.
The comparison is even more odious with respect to GDP, as the EU has gone from having it above the US in 2011 to now being no less than 47% poorer than the Americans. With their usual stark language, media on the other side of the Atlantic, but ultimately global, such as The Wall Street Journal, gloat over the fate, claiming that "Europeans face a new economic reality - they are poorer - that they have not experienced in decades".
And they lay much of the blame on Europe's growing technological backwardness, pointing out that while the EU was at the forefront of the mobile phone revolution back in 2000, and even the so-called Lisbon Agenda laid out a plan to make the EU the most competitive area in the world by 2020, the difference in R&D investment in recent years between the two sides of the Atlantic is the main cause of the brutal gap.
Another index that adds even more salt to the wound is the list of the world's largest ICT companies. Of the 50 largest communication technologies by market capitalisation, only five are European, with just 5% of the total value. This diminutive size accentuates Europe's marked loss of influence in the world in many other fields.
While this evidence was emerging in the debates on the snowy mountains of Davos, in Brussels and Strasbourg the impression was growing that the EU may find itself at the end of this year with Donald Trump back in the White House. Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo made this clear when he presented the programme of Belgium's six-month rotating presidency of the EU to the European Parliament. A rotating presidency that will be left unfinished due to the holding of the European Parliamentary elections next June.
In De Croo's opinion, "if at the end of 2024 'America first' wins again, we will have a Europe that is more alone than ever". But, far from being pessimistic about such a prospect, the head of the Belgian government called on Europeans to "embrace the opportunity to build a Europe with more solid, stronger, more sovereign and autonomous foundations". In short, to draw on the lessons of Donald Trump's first term in office, where the undisputed leader of the Republican Party destroyed in one fell swoop all the European myths about the protection and generosity of the American friend.
Trump's rudeness towards his European counterparts is spreading throughout the headquarters of the European institutions, especially in chapters as sensitive for the EU as tariff policy, the contribution and commitment to NATO and the fight against climate change. Nor has the relationship with Joe Biden improved much beyond words and smiles, since the figures show an ever-widening gap, although much of this can be attributed more to the lack of initiatives consummated by the Europeans than to the US's desire to keep the EU always in its thrall and dependent.
Trump boasts that with him in the White House neither Putin would have invaded Ukraine nor Hamas would have triggered the Gaza war with its terrorist attack. For the time being, and without being in power, his congressmen have blocked the latest 61 billion dollar aid package to Ukraine, which has seen Russia simultaneously subject it to a daily deluge of fire and destruction.
De Croo's call should be followed immediately by substantive initiatives to speed up the process of European integration in the important areas that are still holding back its momentum. For the moment, rather than initiatives, what is observed is a certain feeling of resignation, accompanied by the corresponding races for a place on the European electoral lists, and the hunt for one of those important and well-paid posts. With elections in sight, everything tends to grind to a halt, at least in Europe. In other parts of the world, including the United States, they seem to be going full steam ahead, putting more and more distance between them.