![\"\"](\"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-29-at-14.59.05-300x138.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nDear friends,<\/p>\n
Before Christmas, I wrote to you about why we need the United States of Europe now. Merely a month later, the idea has suddenly become widespread. The term is now being quoted in big news outlets. And even conservatives and liberals in the European Parliament are starting to understand that we need to take action. Im not mad for them stealing our ideas – I love it! But why did the political landscape shift so suddenly?<\/p>\n
I believe that these first few weeks of 2026 have shocked Europe thoroughly. The US invasion in Venezuela, the threats against Greenland, the horrible images ICE is producing in Minnesota and elsewhere. All of this makes one thing clear: Europe has to stand up and defend its freedom now. We need to steer away from a crazy US government and strengthen our own continent.<\/p>\n
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EUROPE IS NOT DEFENCELESS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Exactly 250 years ago, the American colonies declared their independence from Europe. They cast off arbitrariness, coercion and exploitation. Today, we are witnessing a historical irony: for precisely the same reasons, it is time for Europe to declare its independence from the United States. For decades, we relied on a world order in which the US guaranteed security and stood for open, fair trade. These were rules written in Washington itself \u2014 and Europe prospered under them. That era is over. Donald Trump is undermining security guarantees, weaponising tariffs and respecting agreements only for as long as they serve his interests.<\/p>\n This is why our dependence is now coming back to haunt us \u2014 at the very moment when its price is rising rapidly: economically, militarily and geostrategically. The good news is that Europe is not defenceless. We are an economic superpower \u2014 if we act together. We have instruments designed for precisely this kind of extreme situation. Now we must be willing to use them.<\/p>\n SHOW OUR BAZOOKAS Second, the trade agreement concluded between the EU and the US just this summer. It is essential that the European Parliament has taken a clear stance and put this deal on ice. In the current circumstances, rubber-stamping it would have been inconceivable. As long as one side no longer abides by the rules of the game, the game itself has to stop.<\/p>\n Third, EU member states hold a significant share of US government debt. Without European buyers, the US would face immediate financing trouble. Washington should be made fully aware of this reality. That does not mean becoming coercive ourselves. It means making a sovereign decision about whether we want to keep lending money to a government that is openly hostile to our interests.<\/p>\n MERCOSUR: A COMMUNICATIVE CAR CRASH<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n And we have to work together with international partners. Let’s be clear: The way the European Parliament delayed the Mercosur deal with South America even further last week was a disaster. Of course, legal oversight is important. But sending the deal to the European Court of Justice now means months, possibly years of delay. It damages our image as trustworthy negotiators. And worse, the way this vote passed with a super-narrow majority (10 votes) with the help of the far right was simply a communicative car crash. We knew this could happen, so the Volt MEPs all voted against the further delay – I hope you noticed.<\/p>\n On a more positive note, this week saw the launch of a new free trade agreement between the EU and India. The world’s largest democracy and a market of 1,5 billion! Exactly the signal we so badly needed – it shows that Europe is still willing to shape! Have you seen how much Trump ranted about this deal, belittling it and making fun of our leaders? This only proves the point: He is deeply insulted and annoyed when Europe speaks up for itself. I feel we should annoy him some more. He’s the one who started this.<\/p>\n Europe did not choose this escalation. We did not elect Donald Trump. We still believe in a rules-based international order, in free trade and in diplomacy. But we must not be naive. When our values, our economic sovereignty and our territorial integrity are attacked as openly as they are now, Europe has to respond \u2014 united and uncompromising. Anything else is a conscious decision to remain dependent on others, and to become a pawn in the emerging global order.<\/p>\n The United States of Europe does not need to grandly proclaim its independence. It merely needs the courage to enforce it. Now.<\/p>\n Yours Dear friends, Before Christmas, I wrote to you about why we need the United States of Europe now. Merely a month later, the idea has suddenly become widespread. The term is now being quoted in big news outlets. And even conservatives and liberals in the European Parliament are starting to understand that we need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unkategorisiert"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4763,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions\/4763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-29-at-14.59.04-300x138.jpeg\")
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\n<\/strong><\/span>
\nFirst, the EU\u2019s Anti-Coercion Instrument is the sharpest tool at our disposal. Emmanuel Macron calls it a bazooka, and he is prepared to use it. You do not fire a bazooka lightly. But it quickly turns into a prop if you pretend it does not exist. Simply making its use a credible option changes the balance of power \u2014 and that is the only language Trump understands.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/damianboeselager.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-29-at-14.59.05-1-300x139.jpeg\")
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\nDamian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"