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Donald Trump has apparently snubbed EU leaders
It was announced today that two senior eurocrats will travel to the American capital to hold talks with US officials, but it is not thought they will meet any top members of Mr Trump’s team.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign minister, and Dimitris Avramopoulos, responsible for migration, will hold formal discussions with the new administration on Wednesday.
But EU officials also admitted they have made little to no progress in trying to chase up their invitation for Mr Trump to attend an EU-US summit with European leaders.
The revelations come on the same day the Republican’s pick for his new ambassador to Brussels launched an extraordinary attack on the bloc, saying the new President will take “no bull****” from the EU.
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Chief eurocrats Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker have invited the president to Europe
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Federica Mogherini will meet her counterpart in Washington
Ted Malloch stunned listeners this morning as he turned the air blue with his outburst, accusing European leaders of engaging in “baby talk and political correctness”.
US Vice-President Mike Pence will visit Brussels later this month and it is expected he will hold talks with top eurocrats including EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
But exasperated eurocrats are no closer to their aim of meeting with the Commander-in-Chief himself, with their pleas for a US-EU summit having apparently fallen on deaf ears.
The situation is in stark contrast with the extremely strong bond curated between Barack Obama’s administration and the Brussels bloc, with the former president a regular visitor to Europe’s shores.
Asked why, two months after his surprise election victory, EU officials were only now meeting junior members of Mr Trump’s team, EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas indicated there had been no response to the invitation.
He told reporters: “The joint invitation by Mr Tusk and Mr Juncker was made in November, the day after President Trump’s election and the invitation remains on the table.
“We are in contact with them to see what the best time would be to organise such a summit.”
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The talks held by Ms Mogherini and Mr Avramopoulos will centre around global security and migration, and come just days after the EU savaged the US President’s controversial Muslim ban.
Mr Trump’s order to stop migration from seven Muslim majority countries, which was overturned by a judge on Friday, is likely to provide a thorny topic for the discussion with relations between the two superpowers already badly battered.
Things have got so bad that the Republican has apparently threatened to expel the EU’s ambassador to Washington if MEPs in the European Parliament go ahead with a threat to try and block Prof Malloch from being appointed.
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