Talking Europe speaks to one of France’s most distinguished diplomats. Philippe Etienne, once dubbed “Macron’s diplomatic brain,” has been the French ambassador to Washington and Berlin as well as the permanent representative to the European Union. We ponder Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House – something that Etienne says could pose problems for Europe on trade, given Trump’s penchant for tariffs. We also discuss Hungary’s presidency of the EU; the EU’s defence and security agenda over the next few months; and the hopes for a smoother EU-UK relationship following the British general election. 

Under a Trump administration, “multilateralism would be neglected in favour of transactionalism,” Etienne says. “And we can also be worried about trade because Donald Trump has announced that he would very much rely on tariffs for China in particular, but also towards anybody. So if he becomes president again and does what he has announced, then we would have big, big difficulties in trade. And we saw when he was president that he did not make a difference between allies of the United States and other countries,” Etienne affirms.

Asked whether Europe is ready to go it alone on defence and security if Trump returns to power, Etienne says, “We have not started on European defence yesterday. We have been embarking on this journey for five or six years, with new instruments, and a new budget, which is still very small compared to our needs. But we have to continue and to accelerate on this way to have a more independent Europe, which doesn't mean that we're not in the Atlantic alliance. We need this alliance. But we have to do our own job. We have our own tasks as Europeans.”

Hungary has just taken up the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, and we discuss Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “peace mission” to Kyiv and Moscow. “Any peace should respect the rights of Ukraine and its people, and it should not be a peace that is imposed on Ukraine,” Etienne states. “I think that it is in not in the interest of any country holding the rotating presidency to abuse its role,” he adds. “Every country tries to present its own views, but in a way which is respectful of the role of a rotating presidency as an honest broker. So we can hope that Hungary will see its interest in doing the same,” he said.

After Labour’s landslide victory in the UK general election, what should we expect from the UK-EU relationship? “The United Kingdom and the European Union face common challenges; really big challenges,” Etienne answers. “Defence and security policy is an obvious field for cooperation. But there are other common challenges, such as artificial intelligence, or the climate. I am convinced that the UK and the EU will have to engage even more closely on these topics.”

Programme prepared by Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats