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EU leaders to push for ratification of US trade deal despite anger with Trump

BRUSSELS — EU leaders gathering in Brussels Thursday evening will attempt to brush off a week of tumultuous relations with the U.S. and call for the bloc’s transatlantic trade deal to be finalized.

In a sign that government heads are hoping to draw a line in the sand after Donald Trump walked back his threats to impose tariffs on European countries and seize Greenland, they’ll use the emergency summit to show they want to return swiftly to business as usual.

“There is an agreement between the U.S. and the EU on trade,” said an EU official directly involved in the discussions, granted anonymity because the talks are confidential. “We are reliable partners, so those agreements should be abided [by], unless there are structural changes … Hopefully that is not the case and things can move forward.

The summit was initially called to discuss economic retaliation against the U.S. Leaders of the main parties in the European Parliament — including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s own European People’s Party — which must ratify the trade deal, said on Sunday that this would be impossible given Trump’s threats.

But the U.S. president’s abrupt climbdown on Wednesday, saying he had negotiated a framework for expanded military access to the Danish overseas territory, should mean the pact can move ahead as planned, according to four diplomats and officials.

“It is in the interest of Europeans to have an effective relationship,” said a senior European diplomat.

At a meeting of ambassadors earlier Thursday to prepare the summit, no countries objected to the agreement taking effect, even after the rancorous week, according to two diplomats. It had been signed in July by Trump and von der Leyen.

“The action is for the Parliament,” said a second EU official, adding that leaders were likely to bring up the issue with Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who is addressing them during the summit on Thursday.

The EPP’s lead negotiator on the file, Željana Zovko, said the Parliament will “hopefully” decide to proceed with the deal on Monday.

The U.S. ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, is piling on the pressure for the speedy approval of the deal, blasting those in Brussels who claim Trump risks undermining the transatlantic relationship with his efforts to take over the territory of allies.

“The real instability comes from the EU’s own failure to act on the historic trade agreement that Presidents Trump and von der Leyen negotiated last summer,” he wrote online. “It was meant to restore predictability and growth, not be held hostage to political posturing.”

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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