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“I viewed this from the beginning as a damage-limitation exercise, and I think to some extent it achieved that,” said Ian Bond, a former British diplomat who is now deputy director of the Centre for European Reform in London. “Clearly, it was a lot better than the meeting in February.”

Ian Bond, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform and a former British diplomat, said Moscow's territorial demand was a non-starter."If Trump thinks that Zelensky is going to agree to give up the fortress cities of the Donetsk oblast, just to get Putin to stop making war on him, he's out of his mind," he said."It shows how little he still understands about the situation and the geography of Ukraine."

Eines der zentralen Themen für die Europäer, sagte Ian Bond gegenüber The European Circle, dass Trump „wie eine Immobilientransaktion“ einen möglichen Friedensabkommen in der Ukraine zu behandeln scheint.„Er versteht nicht, dass ein Teil des Territoriums im Osten der Ukraine, dass Putin Covets für die Verteidigung der Ukraine von entscheidender Bedeutung wäre, wenn (und“ nicht ‚wenn‘ Russland seine Aggression wieder aufnimmt und versucht, mehr ukrainisches Territorium zu nehmen „, fügte der stellvertretende Direktor des Zentrums für europäische Reform (CER) hinzu.

Volgens Sander Tordoir, hoofdeconoom van denktank Center for European Reform, gaat het niet alleen om goedkope consumentengoederen van Temu of Alibaba. De Chinese industrie heeft zich in de hoogwaardige industrie omgevormd tot de meest geduchte concurrent die Europa ooit heeft gehad.

She has become the most powerful — and impressive — head of the commission since Jacques Delors, who headed the body for a decade from 1985, according to Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform.Von der Leyen and her chef de cabinet, Björn Seibert, 45 — a protégé since her time as Germany’s defence minister in the 2010s — “take all the key decisions on all the key dossiers,” Grant said. “The other commissioners are really annoyed because they are seldom consulted.”

“It was a very unusual assembly,” says Ian Bond, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform. “The fact that two sides that were brandishing nuclear weapons at each other were nonetheless able to find an agreement of this sort, is pretty extraordinary in itself.”

It barely equates to the regular variation in exchange rates: in other words, it’s “a rounding error”, the Centre for European Reform’s trade expert, John Springford, told me, when compared with the hammer blow Britain gave itself with Brexit.

“There was this self-perception that the EU is a heavyweight that can go toe-to-toe with the US, and that has been the case in previous situations,” says Aslak Berg of the Centre for European Reform in London. “But the US has not chosen to play by the rules anymore.”