Obama urges EU unity with Trump to halt Islamic State

US president Barack Obama has urged EU leaders to work with president-elect Donald Trump to hold Nato together and maintain efforts to prevent a spread of Islamic State.

At a mini-transatlantic summit in Berlin hosted by German chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Obama used his last official engagement in Europe to reassure leaders of France, Italy, Spain and Britain on the intentions of Mr Trump.

Apart from brief phone calls, few know anything about the incoming president other than his America-first campaign rhetoric. And so it fell to Mr Obama to reassure them of Mr Trump’s “pragmatic” intentions, based on his own Oval Office meeting with the billionaire last week.

During and beyond the transition process in Washington, Mr Obama urged his European counterparts to seek solutions with the incoming US administration on the basis of core values.

In an ill-disguised warning to the president-elect, who has questioned Nato mutual defence and proposed closer ties to Moscow, the six leaders in Berlin reaffirmed in a statement “the importance of continued co-operation through multilateral institutions, including Nato”.

“The leaders agreed on the necessity of working collectively to move the transatlantic agenda forward,” they said, “particularly on bringing stabilisation to the Middle East and North Africa, as well as securing diplomatic resolution to the conflicts in Syria and eastern Ukraine.”

Regrouping

The leaders said they were determined to ensure that putting Islamic State out of business in one part of the world did not result in it regrouping elsewhere.

In a brief statement alongside Dr Merkel, British prime minister Theresa May said all Berlin attendees remained united in their condemnation of the atrocities taking place in Syria. “We agree on the need to keep up the pressure on Russia, including the possibility of sanctions on those who breach international humanitarian law,” she said.

Ahead of the meeting, the British leader said she would use the meeting to update Dr Merkel on the Brexit process. However, Dr Merkel, who has refused to engage with London until it triggers its EU departure process, said Brexit was “not on the agenda”.

With German patience with Britain on Brexit wearing thin, finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned on Friday that London could not expect "generous rebates" or an "a la carte" soft exit package. "There is only the whole menu, or none," he told the Financial Times on Friday, adding that the UK could face EU obligations until 2030.

A Downing Street spokesman said that “as long as we remain members of the EU, we will fulfil the commitments and obligations” of membership.

Easing austerity

Meanwhile, Dr Schäuble dismissed EU attempts to boost growth by easing austerity, telling the

Financial Times

on Friday that the euro zone should not deviate from its strict debt and deficit rules.

The European Commission had “no authority” to give member states greater discretion over national spending, the minister said in Berlin on Friday.

Mr Obama’s departure after three days in a grey and rainy Berlin brought home to European leaders the amount of unfinished business he leaves behind. And, with uncertainty surrounding every element of a Trump administration, the Berlin gathering highlighted the growing responsibility likely to shift to European leaders – and particularly Dr Merkel.

She has called a rare Sunday evening press conference, at which she is likely to announce whether she will run for a fourth term.

Though senior sources expect her to run again, and Mr Obama joked that he would vote for her if he could, Dr Merkel has, to date, declined to be drawn on her future plans.