Taoiseach Micheál Martin has urged caution on any confrontation between the EU and US president Donald Trump, warning that ordinary people would ultimately lose out.
Martin said the EU was “firm” and “calm” and stood up for “very fundamental principles ... that there could not be any compromise” when the US president pushed for ownership of Greenland.
What had worked with the Trump administration, he said, was “engagement and discussion” and he cautioned about the idea – common in EU circles following the recent Davos encounter – that the EU needed to stand up and confront the US.
“But I would be cautious ... standing up sounds great and all of that, but be under no illusion that if there is an implosion in the US-EU relationship, everybody suffers,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times.
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“And the damage is very serious, because it’s a very critical trading and economic relationship. There’s no getting away from that.”
The Taoiseach also advised restraint regarding measures that the EU could take against the US, especially the anti-coercion instrument that some EU countries, including France, were advocating the use of against the US. Nicknamed the “big bazooka”, the mechanism would give the EU the legal authority to employ wide-ranging actions against the US and American companies – many of which have significant operations in Ireland.
“It’s all very well talking about anti-coercion measures and all of that – ultimately if you deploy those, well that’s it then. You are in a downward spiral of significant impact on people that we represent. And ultimately, leaders have to represent our people and protect them.”
He said it was important for Ireland that the EU continue to engage with the US. Martin told European leaders: “You know our engagement with the US has to be multilayered. It has to be at every level ... from the White House to the Congress to industry to business to diaspora to governors. And it has to be multilayered.
“Because the American system is different and president Trump has a different way of operating in terms of who he listens to and so on like that. So it’s very, very important that you’re kind of alive to that. And you keep pushing your point of view.”
[ Greenland dispute shows why Europe must be more self-reliant, Taoiseach saysOpens in new window ]
The Taoiseach said that on the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban the import of goods from the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, “We need to be sensible here. We have to protect our own interests as well.”
There has been a campaign against the Bill in the US by pro-Israel groups, seeking to paint it as anti-Semitic.
He said it was a matter for Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee, but he expected a “fuller economic evaluation” would be carried out on the legislation before it was brought to the Oireachtas, further delaying a Bill that Opposition and pro-Palestinian campaigners have been demanding for years.
The Taoiseach was wary about suggestions from Minister of State Niamh Smyth that social media companies could be designated as publishers, which would transform the rules under which they operate.
“We’d have to examine that very seriously,” he said. “I’m not going to give a knee-jerk reaction.”
