Why Europe is a threat to Trump and where its strength lies
Despite the claims of US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their MAGA acolytes, the European Union is not in decline.
In many ways, the EU project has succeeded beyond its founders’ most optimistic expectations, says Alberto Alemanno, Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris.
Read more about Europe’s advantages and the challenges it faces in his column: The success of Europe: what Trump underestimated and how the EU challenges US and China.
The author notes that, for the first time in modern history, Europe is recognized by other powers as a political actor.
"Over the past three decades, Europe has built a political and regulatory order that external powers can no longer bypass by dealing with 27 national governments individually. Instead, they must deal with Europe as one," Alberto Alemanno writes.
According to him, Europe is no longer seen only as a geopolitical actor, but as a competing model for organizing economic and political life.
"Unlike American capitalism, with its emphasis on speed, scale, and accumulation, and Chinese authoritarianism, which subjects markets and political authority to centralized state control, Europe’s social-market economy places democratic choice, social protection, and the rule of law at the center of economic life," the HEC Paris EU law professor explains.
He emphasizes that the Trump administration’s hostility toward the EU is not about individual regulations. It is about opposition to a system in which workers have a voice through collective decision-making, universal health care and education are rights, and antitrust law protects competition instead of supporting state-backed or politically connected firms.
Alemanno points out that multinational firms seeking access to it have no choice but to adapt to European rules, enabling the EU to set the terms of global competition.
In the author’s view, the intense opposition it receives is evidence of its success: it has become a force others must confront rather than dismiss.
"The numbers speak for themselves. The EU’s major economies match or exceed US productivity per hour worked, enjoy higher life expectancy, and have far lower income inequality. Quality-of-life rankings consistently place European cities such as Vienna and Copenhagen ahead of their American counterparts," the HEC Paris professor writes.
He adds that Europe has absorbed millions of migrants without undermining social cohesion.
"Taken together, these features help explain why authoritarian regimes view the EU as a threat and why profit-maximizing companies regard it as constraining. What the bloc lacks is not institutional capacity, but the political will to defend its model and complete the process of European integration," the author emphasizes.
Undoubtedly, Europe faces serious challenge. EU policymakers have converged on a single diagnosis: over-regulation.
"The logic behind this regulatory rollback is straightforward: in a world dominated by the United States and China, Europe must abandon its social-market model to stay competitive," the law professor writes.
At the same time, he considers this path mistaken.
"But that reasoning mistakes success for failure. Europe cannot simply imitate America or China, given that it lacks the former’s financial and military dominance and the latter’s centralized control over labor and capital," the HEC Paris scholar explains.