EU MEP rejects Trump’s threats over EU-US trade deal

Written by journalist Danylo Aleksandrov

Bernd Lange, who is a lead member of the European Parliament in regards to EU-US trade deal, rejected recent threats by US President Donald Trump, emphasizing that European Union will not abandon its democratic procedures to implement the deal faster.

On Friday Bernd Lange, German MEP, who is the leader from the European side in talks about trade deal with US, came to the defense of EU’s procedures, which are required to approve the agreement. He underlined, that this is necessary, as upholding the rule of law and democratic procedures is one of the principles of the EU, rejecting the notion that Europe is too slow in the talks.

Lange’s remark comes after Donald Trump made a social media post in which he urged EU to cut its tariffs on US goods to zero as was previously agreed in 2025. He set the deadline as 4th of July – the USA Independence Day. Before that he made new threats against the bloc such as by raising tariffs to 25% from the 15% set by the agreement.

Despite this, the bilateral talks continue. Currently, there are debates in the European Parliament regarding potential safeguards which will be a part of the trade deal. A new round of bilateral negotiations is expected to take place on 19th of May.