Talking Europe hosts Mark Gitenstein, the US ambassador to the EU and a close confidant of President Joe Biden since the 1970s. Gitenstein took up his position in Brussels a year ago, and it proved to be a baptism of fire, with the war in Ukraine starting just a few weeks into his job. We ask him about transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine and the recent tensions between Brussels and Washington in the light of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which the EU fears will put European companies at a competitive disadvantage.
Asked whether there’s appetite on both sides of the Atlantic to support Ukraine in the long term, Ambassador Gitenstein says: "I’ve talked to a lot of senators, Republicans and Democrats alike, and what I take away from those discussions, even from those who you might expect to be sceptics, is that they will continue to support this effort as long as the Ukrainians are successful on the ground. And the evidence so far has been pretty impressive. It will be difficult. Lives will be lost. There will be brutal destruction of civilian infrastructure and property. But in the end I am convinced the Ukrainians will win this, with the weapons that we're providing."
Asked if the EU should provide more military aid to Ukraine, Gitenstein says: "Without naming names, there are specific EU countries that could be doing more, I’m sure. The US is doing a huge lion's share of the military contribution, certainly, although there are other countries that are doing quite well themselves. But ultimately this comparison of who's doing what is a bit like comparing apples and oranges because it doesn't measure the energy costs that the Europeans are facing, or the impact of refugees, or the disruption that is causing in their countries. So I think the burden-sharing has been pretty equal, quite frankly, if you consider all of those factors."
Turning to the trade tensions between the US and the EU, he says: "There are some glitches in the [IRA] statute that can be fixed via regulation, and clarified by regulation. The US Internal Revenue Service has made it clear that commercial vehicles are not covered by these [US] restrictions. But we are not going to change the statute. That is not going to happen."
Gitenstein underlines that, despite some glitches, he believes that the EU's and the US's long-term interests absolutely converge. "We have to build the infrastructure on both sides of the Atlantic to assemble electric cars and assemble batteries, and get critical minerals. In the US and Europe we don't have the infrastructure to mine the critical minerals to supply the batteries. We have no choice but to develop this infrastructure if we want to get to the goal of abolishing the combustion engine by 2035. And we want to do it in a way that doesn't depend on China, which doesn't have the same values as us. If we've learned anything in the last three years, it’s that having an independent supply chain is critical to our national security."
Produced by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Perrine Desplats
