Hello and happy Friday!
Owen Morgan here, Euractiv’s associate editor. This is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of this week in news – where you decide which is which.
Let’s dive in with a story that was, at various points this week, all three of the above:
Trump turns tail on tariffs
Did you buy the dip? Why not? Donald literally told you to.
Europe's week began as the last ended: scratching its collective head with seemingly no way out of the “sticky situation” the US had placed it in.
A tit-for-tat trade war looked inevitable – only for Trump to hit the most screeching U-turn in modern political history after global markets cratered under his tariffs.
'Reciprocal' levies against everyone except China were paused – sort of (there’s still a blanket 10% duty). The markets 'reciprocated’ and recovered. The EU then produced a ‘reciprocal’ pause of its just-agreed retaliatory measures. Euractiv's indefatigable Tom Moller-Nielsen took the temperature around Europe as it woke to Thursday’s news that the actual definition of ‘reciprocity’ no longer matters.
Next up: negotiations. The EU’s once-rejected zero-for-zero deal seems back on the table.
But the question endures: How can Europe get through to Trump? It looks like he listens to the markets, but will he listen to Giorgia ‘Il Ponte’ Meloni when she visits DC next week?
European savers and spenders alike should get some respite now. But the volatility of it all got our Magnus Lund Nielsen thinking: Is it now or never for Eurobonds?
'GroKo' is a go-go
The other big news this week came from Germany: Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats finalised a coalition deal with the Social Democrats.
It means Merz should become chancellor in early May. But his party won’t feel like celebrating after the far-right AfD topped a reputable poll this week.
There’s plenty to be said on what the deal means for the EU. Three pieces of essential reading crossed my desk out of Berlin this week:
Nick Alipour told you he saw white smoke before almost anyone else in English-language media – then took us through a coalition deal notable for its modest ambition, including on Europe.
Bryn Stole previewed who’s in line for which top jobs – and which new faces we’ll need to get used to seeing here in Brussels.
And Matt Karnitschnig posed a question we’ll no doubt tire of asking as Olaf Scholz’s lame duck government limps on for another month: What is Germany waiting for?
Europe’s crisis responders
Trump still expects Europe to eventually put peacekeeping boots on the ground in Ukraine. But as our chief diplomatic correspondent learned, it won’t be the boots of the EU’s fledgling crisis response force.
The bloc is building a 5,000-strong ‘Rapid Deployment Capacity’, a force that's on exercises this week. While they’re not off to Ukraine any time soon – for myriad reasons – it’s not inconceivable that they’ll one day be deployed to keep shipping lanes open in the Red Sea. Or to rid the Panama Canal of an occupying brigade of MAGA volunteers – who knows?
Alexandra Brzozowski filed from inside a military plane somewhere above central Hungary, where she flew – escorted by a French-made Mirage fighter jet – to watch the troops train. Hers is a tough beat, but someone’s gotta cover it.
Read more.
Fico’s really done it this time
I know it’s not for me to decide … but one could non-libellously affix some ugly epithets to Slovak premier Robert Fico.
Putin lover, democratic backslider, and – this week – bear murderer.
Two weeks ago, a man in his 50s was fatally mauled by a single grumpy grizzly. Fico’s hyperbolic response was to order the slaughter of hundreds of bears – while doing nothing at all to prevent those that survive from eating other forest walkers.
Conservationists are up in arms. Fico, as ever, is on a collision course with EU law over the plan. Natália Silenská in Bratislava explained all.
Read more.
White gold
At a rural restaurant in deepest Flanders on a sunny evening last week, my waiter offered me three specials: “asperges, asperges, en asperges.”
I went for the asperges – white asparagus, of course. But such luxuries are a spring staple for almost-Belgian associate editors. Apparently, many Germans are no longer so lucky.
Jeremias Lin has a mouth-watering feature on what’s making Germany’s favourite vegetable so expensive – and why anyone not named Merz may soon be forced to swap white for green.
Read more. | 