The wake up call that shook Europe: What J.D. Vance’s Speech means for the Transatlantic Partnership

American President Donald Trump (left), President of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen (right), behind them is located the flag of the European Union. Source: Author.

Shocked is one word to describe the congregation of European diplomats in attendance at the Munich Security Conference last week, as American Vice President JD Vance delivered harsh ideological criticisms on the current state of the European Union (EU) and that of the continent as a whole. In what was expected to be a harrowing speech on American defense assistance helping to bring an end to the Ukraine-Russian conflict, instead what followed was a complete reversal. Standing on the podium, Vance barreled down unto his European counterparts with a long list of criticisms, all centered around this idea that for too long, the EU has deviated from the democratic values it preaches. 

Such a chastising lecture painted a grim picture of European politics: infected by speech censorship, political correctness, and limits to individual freedoms. Vance argued that such actions reflected those of a fragile democracy, setting Europe down a road of global instability. “If that wasn’t a wake-up call for Europe, I don’t know what is,” responded Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to the speech. 

What are the main talking points of Vance’s speech? 

One of Vance's criticisms, or the “greatest danger to Europe” as he put it, was the “danger from within.” What might this danger be from the American perspective? According to the Vice President, it was the undermining of free speech that signified a troubling trend of governmental overreach and the suppression of individual liberties. Vance singled out Germany as a specific example, accusing its politicians of using “ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation” to suppress alternative viewpoints that challenge established positions. He turned to populist parties such as Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) to make this point. Vance explained that the current ‘firewall,’ in place to exclude mainstream parties from engaging with the AfD, was no longer needed. Democracy, according to the Vice President, entails engaging with all segments of society;  “We do not have to agree with everything or anything people say… but when political leaders represent an important constituency it is incumbent on us to listen…” After his speech, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Wediel to cement the Trump administration’s alliance with the populist right in Europe. 

On the continuing list of his criticisms, Vance also mentioned the breakdown of legitimate democratic institutions within the European continent. As an example, the Vice President turned to the 2024 Romanian presidential election, recently annulled based on reports of Russian interference. He criticized European officials’ approach to electoral integrity in this regard, arguing that democratic systems should be robust enough to withstand any external influence attempts. Similarly, Vance compared the annulment to what he perceived as Soviet-era practices, mentioning that “if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertisement from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.” It was the EU, in Vance’s eyes, who placed enormous pressure on Romania to annul the elections in the first place, wiping out any legitimacy derived from Romanian voters. Vance painted the picture of a continent that had lost its way, a continent that was running in fear from its own voters.

In a conference largely dedicated to outlining defense policies within the transatlantic partnership, the ‘defense’ objective was sorely lacking but nonetheless mentioned in the form of a question. Vance addressed that NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) had been founded as a result of the Cold War as an expression of U.S. determination to defend shared Western values, but if those values were no longer shared, then the moral purpose of the alliance has fallen away. This message was implicit but clear: the US hesitancy with Europe as it exists now is not about things like burden-sharing within defense or tariffs, but about an unsettling ideological fissure between the US and Europe. 

The European response and the future of US-EU relations? 

To EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the ‘erupt coldness’ from Washington came as a surprise, especially given the historic transatlantic partnership between the United States and Europe. “Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to pick a fight with our friends,” replied Kallas at the Munich event. Europe and the United States have long been intertwined in a beneficial partnership, a marriage that has endured various global conflicts. In 1953, the predecessor to the EU, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), initiated diplomatic relations with the US, in which delegations were sent by both parties, one to Washington D.C and the other to Brussels. In 1990, the EU formalized its relations with the US with the adoption of the Transatlantic Declaration, a document that enabled regular political cooperation on areas of economy, education, science and culture. Since then, the two often work together in global trade and military action, specifically under NATO. 

Under the first Trump administration, there was already uncertainty with the long-term predictability of US foreign policy. From 2017-2021, a deepening of contradictions between trade, climate action, and an adherence to transatlantic policies led to a profound damage in relations between the US and the EU. While these did improve under former-President Joe Biden in 2020 with a joint agenda focusing on climate change, the speech recently given by Vance was “significantly worse than expected,” according to Prime Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden. 

Vance’s argument is not totally invalid. If anything, it serves as a much-needed wake-up call to Europe. The European Union as an institution is a slow-moving machine, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the late 19th-century, a conglomerate of different states, ethnicities, and languages; not too different from the current-day union. The EU has always hid behind the US in major policy changes, in spending, and in leading foreign policy. Even though the speech was met with widespread shock and condemnation by European leaders, this is not anything new. For years, European officials have been describing major geopolitical shocks during the Trump presidency as a wake-up call for Europe to take its own security seriously. These rousing calls to action have not been followed by any meaningful action. 

While relations between the US and EU are increasingly tense, one thing is clear: J.D. Vance made it known that Europe shouldn’t count on the U.S. as a partner if it fails to address migration and threats to free speech. So far, this has caused immediate action from European politicians. Just days after the Munich Security Conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rolled out a new proposal to boost EU defense spending. Similarly, French President Emmanuel Macron initiated a hurried conference among European member states to discuss the outcome of the conference. 

Although this response is expected, it still begs a pressing question: Since the rise of President Donald Trump a decade ago, is today the day that Europe stops hitting the snooze button on increasingly fraught relations?