EU-US Summit to seek united front to global crises

By Vatican News

The EU-US summit in Washington takes place against a dramatic backdrop of global crises – with the continuing escalation of war in the Holy Land, after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel almost 2 weeks ago, and as fighting rages on in Ukraine.

Welcoming Charles Michel, President of the European Council and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in Washington on Friday, Biden will be keen to present a united front as the world looks to prevent the involvement of other nations and avoid a potential second front in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Both Biden and von der Leyen made trips to Israel this week. While Biden voiced his support for the Israeli people and negotiated a deal to allow limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, von der Leyen called on the EU to intensify efforts to protect civilians living in the Gaza Strip.

Observers predict the leaders will try to convey a united stance of support for Israel, however, some EU member states already expressed anger for von der Leyen’s trip and accuse her of overstepping her boundaries by speaking on the bloc’s behalf.

Notwithstanding the EU’s apparent inability to formulate a united stance on the conflict, the leaders uphold what they call their “strategic partnership” and agree on the need to find a united front in order to, in von der Leyen’s words  “shelter their democracies.”

In the past days, the EU Commission President drew parallels between Russia’s war in Ukraine and Hamas’s assault on Israel noting that “these two crises, however different, call on Europe and America to “stand together” and “redouble efforts, on both sides of the Atlantic, to ensure that this conflict does not spill outside of its borders.” (Source AP and other agencies)