EU Council President Says Bloc Has ‘Turned the Page’ With Trump

Tariffs, tech, and defense spending have all proved to be trans-Atlantic challenges, but António Costa said relations were warming.

European Council President António Costa (L) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) in The Hague on June 24, 2025. John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

European Council President António Costa said that the EU had “turned the page” with U.S. President Donald Trump, in remarks reported on Sept. 8.

The European Council defines the European Union’s overall political direction and priorities; it does not, however, negotiate or adopt the laws that govern the bloc, with those duties falling to the European Commission and European Parliament.

“If you look back nine months ago, in January, everybody was really afraid, especially about our relations with the United States,” Costa said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“Over the last nine months, we managed to stabilize the transatlantic relations.

“If you remember his first declarations about the European Union, it seems as if it was something that happened 10 years ago.

“But now I think we have turned the page, and now we need to build upon this new stability and look forward to continuing our relationship with the United States.”

Tariffs, tech laws, and defense spending have all proved to be wedge issues in trans-Atlantic discourse since Trump returned to the Oval Office in 2025.

On Sept. 5, the European Commission, which acts as the bloc’s executive branch, fined Google $3.5 billion for violating EU antitrust rules by disrupting competition in the advertising technology industry.

In its investigation of the California-based tech giant, EU regulators found that Google dominated the market for publisher ad servers and ad buying tools on the internet with its DoubleClick for Publishers ad manager, Google Ads, and display and video services, also known as DV360.

In its ruling, the European Commission ordered Google to cease these “self-preferencing practices.” It also instructed the company to adopt measures to eliminate its inherent conflicts of interest along the ad-tech supply chain.

This move provoked a stern rebuke from Trump, who threatened to initiate a trade investigation to “nullify” the EU’s fines.

In a Truth Social post on the same day that the ruling from Brussels was announced, Trump said he would initiate a Section 301 probe to eliminate what he calls “unfair penalties” on U.S. companies.

“We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies,” he said on his social media platform.

The Trade Act of 1974 contains a provision—Section 301—allowing the U.S. government to probe and respond to foreign trade practices that officials consider discriminatory against domestic commerce.

Despite these differences on tech regulation, Costa insisted that relations were still improving, saying, “Friends don’t always agree on everything.”

Costa also said that the EU’s preparation of new sanctions against Russia is being closely coordinated with the United States.

His remarks follow Trump’s comments on Sept. 7 that he is ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia, and that individual European leaders would visit the United States on Sept. 8 or Sept. 9 to discuss how to resolve the Russia–Ukraine war.

Costa’s optimism for the relationship was reflected by comments made by Maros Sefcovic, EU commissioner for trade and economic security, on Sept. 6, when he welcomed an executive order signed by Trump that paved the way to lower levies on European car exports to the United States.

“I welcome the EO as a crucial step in implementing the EU–US Joint Statement,” Sefcovic wrote on X.

“It paves the way for car and parts tariffs to drop to 15 percent and secures key exemptions from the 15 percent cap.”

In August, the United States and the EU published details of a trade framework that caps most U.S. tariffs on European exports at 15 percent and commits the bloc to massive new purchases of U.S. energy, technology, and defense equipment.

However, certain aspects of the deal, including the part relating to automobiles, have yet to be implemented, meaning that cars made in the EU are still subject to 27.5 percent import duties in the United States, its second-largest export market for vehicles after the UK.

Andrew Moran, Wesley Brown, and Reuters contributed to this report.