No Mrs May, we don’t want your bridge to Trump

However it’s reported she’s also been dealing with concerns over the President’s perceived hostility to the European Union and the executive order banning travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

In a lighter moment after lunch, asked to choose who the greatest threat to the EU was, Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, EU Commission chief Jean Claude Juncker replied: “Me”. “It is as simple as that”, Hollande said. “Maybe the best evidence that we are together in this context was the fact that some of my colleagues used a new nickname for me, spontaneously, which is “Our Donald” compared to the new president of the United States”.

In a related development, Austrian Chancellor, Christian Kern, said at the sidelines of an European Union summit in Malta that Trump’s travel ban and halt to refugee admissions were worrying. “But now he has delivered enough actions that are worrying”.

Referring to the EU-Turkey deal agreed in March past year, which sought a dramatic decline in the flaws of immigration along the Aegean route, Merkel said migrants to Europe can not go through smugglers, but through agreements. “I’m convinced that there will be a high degree of unanimity [among European Union leaders] on this question”, Kern went on to say. However, during Mrs May’s Washington visit, she spoke of his “100% commitment” to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. And we are committing even more today to working with all our partners in the region, especially our Arab friends, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.

Tusk also said “worrying declarations” by Trump were part of a set of external threats.

May will attend part of an informal summit of European Union leaders in Malta which is officially scheduled to discuss migration into the bloc from countries like Libya.

“We have our destiny in our own hands”.A letter, co-signed by the centre-right EPP and the liberal Alde group, said his appointment as USA ambassador to could seriously undermine transatlantic relations.Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that “Trump must be judged by his actions and not by his rhetoric and his election campaign”. “If not, there will be – in my opinion – no Europe and not necessarily any way for each of the countries to be able to exert an influence in the world”. “The EU has a global role to play”.

But Merkel said that this is an opportunity for Europe to redefine itself and become more self-reliant.

But of course Trump has already voiced his low opinion of Nato, describing it as obsolete, and he has said that the U.S. would only come to the aid of a Nato ally, as the country is obliged to do under Article 5 of the treaty, if the ally under attack had made the required payments to the alliance, which few European countries do.

As the European Union leaders boarded a luxury yacht to cross Malta’s historic harbour to their lunch venue, rescue ships off Libya saved hundreds more people including babies from rickety boats.

On Thursday, other leading members of the European Parliament opposed the expected appointment of Ted Malloch as the new American ambassador to the EU.