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EU says issues 'much broader' than sub row

Andrea ShalalAAP
EU official Thierry Breton says US spying on the German chancellor's phone also caused resentment.
Camera IconEU official Thierry Breton says US spying on the German chancellor's phone also caused resentment. Credit: EPA

Strains in trans-Atlantic ties have been building for years and cannot be reduced to just frustration over Australia scrapping a $A90 billion submarine deal with France, the European Commission's industry commissioner Thierry Breton says.

Breton said many politicians and citizens across Europe shared a "growing feeling... that something is broken in our trans-Atlantic relations" after a series of surprises from US President Joe Biden's administration in recent months.

"This feeling is unfortunately increasing," he told reporters in Washington DC.

"It's not right to think it is just because of what happened last week. It's much broader than that."

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Breton said European Union leaders would decide, possibly this week, whether to proceed with the inaugural meeting of a new US-EU Trade and Technology Council in Pittsburgh on September 29, a gathering that was trumpeted as a major advance in the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Germany joined France on Tuesday in berating the United States for negotiating a security pact in secret with Australia and the United Kingdom that cost Paris the lucrative submarine deal.

EU ambassadors have postponed preparations for the Pittsburgh meeting, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the actions of the US were not acceptable.

Breton, underscoring the importance of rebuilding trust, said he would proceed with talks with top US officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, during his visit to the United States.

Issues to be discussed include the COVID-19 response and joint efforts to boost semiconductor production.

He welcomed a US decision to ease travel restrictions on fully vaccinated people but noted that he learned about it exactly half an hour before meeting with Jeff Zients, who leads the White House's COVID-19 response team.

Breton also cautioned against reading too much into any possible postponement of the US-EU meeting, saying next week's event was not expected to produce significant results.

He said the EU's frustrations had been fuelled by the Biden administration's failure to communicate about the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, its continuation of travel restrictions established under former president Donald Trump and last week's deal with the UK and Australia.

But the roots went deeper, dating back to US wiretaps on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone and four years of the Trump administration's Europe bashing, he said.

"It is one event after another," he said.

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