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EU officials are analysing hundreds of executive orders and sanctions imposed by US President Joe Biden amid growing concern that Donald Trump will rescind them, potentially upending foreign relations and trade.
Brussels is worried that Trump could seek to overturn his predecessor’s decisions simply because they were taken by Biden, without much consideration about the impact of such moves on European allies.
Senior European Commission officials have ordered a review of Biden’s orders — which range from sanctions against Russia to trade and cyber security — to work out which reversals could have the biggest impact on the bloc or undermine its own measures, according to three people briefed on the initiative.
The hurry before Trump’s inauguration on January 20 underscores the EU’s insecurity over the potential actions of president-elect when he returns to the White House, following threats he has already made against close US allies.
In recent days, Trump refused to rule out using military force or imposing tariffs on Denmark to force it to sell Greenland. He has also suggested Canada should become part of the US, as well as the Panama Canal.
The EU’s biggest concern is that Trump reverses Biden’s multiple executive orders that imposed sanctions on Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022, the officials said. The bloc’s officials hope Trump will keep those sanctions in place to use as potential leverage in any possible negotiations with Moscow over a ceasefire.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team said the president-elect had won a “resounding mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail and disrupt the status quo in Washington”.
The commission last summer set up an internal team of senior officials to strategise potential impacts of a second Trump presidency and how to contain or respond to them.
That has largely focused on issues such as potential trade conflicts, reduced US support for Ukraine, and a possible shift in Washington’s commitment to European defence and security.
Executive orders are only issued by presidents, and can be revoked at any time. It is typical for a new president to review existing orders soon after taking office. In 2017, Trump rolled back the Cuba thaw enacted by his then-predecessor, Barack Obama, and pulled out of the Paris climate accord. A year later, he ended the US’s participation in a nuclear deal with Iran brokered by the Obama administration.
“The concern is he decides to reverse things just because Biden had done them,” said one of the people. “We need to know how that could affect us.”
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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