Towards summit with Trump, von der Leyen meets Meloni

Brussels (ANSA) – A handshake on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, a few words exchanged amidst the flow of leaders and cardinals, and a promise: Donald Trump and Ursula von der Leyen will meet soon. Having been sidelined for months by the new U.S. administration, the president of the European Commission managed to secure a brief exchange – also hoped for by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Washington – to pave the way for the first official meeting between EU leaders and the tycoon since his return to the White House.

On the table, the most urgent issues for Europe: tariffs and peace in Ukraine. The agenda and modalities of the EU-U.S. summit remain to be defined, but the possible windows before July 14 – the deadline to close the tariff issue – are several: if the negotiations on Kyiv were to accelerate, the days following May 16 – when the American president concludes his visit to Saudi Arabia and could also arrange a face-to-face with Vladimir Putin – could represent a favorable moment for a first confrontation with von der Leyen and a new conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky.

June will then offer two new opportunities: the G7 summit in Canada and the NATO summit in The Hague. Von der Leyen broke the silence immediately after the Pope’s funeral by posting on X the photo of the long-awaited handshake with Trump and another shot depicting her with Emmanuel Macron. All labeled as “positive exchanges.” But the strongest message towards the White House had already arrived a few minutes earlier, in the wake of the tribute to Pope Francis.

The Pope “built bridges, now let’s walk them,” wrote the EU president, aware that the distance to be bridged with the other side of the Atlantic is still wide. As proof, from Washington, Valdis Dombrovskis described a still uphill battle on tariffs. The negotiations “continue, but there is much to be done,” the EU’s Economy chief admitted repeatedly, emphasizing the 90 days to avoid a trade war and the need to act quickly as time “runs.”

The last meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not yield progress, and for now, Dombrovskis emphasized, “the situation is asymmetrical”: U.S. tariffs have already hit aluminum, steel, and European cars while the continent is still holding its fire (April 26).