DISINFO: Europe has lost its independence and completely submitted to an American dictatorship
SUMMARY
Europe has lost its independence. The European Union has completely submitted to American dictatorship. The apotheosis was the recently signed joint declaration between NATO and the European Union. NATO and the EU declared themselves "an alliance of democracies against autocracies", that is, they proclaimed a deliberately confrontational agenda to the whole world. NATO and the EU intend to use all political, economic, and military means in "the interests of the golden billion citizens of NATO and the European Union."
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the alleged lost sovereignty of the EU and its member states (more examples). Pro-Kremlin outlets often portray European states as vassals, puppet states or colonies of the US and NATO.
Contrary to the claim, the European Union is a sovereign entity created by the voluntary initiative of European nations and it has its own, independent foreign policy, while the US has no say in its decisions.
EU Member States are sovereign countries and make sovereign decisions about their own internal, economic, foreign and security policies. The European Union is explicit on the subject of national sovereignty: “the Member States all remain sovereign and independent states, they have decided to pool some of their 'sovereignty' in areas where it makes sense to work together.”
The US is an important ally to the EU but EU policy is not determined by the US.
On 10 January 2023, the EU and NATO signed a Joint Declaration on Cooperation – this Declaration underlined a NATO-EU strategic partnership, condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine and presented NATO as a foundation of the European and American collective defence. The EU-NATO Cooperation Declaration is aimed at strengthening the mechanism of collective defence – this document does not assume any aggressive actions against Russia. The agreement is not about NATO’s attempt to rule over the EU either, since the members of these international organisations are mostly similar.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that EU and NATO member states are subordinate to the US, while the US has long regarded the EU as a kind of protectorate, that lined up with the US, the EU never took independent decisions, that Europe is a colony of the United States, that When the US orders, the EU complies, and that the EU-NATO agreement aims to weaken the EU.