Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to ‘reset’ friendly ties with the newly elected EU leaders and put an end to the tensions between the US and the EU that arose after Donald Trump became president, Reuters reported. 

The meetings that Pompeo held with the four new EU leaders on Monday and Tuesday were excellent. Pompeo did not meet with the current leadership of the European Union, which will soon resign.

“The secretary made this trip solely and exclusively to see the four EU leaders with the objective of resetting our relationship,” U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said. “Our relationship had reached multiple impasses on multiple fronts and resulted in a lot of uncomfortable, cranky conversations,” he said, saying Trump endorsed Pompeo’s trip.

The fact that President Trump at one time supported Brexit and for some time lowered the status of the EU representation in Washington, his contempt for Brussels and the withdrawal from the agreements supported by the EU, has spoiled traditionally good relations between the allies. The meetings held by Pompeo signal a change in this approach. At the end of 2018, Pompeo, speaking in Brussels, warned that Trump’s “America First” policy was to change the traditional system that developed in the world after World War II - and change it in favor of sovereign states, rather than entities like the EU.

However, according to Sondland, the new team of EU leaders, the newly elected heads of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council, are used to the leadership style of Donald Trump and are ready to work with him. “There’s a recognition that we share the same objective but we have different tactics,” Sondland said.

Pompeo met with the new President of the European Commission, German Ursula von der Leyen, the new EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, the Belgian Charles Michel, who will lead the summits held within the EU and the new European Parliament Speaker, David Sassoli. They will begin work in November-December. Sondland also hoped that all four new EU leaders would soon meet with Trump at the White House.