EU Parliament president urges Germany to do deal in US drug pricing dispute

Por Stefanie Bolzen — Sustainability – POLITICO

NEW YORK — The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, says Germany should seek a deal with the Trump administration to resolve their trade dispute over drug pricing.

“If you don’t talk directly and reach a deal — the art of the deal — then the consequences might be more difficult to swallow. So my advice to anyone would be: Just try to find it,” she said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is currently investigating Germany’s drug pricing policies, accusing it of “persistent underpayment” for pharmaceutical products.

In a hearing this week in Washington, a clear majority of witnesses supported this claim. The investigation could ultimately provide the legal justification for Trump to impose new tariffs on German exports.

Metsola advocated for a compromise between Washington and Berlin to avoid “an impossible race on drugs.” Europe could “still lead in pharmaceuticals,” she said. But the bloc has to become “much more agile, not only in pricing but also in terms of clinical trials and bringing new products on the market.”

The center-right European People’s Party politician, a member of the EU Parliament since 2013, serves in a role akin to that of the Speaker of the House in the U.S.

A deal is a deal

While Metsola backed negotiations over confrontation with the Trump White House, she also sent a clear warning to the U.S. government, suggesting any tariff increase on German goods would potentially violate the 15% tariff ceiling agreed in the deal that President Donald Trump struck with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland, last year.

Metsola pointed to a suspension clause the European Parliament had forced into the trade deal, warning that “there are legal consequences” if the Trump administration targets individual EU countries. “The agreement we voted on already foresaw that,” she said.

She repeated this warning regarding U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives. Under the Turnberry agreement, the U.S. must bring its high steel and aluminum derivative tariffs into line with a 15% tariff ceiling agreed to in Turnberry by the end of the year. Non-compliance by the U.S. side “would be a trigger alert” for the suspension clause, Metsola said.

Digital sovereignty

In a speech on the sidelines of the assembly on Tuesday, the Maltese politician called for “guardrails” for artificial intelligence, a hot-button issue in Washington at the moment after leaders of top American AI firms called for a slowdown in development of some of the most cutting-edge technologies.

Asked if regulating AI risked Europe losing the competition against the U.S. and China, Metsola said: “I remain convinced that the race is not between the EU and the U.S. It is between democratic AI and autocratic AI. The EU and America have to be together in this race.”

At the same time, Metsola rejected doubts about the bloc’s digital sovereignty. “We depend on U.S. tech. But U.S. tech depends on the EU market. This is what I think we don’t have in the conversation when tech leaders come to Europe and say: ‘We want to have a common market.’”

European lawmakers from across the political spectrum are currently pushing to extend the EU’s cornerstone AI Act to cover liability for U.S. tech giants whose cutting-edge models threaten global safety . Metsola seemed to support this initiative. “We should listen to the leaders of those AI models that themselves are saying to be careful and they themselves are calling for guardrails.” She pointed to the EU’s Digital Services Act as a potential “platform” for a future liability mechanism.

Triangular trade

While China’s President Xi meets with Trump in Washington this week, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is about to head to China. By mid-October, the bloc wants to reach an agreement with Beijing for better market access for European companies, Chinese government action on trade imbalances and overcapacity and greater certainty on critical raw materials.

“We cannot afford to become a continent that is just a consumer continent,” Metsola insisted regarding EU-China relations. The EU needs an “honest,” “strong” and “self-confident” conversation with Beijing, she said.

Metsola said the bloc had taken a similarly strong and self-confident stance in the crisis around Trump’s threats to annex Greenland at the beginning of 2026, and also when von der Leyen last week invited Canada to become an associate member.

But despite strong ties with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his country, crucial elements of bilateral agreements are still in limbo. Metsola called on the 10 remaining EU countries that have not ratified the decade-old CETA free-trade deal between the European Union and Canada to finally do so.

The leaders of the EU and Canada are expected to hold a summit in Montreal in October, where both sides are aiming to seal a Digital Trade Agreement. Metsola dismissed concerns over the absence of dedicated AI provisions. “The idea of having separate chapters on AI would be akin to having chapters on the internet in the past,” she said, arguing that the technology will permeate every aspect of economic activity.

Recently, Metsola’s center-right EPP has repeatedly relied on support from right-wing groups to pass legislation, drawing sharp criticism from Socialists and Greens. Metsola declined to give a direct answer when asked whether she wanted the EPP to rule out future alliances with hard-right parties such as Germany’s AfD and France’s Rassemblement National.

“I am a proper centrist,” she said. “I have always believed that majorities should be built from the center outwards. That gives you a stronger mandate when negotiating with the Council.” There would be votes in the future “that will depend on different majorities,” she added. “I’m the president, I represent all the members. I just want predictability and stability.”

At the beginning of 2027, Metsola is expected to run for a third consecutive term as president of the European Parliament, but she did not confirm this to POLITICO. Asked if she had any ambitions to eventually run for president of the European Commission, Metsola said: “It is the honor of a lifetime and the responsibility of a lifetime to run this parliament. It’s not easy. So I focus on that.”

Fonte: Sustainability – POLITICO