MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Russia’s permanent representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov has said that relations between the EU and the United States are far from being cloudless.

"Sometimes the European Union is capable of generating its own initiatives, and the EU-US relations are far from cloudless. This is so even now, in the context of renaissance of trans-Atlantic cooperation following the Joe Biden’s administration rise to power. They have problems in trade and in many other spheres," he told an online briefing on Tuesday. 

For instance, quite telling was France’s reaction, supported by the European Union, to the United States "recent escapade" on the Australian track. In September, Australia made a decision to drop cooperation with France in building nuclear-powered submarines in favor of making them at home in exchange for technologies and knowhow within the framework of a new trilateral partnership with the United States and Britain. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the conclusion of this agreement undermined trust and was a stab in the back.

Chizhov called for remembering that the EU was not a super-state or a super-federation, but a voluntary union of sovereign states, and the degree of their influence varied.

"The EU member-states are different in terms of influence and status. There are some European heavyweights that will never agree to cede their powers to any bureaucrat," he said.