NEW YORK, January 29. /TASS/. The European Union no longer considers the United States as a guarantor of peace and prosperity for Europe, so the EU will have to change and find new opportunities to respond to the challenges it faces, Bloomberg columnist Jorge Valero believes.

"The EU is at a turning point. China has become a systemic rival and the US is no longer seen as a reliable guarantor of Europe's peace and prosperity - even if Donald Trump doesn't win the presidential election in November," the journalist argues. The changing foreign policy environment "is pushing the bloc to reinvent itself and find ways of imposing its economic and political weight on an increasingly polarized world stage," he writes.

The columnist also notes that the new head of the European Commission would have to face much more challenges than the predecessor. New challenges for the community include the difficulty of providing further support to Kiev and resolving the Middle East conflict, simultaneous pressure on the EU from the US and China, as well as the community's toxic dependencies on energy and minerals needed to make the transition to a green and digital economy. "Finite funding and the challenges of rolling out climate initiatives and Covid-recovery programs make internal conflict all but guaranteed," he warns.

Earlier, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde called the possible victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections in 2024 a threat to Europe.