The call, made in his final State of the Union speech by the European Commission president who will step down next year, reflected European concern over Trump's weaponization of the dollar.
Jean-Claude Juncker has vowed to make the euro a global reserve currency that can rival the dollar as part of the European Union's efforts to reduce its financial dependence on the United States.
In his final State of the Union address to MEPs in Strasbourg yesterday, the president of the European Commission said more than 80% of the EU's energy imports were paid for in dollars, although only 2% were imported from the US, this situation is abnormal.Most of the dollar-denominated imports come from Russia and the Gulf countries.
We must change this.The euro must be an active instrument of a new sovereign Europe, Juncker said.His five-year term as chairman ends next year.
He also called on member states to end the divisions that hamper the EU's ability to exert its collective power on the international stage.It is time to end the sad situation of division of opinion in Europe, Juncker said.Our continent deserves better.
A senior EU official said the European Commission's move would include encouraging the European Central Bank (ECB) to push for a single currency.
The move reflects European concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump's weaponization of the dollar as a foreign policy tool to punish U.S. rivals.The White House has threatened to kick European companies out of the U.S. financial system for flouting new sanctions on Iran.
Some EU diplomats say the rift over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. withdrew from but Europe wants to keep, is a salutary lesson from dollar dominance.
The European Union says it will switch to paying for oil imports from Iran in euros this year.Germany's foreign minister proposed last month that Europe should set up an international payment system to rival the dollar in order to preserve the nuclear deal with Tehran.
In a global economy dominated by the dollar, promoting the use of the euro may be difficult.The ECB insists it is neutral on the single currency's international role as a reserve currency.But European diplomats say the fact that the Bank of England holds record amounts of euro assets in foreign exchange reserves is a sign of growing confidence in the euro among global investors.
The euro can no longer be neutral, the aforementioned senior EU official added.
Juncker's call was part of an overall effort to push EU governments to face the world as a single bloc.He warned that the requirement for unanimity in foreign policy decisions was undermining Europe's credibility.
It is wrong for us in the EU to remain silent at the UN Human Rights Council when it comes to condemning human rights abuses in China - just because not all member states agree - he said.
But European governments have resisted calls to centralize foreign policy decision-making in the past and have been divided in recent years on core issues such as the response to Russia and sanctions on Venezuela.
Translator/He Li
