According to some reports in 2024: EU GDP growth is even lower than India's and only reaches 1%, while the US reaches 2.1%, and China, despite many difficulties and challenges, still exceeds expectations by nearly 5%. That shows that the old continent is facing many problems in the region, from economic instability to geopolitical instability. So they can hardly compete with China's explosive growth, let alone compete with the US.
In addition, they are limited and too dependent on the US from military to economic. So as long as they are dependent, they will not be able to get ahead of the US. Only China and the United States are worthy opponents, let's wait and see who will be the final winner.
That's certainly true, mate. But I've read that some european countries are planning to increase defense (military) spending as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. If they do that, the EU might no longer need to depend on the US militarily. Probably even economic, too (if the EU makes strong ties with allied countries and even China itself).
With Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policy, countries will steer away from the US and do business elsewhere. The EU seems like a good candidate. It'll be a radical shift in global trade that will take years to materialize. We're now headed into economic uncertainty, so anything can happen in the long run.