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Lisbon (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande urged Europe to form a united front and provide a "firm" response to US President Donald Trump, at a gathering Saturday of southern European Union leaders.

"We must conduct firm dialogue with the new American administration which has shown it has its own approach to the problems we all face," he said at the end of the gathering as he was flanked by the other leaders who took part.

Trump has rattled America's traditional European allies with a range of radical policy plans.

He has called NATO "obsolete", announced he would rip up a planned transatlantic trade plan and supported Britain's move to leave the EU, praising the decision as "a wonderful thing" during a meeting Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

On Friday he also signed a sweeping executive order to suspend the arrival of refugees and impose tough controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries.

During his first phone conversation with Trump late Saturday, Hollande stressed the "economic and political consequences of a protectionist approach", adding that the principle of "acceptance of refugees" should be respected.

"Faced with an unstable and uncertain world, withdrawal into oneself is a dead-end response," Hollande was quoted as saying in an Elysee Palace statement.

Hollande had earlier told the gathering that "when he adopts protectionist measures, which could destabilise economies not just in Europe but the economies of the main countries of the world, we have to respond".

"And when he refuses the arrival of refugees, while Europe has done its duty, we have to respond."

- Ready to cooperate with Trump -

While officially the new administration in Washington was not on the agenda, the six other European leaders who took part in the summit also alluded to Trump.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Europe was "ready, interested and willing to cooperate" with the Trump administration.

"But we are Europe, and we cherish our values," he added.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy defended the EU project, saying it had helped transform Europe into the world region with the "highest level of progress, civil rights and well being".

Also meeting in Lisbon were the leaders of Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Portugal.

The summit was a follow up to a first gathering in Athens in September 2016 as part of a push by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to create a strong southern "axis" to counter the influence of nations in northern Europe.

The group is often referred to -- sometimes dismissively -- as "Club Med", even though one of its members, Portugal, is not on the Mediterranean.

It includes some of the nations hardest hit by the financial crisis.

Portugal and Greece both needed international bailouts worth tens of billions of euros which came with demands for tough austerity measures and economic reforms.

- Boost investment -

As in the first meeting in Greece, the mostly centre-left leaders gathered in Portugal urged Brussels to do more to boost flagging growth in the bloc.

A joint declaration signed by the participating countries said the EU should boost funding for strategic investment.

"We share the urgency of promoting investment, growth, employment, with a special focus on youth employment," it read.

The Lisbon summit comes ahead of a February 3 meeting of EU leaders in Malta to look at the future of the bloc without Britain, its second-largest economy and its richest financial centre.

Rajoy said Madrid would host a third summit of southern EU nations in April.

"These countries meet informally and they have no other goal other than to work for the people of the entire European Union," he said.

The goal is not to create an "organisation" inside Europe but to act "in the service of the entire European Union," added Hollande.

The so-called Visegrad group -- made up of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland -- have also held their own meetings to present a united front.

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Hollande urges 'firm' European response to Trump - Yahoo News

Four months ago the 27 member states of the European Union who will be left standing after Brexit came together in Bratislava for a self-proclaimed unity summit that ended - somewhat predictably - in a spectacular show of disunity.

After several hours chugging down the Danube in a riverboat, the EU leaders emerged in an open squabble - Matteo Renzi, the-then prime minister of Italy, refused to share a stage with his French and German counterparts in a row over austerity, while Viktor Orban immediately denounced the EU policy on refugees as self-destructive and nave.

On Friday this week Europe will try again, gathering for another informal summit - this time in the baroque courtyards of the Grandmasters Palace in Valletta, Malta - but already it seems there is a high chance that the end result will be much the same.

Preparing the ground this week, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel...

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EU summit: Another show of disunity looms as Europe's political elite fight to keep union from tearing itself apart - Telegraph.co.uk

EDINBURGH is the Scottish city least reliant on the European Union, but 37 per cent of its exports still head into the single market.

In Glasgow, 40 per cent of its exports are into the EU, while Aberdeen is most reliant on the free trade bloc, with 61 per cent of its exports heading to EU countries.

The findings are published today in the Cities Outlook 2017 report from think tank Centre for Cities, which urged the government to prioritise a trade deal in its Brexit negotiations.

Dundee, the only other Scottish city included in the report, sent 51 per cent of its export to the EU.

The report, which uses data from 2014, showed that 48 per cent of exports from 62 cities were to EU countries. The Centre said this highlighted that a trade deal with the EU must be the governments top priority.

A separate survey from the British Chambers of Commerce found that UK companies remain committed to strong trading relationships with European customers and suppliers in spite of the Brexit vote.

The International Trade Survey, which collated the responses of almost 1,500 people in business, found three-quarters of respondents currently sell (76 per cent) and source (73 per cent) goods and services in the EU market.

The Cities Outlook report shows that British cities would have to dramatically increase trade with other international markets to compensate for a downturn in exports to the EU. For example, to make up for a ten per cent fall in exports to the EU, cities in the UK would have to nearly double exports to China, or increase exports to the US by nearly a third.

The report also found that 15 per cent of exports from Glasgow were into the US and three per cent into China. For Edinburgh, 17 per cent headed stateside and two per cent to China.

Aberdeen exported 14 per cent to the US and four per cent to China.

The value of total exports per job in Aberdeen is 18,100, ahead of Edinburgh at 14,990, Glasgow at 12,170 and Dundee at 9,940.

Commenting on the findings, Alexandra Jones, chief executive of Centre for Cities said: Securing the best possible EU trade deal will be critical for the prosperity of Scottish cities, and should be the UK Governments top priority as we prepare to leave the single market and potentially the customs union.

She added that while it is right to be ambitious about increasing exports to countries such as the US and China, the outcome of EU trade negotiations will have a much bigger impact.

She also said it was important that the government negotiates a trade agreement covering as many sectors as possible, rather than prioritising deals for high-profile industries.

The UK faces a major challenge in boosting productivity and wages, and increasing the value and volume of city exports will be crucial in addressing those issues, she said.

National and local leaders need to consider how they can make cities more attractive to exporting firms. Improving skills and infrastructure across the UK will be vital in this, and should be a central part of the governments industrial strategy.

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Capital is city least reliant on European Union - Herald Scotland

Brexit could be a big setback for nuclear energy in the United Kingdom. When the UK officially leaves the European Union, it might also be leaving the agency that oversees nuclear safety in EU member states, called Euratom, the Financial Times reports.

Quitting Euratom could interrupt the flow of nuclear fuel and ores from Europe and leave the UKs nuclear power and radioactive waste management facilities largely unregulated. The UK has 15 nuclear reactors that produce about 21 percent of its electricity. Its also home to a radioactive waste facility called Sellafield, which houses one of the worlds largest stockpiles of untreated nuclear waste.

Quitting Euratom could leave the UKs nuclear facilities largely unregulated

Right now, Europes nuclear regulatory agency, the European Atomic Energy Community, or Euratom for short, inspects those facilities to ensure they meet nuclear safety standards. Euratom also checks that nuclear infrastructure is secure against possible attacks, and that materials arent secretly being used for weapons. Leaving Euratom would mean that the UK will have to beef up its Office of Nuclear Regulation to take on those roles, according to Politico.

Its been a little more than seven months since British citizens voted to leave the European Union, a move more commonly known as Brexit. On Thursday, a bill was introduced in the British House of Commons that seeks to authorize Prime Minister Theresa May to take the first step towards actually leaving the EU. Once she starts the process, which could begin as soon as March, it will still take years for the UK to negotiate its exit terms with the remaining EU member states.

The UKs plans to leave Euratom were tucked away in the explanatory notes of that larger bill, and they might jeopardize the UKs broader energy strategy. That includes phasing out coal and building more nuclear power plants like the contentious Hinkley Point C plant that was approved in September. Now, those plans could be in limbo until new treaties are ratified.

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UK to leave European nuclear energy treaty when it Brexits - The Verge

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Heres a perfect example in which Trumps prospective newAmbassador to the European Union, Ted Malloch, tells it like it is in an interview with Andrew Neil on the BBCs Daily Politics show.

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Neil asked Malloch why on earth hed want to be Ambassador to the EU.

AN: I mean youre clearly not a great fan of Brussels or these bureaucrats like Juncker.

TM: Well, I had in a previous year a diplomatic post where I helped to bring down the Soviet Union, so maybe theres another union that needs a little taming.

Later, Neil asked Malloch what he thought of thePresident of the EU Commission.

AN: What do you think of Mr Juncker?

TM: Well Mr Juncker was a very adequate mayor of some city in Luxembourg and maybe he should go back and do that again.

Neil laughed like a man who couldnt believe his luck. Politicians are hardly ever this frank on TV politics shows. Diplomats even less so because supposedly its their job to be discreet, smooth things over, not ruffle feathers. As for the EU no one of influence, with the exception of Nigel Farage, has ever talked about it so disparagingly on television.

Yet straight-talking, EU-despising Ted Malloch is the man President Trump has chosen to represent the US in the European Union. And the reason he did this is because, as Malloch was at no pains to hide, President Trump just doesnt like the EU:

TM: He doesnt like an organisation that is supranational, that is unelected where the bureaucrats run amok and that is not frankly a proper democracy.

Theres a revolution going on here and I think even those of us who support Trump and Brexit are being taken aback by the speed of change.

Remember that the European Union was partly the creation of the USA, which saw it as a way of keeping peace in Europe by using France as a counterweight to Germany, with a reluctant Britain as the sensible intermediary. This is why successive US Presidents have colluded to prop up this corrupt, inefficient, anti-democratic institution.

Suddenly, those days are over.

The EU is finished and the new President of the USA is actively speeding its end.

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DELINGPOLE: Donald Trump is Going to Make the European Union History - Breitbart News