Trump chaos helps Brussels sell more EU debt

Brussels' sales pitch goes like this: The EU's slow, consensus-driven decision-making is a bastion of stability in a Trumpian world that's upended the global order. You can buy into that stability by investing in eurobonds.

The pitch is working. Money managers from the U.K., Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Oceania snapped up 43 percent of the eurobonds that the Commission put up for auction since the start of 2026, according to data seen by POLITICO.

That's an increase of 8 percentage points from the average of the last six years, putting the EU's budget commissioner, Piotr Serafin, in a favorable position ahead of his road show in mid-April to sell eurobonds to investors based in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The Commission issued €52 billion in bonds since the start of 2026, up from €44 billion in the same period in 2025.

"There is growing demand for 'Europe,' for its alignment with the respect of the rules-based international order and values. And hence the increased demand for EU bonds," a senior EU official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told POLITICO.

The eurozone's bailout fund and its predecessor -- the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism -- have encountered a similar trend. They have jointly issued €566 billion since 2010 and sold record levels of debt to non-EU countries in 2025, according to ESM data presented in January.

Since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, central banks, governments, and international investors have sold more than $80 billion net in U.S. Treasurys. On the other side of the Atlantic, the EU is harnessing these events to burnish its credentials as a safe haven for worried foreign investors.

"EU leaders have been pushing that Europe is predictable in terms of its policy, and that in today's current, global geopolitical environment, that is something that a lot of investors and market participants will pick up on," said Ken Egan from the KBRA credit rating agency.