EUROPEAN UNION foreign ministers called for closer military co-operation within the “superpower” bloc yesterday in response to Donald Trump’s election.

The 28 ministers at the Brussels summit met their defence counterparts later to discuss co-operation with Nato after the United States president-elect suggested Washington could abandon its commitments to the imperialist alliance.

“The European Union is a superpower,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini declared.

She insisted there was no talk of an “EU army” but “a European Union security and defence that becomes more credible than it is today, more effective than it is today.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: “We are in an uncertain world, and it has not started with the election of Mr Trump.

“But Europe must not wait for others’ decisions, it must defend its own interests … at the same time reaffirming its strategic role on the global level.”

On Sunday British former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg told LBC radio that Britain should seek closer defence ties with the EU despite voting to leave it, adding: “An isolationist US president is really bad for Europe.”

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was more upbeat, calling Mr Trump’s presidency a “moment of opportunity.”

Last week European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker derided Mr Trump’s foreign-policy acumen, saying: “We will need to teach the president-elect what Europe is and how it works.”

But on Sunday Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said: “Regardless of whether we see Donald Trump as a person who is not an angel, he isn’t a child with special needs either.”

The summit resolved to slap sanctions on 17 senior Syrian government officials and the central bank governor. It also backed closer ties with the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Mr Trump has pledged to defuse tensions with Russia and work with President Vladimir Putin to defeat foreign terrorists in Syria.

Left Leave campaigner Alex Gordon said Ms Mogherini’s comments validated the group’s criticisms of the EU.

“We said the EU was one of the three pillars of global imperialism, along with the IMF and Nato,” he said.

“Now that Hillary Clinton’s neocons in the State Department are all looking for new jobs, Federica Mogherini and the EU are the last remaining stronghold of neoconservatism in geopolitics.

“This has got nothing to do with any threat posed by Russia.

“It is due to the deep, irreconcilable tensions within the European political union itself and in particular the ambitions of some in the EU for a role in pushing Europe’s borders further east, destabilising Ukraine and Belarus and ramping up Russophobia.”