The head of the continent’s largest security forum says Europe is “completely on the sidelines” on the global stage as “wrecking ball” politics have become the norm.

The organization’s president, Wolfgang Ischinger, told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach in an interview ahead of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) that Europe’s diminished influence on the global stage was Europe’s “own fault.”

Ischinger, the former German ambassador to the United States, said: “Europe has failed to talk to China with one voice, and has failed to provide a clear concept on China’s issues with one voice, including how to deal with or not deal with the Iranian nuclear issue.”

Earlier this week, the MSC released its 2026 report, for which Isinger wrote the foreword. It warned that “the world has entered a period of wrecking ball politics” and that “total destruction… is the order of the day”.

The report said US President Donald Trump “is at the forefront of those committed to liberating their countries from the constraints of the existing order and rebuilding them stronger and more prosperous” and dismissed him as merely a “movement driven by resentment and regret about the liberal trajectory their societies have taken”.

Issinger told CNBC that the Europeans are “completely on the fence” in negotiations over Gaza and Ukraine.

“We have no role. Things have been decided by other people,” he said. “When I see the war in Ukraine, Europe has no place,” he said, adding that the United States and Russia were dominating the discussion.

U.S. representatives have been at the helm peace talks Since late 2025, European officials have maintained a say with Ukrainian and Russian officials on how to end the four-year war between the two countries.

“Why don’t we have a seat at the table? This is our continent. This is our future,” Isinger said on Friday. “The answer, of course, is not that Donald Trump made a mistake. The answer … is that we failed to speak with one voice.”

Ischinger added that he rejected the “blame game against the United States” and instead targeted areas where Europe had “clearly failed” to take a strategic stance.

Delegates from around the world will gather at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. The event runs through Sunday.

Ischinger told CNBC that the “wrecking ball” has been used by “many people” besides Trump, including right-wing extremist parties across Europe and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But he called Trump “the most striking example” of someone who “questions existing arrangements and seeks to replace them.” “For a country like Germany, which is very dependent on existing international rules… this is a worrying development,” he added.

CNBC reached out to the White House and the Kremlin for response to the MSC’s comments.

Trump’s push for U.S. annexation of Greenland also undermines transatlantic trust, Issinger said.

After weeks of talk about bringing the Arctic islands, a Danish territory, under Washington’s control, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on European allies who stand in his way. Announce The “deal” on Greenland has been reached.

Since Trump returned to the White House, European leaders have promise Significantly increase security spending. Last summer, European members of NATO agree Raising defense spending to 5% of their respective countries’ GDP – a move Trump has long pushed for.

The spending plans have boosted European defense giants, with shares in some of them more than doubling and order backlogs reaching record levels.

Ischinger told CNBC that Europe needs to “create a more consolidated, more competitive and more unified defense industry.”