Not quite speaking with one voice. Barack Obama listens to European leaders during the Copenhagen Climate Conference, December 2009. (AFP)

White House and the 27 dwarves

In turning down Europe’s invite to the upcoming EU-US summit in May, Barack Obama has given Europe a chafing reminder of its own weaknesses. Under the Lisbon Treaty, which was supposed to give the world a single number to call in Europe, the numbers have proliferated, bemoans the press, which quite understands the White House’s exasperation.

Published on 3 February 2010 at 17:29
Not quite speaking with one voice. Barack Obama listens to European leaders during the Copenhagen Climate Conference, December 2009. (AFP)

"After being outfaced by China at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, should Europe resign itself to insignificance in the eyes of the US?" wonders Le Figaro, after Barack Obama sent his excuses for the EU-US summit slated for this May. One thing’s for sure, quips the Wall Street Journal: "Things haven’t been good recently for Europe’s position on the world stage.” So no wonder the US is “tired of the wrangling between European leaders, judging from the haughty tone of the American statement about cancelling Obama’s attendance at the upcoming EU-US summit,” opines the *Süddeutsche Zeitung*, adding that Washington makes any new bilateral summit contingent on Europeans’ sorting out their respective responsibilities.

"The fact that the Americans should resort precisely to the Lisbon Treaty to justify Obama’s demurral is not devoid of a certain irony. Europe spent ten years thrashing out internal reform, during which the following argument was aired ad nauseam: if we want to make ourselves heard in the world, we have to speak with a single voice. Sure enough, the Lisbon Treaty has finally entered into force, but instead of speaking with one voice, the EU is now speaking with four – at least! So it’s understandable that the Americans should be put off by these ridiculous intra-European arrangements,” hurls the German daily. By the Wall Street Journal’s count, “The EU has a bevy of presidents: There is the new full-time president, Herman Van Rompuy; the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso; and the ‘rotating presidency’” now held by Spain.

Welcome to Lilliput

President Obama "made the right decision", assesses Ilana Bet El, an editorialist for the Guardian: "With the Lisbon Treaty finally approved, Brussels is consumed with itself and its institutions, trying to work out who does what under the new rules." "Alongside the in-fighting in Brussels,” she continues, “the member states are equally inward looking: the UK is totally immersed in the Chilcot inquiry,” – aka “Iraq Inquiry” about UK involvement in the war – “France is debating the meaning of Frenchness and Italy is too busy following the scandals of Berlusconi." In its blog on the EU, The Economist notes that certain US diplomats “have recalled the ‘welcome to Lilliput’ nightmare Mr Obama endured in Prague last year, when he found himself at an EU-US summit with strictly nothing of importance on the agenda, hosted by a Czech government that had just fallen. At that meeting, American officials later complained, 27 national leaders all waffled on at Mr Obama about exactly the same things, before fighting among themselves for photo opportunities with the new American president.”

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The Old Continent’s leaders shouldn’t fret so much about the Obama cancellation, soft-pedals Antonio Missiroli, director of the European Policy Centre, a think-tank in Brussels. As he sees it in The Independent, "There was nothing of substance on the agenda, the EU just wanted to hold it for the sake of it. Mr Obama has better things to do." And besides, teases Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times, “The Europeans should take this as a perverse sort of compliment. In contrast to Obama's top foreign policy priorities like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, China, Russia, Europe is a nice quiet place that seems to be getting along fine."

The pain in Spain

Down in Spain, the daily El País remarks that Madrid, which tussled with Brussels over the privilege of hosting the summit, is now gnashing its teeth over the brush-off. The incident blatantly exposes the blissful optimism and excessive hype of the Spanish government, who “were counting their chickens before they were hatched”. Its “pathetically cocksure” PM Zapatero, currently faced with a severe recession, was banking on “the miracle-working effects of photo ops” with Obama. But that’s not why the US president sent his regrets, observes the Spanish daily: “vexed by his sinking public approval ratings”, he has decided to “put foreign policy on the back burner” so as to focus on his domestic agenda, on the economy and health care reform.

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