Not yet a post-American Europe
Daniel Korski 11:04am
I'm in Brussels where the only news is Obama's cancellation of a trip to Madrid to join an annual EU-US confab. The FT's Gideon Rachman explains the anxiety caused by the decision:
'There is no doubt that the Spanish government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU (You thought it had been abolished? Fooled you!), will treat this as a bitter blow. The Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero was royally snubbed by George W. Bush and so it was really important to him to underline that he has a great relationship with the sainted Obama. (...)The Spanish are not the only Europeans feeling snubbed by Obama. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was enraged when - on a recent trip to Washington - Obama failed to schedule a lunch with him, and the Commission president was fobbed off with Joe Biden.'
There is no doubt that the US is undergoing a strategic redirection, with the President more concerned about China than Europe. Witness the clumsy handling of missile defence, for example, or that he always gives the word to China first in meeting he chairs, like the G20 in Pittsburg.
But the Europeans have not exactly showed themselves to be easy partners - whether in NATO, EU or bilaterally. European governments weren't exactly rushing to help Obama with Guantanamo.
I wonder whether the bout of euro-pessimism is not a bit misplaced. In one year, Obama went to London, Strasbourg, Oslo, Prague, Copenhagen (twice) and will go to Lisbon later this year - that's probably more than any first-term, first-year US president. So he is skipping Madrid - big deal.
Has Spain, a country that sometimes seems to want to be part of NATO and the Non-aligned Movement, done anything to deserve the extra US attention? And anyway, America is getting used to a post-American world - so should Europe.
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Glen Green
February 3rd, 2010 11:27am Report this commentPerhaps the sainted one likes Europe as a collection of individual countries rather then a single bureaucratic super state.
Can't say I blame him.
Maggie
February 3rd, 2010 11:35am Report this commentI'm very glad that Obama's not coming to Europe. Another undignified bout of slavering hero worship from the BBC would be more than flesh and blood could bear. Their habit of breaking into programmes to broadcast emergency reports on the minutiae of American domestic politics is already beyond unbearable.
denis cooper
February 3rd, 2010 12:02pm Report this commentThe rotating Presidency has been not been abolished for the Council of Ministers, only for what is now the European Council.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:0001:01:EN:HTML
From Article 15 TEU:
"The European Council shall consist of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, together with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy shall take part in its work ...
... The President of the European Council shall not hold a national office."
From Article 16 TEU:
"The Council shall, jointly with the European Parliament, exercise legislative and budgetary functions. It shall carry out policy-making and coordinating functions as laid down in the Treaties.
2. The Council shall consist of a representative of each Member State at ministerial level, who may commit the government of the Member State in question and cast its vote.
3. The Council shall act by a qualified majority except where the Treaties provide otherwise ...
... The Council shall meet in different configurations, the list of which shall be adopted in accordance with Article 236 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ...
The Presidency of Council configurations, other than that of Foreign Affairs, shall be held by Member State representatives in the Council on the basis of equal rotation, in accordance with the conditions established in accordance with Article 236 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union."
Major Plonquer
February 3rd, 2010 12:22pm Report this commentGood grief. How many Presidents does Europe have? Wasn't the point of the new constitution to get one guy who would be everybody's boss? No wonder Barrack Bin Ladin doesn't want to come to Europe. In America he's the bloody President. In Europe everybody except Tony Blair is a President. He would just be another one. Nothin special.
As they say in Spain, 'Que TF?'
Verity
February 3rd, 2010 1:31pm Report this commentMajor Plonquer - First giggle of the day. Gracias!
Frank P
February 3rd, 2010 2:12pm Report this commentMore pith from Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative writer:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/ego_obamas_achilles_heel.html
Seems perhaps the spell is beginning to fade over there too. Unfortunately our own posited Prime Ministerial Tory replacement still has his head up Obummer's fundamental earmuff, so he probably hasn't noticed.
nahummer
February 3rd, 2010 2:26pm Report this commentStrange website. Interesting articles, I've read three, all of which are quite short, yet in each there is at least a spelling error. It's Pittsburgh BTW, guess it's lucky Pennsylvania wasn't attempted.
London Calling
February 3rd, 2010 4:22pm Report this commentThere’s more to this story than meets the eye. President Obama never agreed to attend a meeting in Brussels in April. It wasn’t a snub, Obama is where he should be sorting our his own domestic problems back home. However it is rumoured he is unimpressed with the three amigos and the European set up, not knowing who is in charge and who to deal with when it is obvious that there is already infighting for the position of power.
The Lisbon Beastie has too many heads and you cant speak to all of them under these circumstances…
JohnAnt
February 3rd, 2010 11:52pm Report this commentThe EU-narques have got the wrong end of the stick again. When America got them all excited by saying POTUS needed to know who to phone when he wanted to talk to Yourope, America didn't mean they wanted a choice of people to talk to - and certainly not that they wanted to talk *with* them - just *to* them.
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