Barack Obama Leans on Europe to Solve the Debt Crisis

The Europeans have once again found their United States-European Union summit. In June 2012, Barack Obama didn’t attend the meeting planned in Madrid, assessing that this type of conference wouldn’t be productive enough. Here we are a year later, and the Lisbon summit only lasted a few hours in the halls of the NATO summit.

Europeans have learned a lesson: On Monday, Nov. 28, at the first summit at the White House since the hurried passage of the Treaty of Lisbon two years ago, the agenda was made up of subjects that interest Americans, including security, transatlantic business and a new high-level group working on job growth.

But it’s the eurozone crisis that has taken over the rest of the discussions. The Americans are impatient. “The president has made clear repeatedly and he did so today, that he would like to see bolder, quicker, more decisive action by European leaders,” said William Kennard, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, in Brussels.

Barack Obama has appeared slightly more open than he was at the G-20 summit in Cannes with regard to help from Washington. Seated next to EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, he assured everyone that “the United States stands ready to do our part to help them resolve this issue. This is of huge importance to our own economy. If Europe is contracting or if Europe is having difficulties, then it’s much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home,” he justified.

“Half-Measures”

It’s not the first time that American leaders have lost their patience. A few days before the G-20, one of them grumbled about the “half-measures” being taken in Europe. In Cannes, Obama received what he called “an accelerated course” in European institutions. On Monday, Mr. Van Rompuy and Mr. Barroso explained to him the steps from now until the European Council on Dec. 9. “You have to understand that sometimes some decisions take time,” the president of the Commission explained. “Your question was, ‘Are we worried?’ Of course we are,” Kennard said. [But President] “Obama also recognizes the political challenges and the reality that Europe faces in coming to a solution.”

Like in Cannes, the American leaders continue to reassure everyone that they are limiting themselves to giving “advice and recommendations” to their partners. Said partners are making no effort to hide that they wouldn’t know how to behave otherwise, taking into account America’s list of achievements regarding the reduction of a debt that’s approaching 100 percent of the GDP.

At these words, Van Rompuy and Barroso asked Obama what he planned to do now that the bipartisan super committee in charge of debt reduction has fallen apart, while the Toronto G-20 added debt reduction to the obligations of countries in the red. Europeans, according to one of them, are worried about being “held hostages” in the November 2012 presidential election in the United States. In a common worry, they added that they expect “acts from the United States leading to medium-term budget consolidation.”*

In private, European leaders are annoyed by the American press’ insistence on emphasizing their delay. “America’s numbers are worse than ours,” one of them shoots back. “And how many reports on the debt? How many debt reduction committees for a country that only has two parts: a president and a congress? Multiply that by 27!”*

*Editor’s Note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.