Obama Doesn’t Wantto Waste His Time

Some actions are important because of their consequences and others are transcendent because of what they represent. If President Obama finally calls off the traditional European Union-United States Summit, we’ll find ourselves in the second case. His absence won’t have any important effects on the relationship between the two main pillars of the democratic world, but it will make clear that the North American government gives a very limited value to the European role in the world. We’ve already seen how NATO has been pushed into the background in the review of the Afghanistan strategy. Now the time has come for the Union to face the reality of its restricted international role.

The Treaty of Lisbon is in effect. There’s no excuse for Europe not to play the role its leaders have been demanding so far. Nonetheless, when presented with the moment of truth, these very leaders elected as President and High Representative two low-profile candidates, as if to guarantee they wouldn’t stand in the way of the great powers’ policies. If we top this with the fact that a discredited Rodríguez Zapatero is serving as the rotating president of the European Union, we from the Old Continent have to understand why Obama considers the European Summit a dilly-dallying event.

We Europeans, in an act of faith, concluded that Obama was more pro-European than Bush. He’s not. The reality is the American president belongs to a generation that feels much less linked to Europe than his predecessors. For those Americans, either Republicans or Democrats, we are a region in decline that, in the moment of truth, doesn’t carry out its obligations as an ally. If there is an important matter to deal with, they will discuss it with France, the United Kingdom or Germany; countries which, to a greater or lesser extent, assume international responsibilities.