Obama Agrees to Lunch with the Europeans! (but Not to Answer Any Questions)

Please don’t tell the Obama administration that the U.S. president and his advisers don’t care about Europe: They have already heard that argument many times, and they have a response at the ready (“The president has spoken extensively about the importance we attach to our partnership with Europe,” Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, reminded us at the White House, from whom we regretted to hear that the Americans did not provide a briefing before the EU/U.S. summit this Monday at the White House). Instead, as a token of his goodwill, Obama has this time agreed to have lunch with José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy, the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, respectively, who will visit him at the White House. The European diplomats, who have little else to put between their teeth, are celebrating this meal as an important step in transatlantic relations: During prior EU/U.S. summits, Obama has had the habit of leaving his European guests to dine with Joe Biden, the vice president.

In theory, the U.S. administration is also in favor of a “more integrated” Europe — one that would quickly put an end to the Euro crisis and one that would be a little less complicated partner. In practice, as preparations for this summit have already shown, the same administration is doing all it can to expedite these meetings and to ensure that no one cares too much (see also the previous summit in Lisbon). This time, not only has the White House refused to hold an advance briefing (as is typical for all kinds of events, non-events and topical issues) to explain what it expects at the meeting, but it was also too “beat” (the resistance has not been that great) for a press conference after the summit… not even one. Obama’s advisers brought out the video of the previous summit in November 2010 to convince European diplomats that, because journalists did not have the opportunity to ask questions in Lisbon, we will be proceeding the same way this year in Washington: At this Monday’s meeting, Obama, Barroso and Van Rompuy can each recite their little speeches, without journalists having the right to ask a single question (a bad omen for the summit of two large “democratic” world powers).

“A whole series of events, including the Euro crisis, the Libya intervention and even the Arab Spring have hidden it a little, but it is a fundamental problem: Europe doesn’t count for a lot in the U.S. right now,” states Justin Vaisse, an analyst at the Brookings Institute. “It’s true that Americans do the bare minimum at these summits, but it’s also difficult to ask them to take the European institutions more seriously… than the Europeans do themselves.”

That said, we can clearly count on our diplomats to announce some “results” at the end of their two hours this Monday at the White House: The European Commissioner for Trade, Karel De Gucht, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk are expected to be tasked with exploring ways to support growth and employment. Both sides will also congratulate each other on having recently concluded the PNR agreement about storing air traveler data (in France, fewer people care about this than in Germany or the Netherlands, although it is doubtful that the Europeans sufficiently defended their views). Americans and Europeans have also agreed not to talk too much on Monday about one of their most contentious conflicts of the day, carbon emissions quotas in Europe. The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a law prohibiting U.S. airlines from complying with the new European rules meant to come into force on Jan. 1, 2012. The Obama administration told the European diplomats that the problem lies with Congress and thus has left them to plead their case with the Senate if they want to prevent a similar law from being passed there. Contrary to those who want to believe the American and European leaders this Monday, there are many important differences between the two sides of the Atlantic, which deserve fuller and more open discussions.