European Union Commission President
Posted in EU Info on 10/06/2010 11:23 pm by admin
The European Union is not happy with Obama & there is a rift, why won’t Obama try to repair the damage?
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/
Europe warns Obama: this relationship not working
Europe’s disappointment with Barack Obama’s presidency is laid bare today as the EU’s most senior figure calls for a dramatic effort to revive transatlantic relations. The President of the European Commission told The Times that the new era at the White House was in danger of becoming a “missed opportunity” for Europe. José Manuel Barroso said that the EU-US relationship was “not living up to its potential” and was being marred by fundamental disagreements on how to deal with the economic crisis, climate change and trade reform. The feelings of a deepening rift are mutual. Senior US figures said last night that Mr Obama could never live up to Europe’s sky-high expectations.
Do you really want to understand what’s going on here? I can explain it.
In the last decade a lot has changed in the European Union.
Firstly the population has expanded to 500 million people.
Secondly European Union exceeded the United States as the wealthiest and largest economy on Earth.
Thirdly the Lisbon Treaty which took more than ten years of negotiation was signed into law in 2009.
The Europe of now is not the Europe of old and most Americans don’t understand this. Bush tried to divide the European Union, Donald Rumsfeld famously tried to distinguished between “Old Europe and New Europe”. This tactic completely backfired and angered a lot of Europeans in the process.
Obama tried to (pardon my French) blow smoke up the asses of the Europeans. He did a tour of Europe and talked about building bridges, cooperation and all that crap but offered nothing of substance. Firstly nothing of substance on Global warming. Europeans offered to cut Co2 emissions by 30% on 1990 levels if the United States would do similar. Obama offered cut emissions by 17% on 2005 levels which actually meant a cut of only 4% on 1990 levels. The Europeans saw this as cynical and in one swift move all political goodwill evaporated. Whatever your political beliefs about Climate Change the simple fact is Europeans believe it. Europeans found 4% downright insulting, Obama may as well of flown to France and kicked in the head of the first baby he saw, it would have been the same. Europeans see failure to cut carbon emission as endangering their children’s future. Secondly no substance on the economy from a European point of view, Germany is the economic heart of the European Union, Germany on it’s own exports more than the United States, the European Central Bank is in Germany. Germany is also completely paranoid about inflation. They have experienced hyper inflation before and they’re incredibly wary of taking any step which could risk it. When Obama asks the German Government stimulate private spending and encourage their citizens to take on debt he may as well of asked the German Government to ask their citizens to burn their houses down, it ain’t going to happen.
The facts are Europeans no longer perceive the United States as a the only Superpower and they are right. In every measure except militarily the European Union exceeds the United States. Even militarily Europe is beginning to carve out it’s own path. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hZKuA-UTIw
The rift is not Obama’s fault it’s not Bush’s fault, the rift is the European Union decoupling itself from American interests what is perceived as a rift is much more, Europe is now engaging in a new role on the world stage. This is ruffling a few feathers in Washington but there is absolutely nothing the United States can do to prevent this. A lot of people may read this and say Europe can’t agree on anything they are not a country they are always squabbling between each other but very few of these people would be aware of things like the Lisbon Treaty.
So when you ask “why won’t Obama try to repair the damage?”. My answer would be he and every other American are unable. The rift is not a rift, it is the beginning of paradigm shift in American thinking. Americans are waking up to the fact they are no longer the only Superpower. All has changed, changed utterly.
There is a great book on this topic, it deals with the rise of China and the European Union, it’s called the The Second World by Parag Khanna. Here’s a link to Parag giving a talk on the book it’s very interesting. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E9d2XJ7QAk
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