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Barack Obama will not be traveling to Brussels – or to Madrid – at the end of May to participate in the EU-US summit, and with good reason. Why should an American president, whose diary is already overloaded, participate at an event where the stakes will be largely inconsequential? Relations between Europe and the US have been very calm of late, and there are no outstanding bilateral issues to justify the cost and the diplomatic headache involved in taking a trip of this kind.
One of the reasons cited by the White House for the decision not to attend is the lack of a single counterpart for the US president on this side of the Atlantic. Leaders of Europe's member states were convinced that the Lisbon Treaty would resolve this issue, and finally launch the EU as the global power that it legitimately aspires to be. However, now that the time has come to apply the treaty and to make room on the centre stage for the institutions that Lisbon has established — notably the permanent President of the European Council — it appears that the every-man-for-himself reflex still prevails.
This was clearly the case in Copenhagen, where Europe's leaders were falling over each other to be the first to greet Obama or to stand beside him in official photos. Those with waning popularity — and they were not in short supply — did all they could to extract a declaration of friendship to boost their support at home. It was as though they were convinced that the US President had the ability to exert a miraculous influence over the polls.
The truth is that Barack Obama surrendered his magical powers when he took office in the White House. The spell that he cast over the voters in the United States has hardly any effect on such matters as the recession, the growing economic power of China and India, the dispute with Iran, and the state of play in the Middle East or Afghanistan. If Europe's heads of state want to benefit from a little Obama magic, perhaps they should ensure that EU speaks with one voice on these issues.
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