EUROPEAN LEADERS have downplayed an apparent snub from Washington after US president Barack Obama spurned a planned EU-US summit, a move seen as a sign of US displeasure with the union’s policies on the environment and other issues.
The Obama administration said this week that the president would not be attending a gathering tentatively scheduled for May, a decision that has been interpreted as a setback for the union’s ambition to be seen as a global force.
This assessment was dismissed, however, by the chief spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. “It’s not a snub to the EU, it’s not a declaration of failure. Frankly, this is nonsense,” he said.
EU officials have presented Mr Obama’s decision not to attend as a scheduling matter following his electoral setback in Massachusetts, saying the event will be rescheduled for later this year.
The US also played down the decision, saying it flowed from the president’s resolve to concentrate on domestic affairs during his second year in office. His administration says there is no deterioration in US-EU relations.
However, high-level European officials have linked Mr Obama’s decision to US frustration with Europe on issues as disparate as Afghanistan, other security matters and trade.
They believe the White House was unhappy that EU leaders pushed hard for a deeper climate deal at Copenhagen in December. In the event, no Europeans were present when the US, China, Brazil, India and South America reached a modest accord.
The thinking on the US side was that the EU should have recognised that Mr Obama was not going to be able to bring a more far-reaching deal to Capitol Hill, sources say.
The Obama administration is also perceived to be frustrated with the European reception of its repeated requests for additional deployments of armed police trainers in Afghanistan.
The Americans also want Europe to take in more former Guantánamo detainees and are unhappy with opposition in the European Parliament to a new interim deal on the transfer of European banking data to US intelligence agencies.
In the stalled Doha round of trade talks, Washington perceives the EU to be siding with major developing countries such as China, India and Brazil, sources suggest.
Spanish prime minister José Luís Zapatero was expected to present a unified front with the US at a private meeting with Mr Obama in Washington yesterday. The decision to skip the summit was seen as a particular blow to Spain, the current president of the union.
Mr Obama’s move came as a surprise to many senior figures in Brussels, leading to anxiety about the adoption of new structures designed to give more coherence to the conduct of foreign policy.
The US, long frustrated that it routinely finds itself dealing with several European leaders at the same time, has welcomed the new structures. However, only weeks since the system came into force under the Lisbon Treaty, it is tacitly acknowledged that there is some confusion.
Ms Ashton now speaks for the EU on all aspects of its foreign policy and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy represents the union in the global arena. While the creation of their posts downgraded the status of the rotating presidency of the union, Madrid was chosen for the EU-US summit because advance planning began before the Lisbon Treaty was enacted.
Although many in Brussels had high hopes for a deeper engagement with the US under Mr Obama, high-level European officials believe the decision to skip the summit reflects Mr Obama’s distancing from the EU and the sense that he has other priorities.