EU warned about transatlantic 'illusions'

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Presenting a new report on 'a post-American Europe', US analyst Jeremy Shapiro and his British colleague Nick Witney said the EU has not yet come to terms with the post-Cold War international order.

A lack of understanding of where the Union wants to go and what it wants to achieve in its global ambitions is impinging upon its relations with the US, they argued, speaking at a conference organised by the German Marshall Fund for the United States and the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. 

"There are four illusions which distort the way Europe looks at the US," and subsequently inform a wrong diagnosis of what the relationship should be, Witney said. 

The first illusion is that "European security continues to depend upon the protection of the United States". This is "no longer the case," Witney said. The EU needs to start securing its self-sufficiency as regards foreign policy, according to the speakers.

The second deception is that America and European interests are fundamentally the same and that the only problem lies in communication, they claimed. 

The third fallacy rests on the pursuit of harmony with the US at all costs, even if this were to be subordinated to other European priorities, Witney and Shapiro noted. 

The fourth misconception is that all EU countries like to think of themselves as having a particular and favourable relationship with the US. Member countries believe that bilateral relations give them a comparative advantage that they would not have if they were to act collectively. 

The sum of these four illusions is a deferential behaviour towards the US which is harmful both for the US and the EU, they argue. Europe is not able to get its act together and offer any real added value to transatlantic relations, Shapiro and Witney said. 

Just as the US is repositioning itself for the post-American world, so Europeans need to adopt the attitudes and behaviours of a post-American Europe, the analysts advised. 

This shift would entail assertion rather than ingratiation, compromising rather than convincing, responsibility rather than dependence and the ability to speak with one voice rather than being solo singers, Shapiro and Witney claimed. 

Witney stressed that whilst the signs of such a change are still feeble, much will depend on the ability and vision that the new High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy will be able to put forth. 

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