Commission delivers message to future US president

Forty days ahead of the US presidential elections, Commission President José Manuel Barroso and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner appealed for a new partnership with America and reform of world institutions during a visit to the States.

During two separate appearances yesterday (24 September), Barroso and Ferrero-Waldner made no secret of the fact Europe was investing a lot of hope in the new US administration to emerge from the November vote. 

In a significant sign, Commission President entitled his speech, delivered at Harvard University, ‘A letter from Brussels to the next President of the United States’. But he steered clear of expressing a preference for either candidate, saying: “Whether I am writing to President McCain or President Obama, the values that the US and the EU share remain the same.” 

However, many of the EU priorities presented by the two speakers, such as addressing the challenges of climate change and fostering new multilateralism, appear more feasible under a Democratic administration. 

Tellingly, the word “multilateralism” appears five times in Barroso’s speech. The Commission President said the recent crisis between Russia and Georgia shows that a new multilateralism is “not only desirable, but necessary” and “the EU and the US must now join forces toward such a new multilateralism”. 

“We have the transatlantic marketplace, NATO, the Transatlantic Economic Council and other instruments that we should continue to leverage for maximum mutual benefit,” Barroso said. “But I think we should move beyond this and set an agenda of common action for a new multilateralism that can benefit the whole world. From climate change to trade, from development to terrorism, these are the challenges that require Europeans and Americans to agree on a new multilateral agenda,” he said. 

“In fact in my view, the time has come to start thinking of an Atlantic Agenda for Globalisation,” said Barroso, pleading for both the EU and the US to deepen their partnership further. At the same time, he stressed that “we have to make room at the top table for others, because that is the only way we can consolidate and strengthen a stable, multilateral world, governed by internationally-agreed rules”. 

Speaking at the World Leadership Forum 2008, organised by the Foreign Policy Association in New York, Commissioner Ferrero Waldner gave more detail of the “necessary” reform of world institutions. 

Reminding the audience of the huge demographic and economic changes to come – China to become the second-largest and India the sixth-largest economy in the world by 2020 – she said global institutions “must adapt”. 

“That means a reformed UN, G8, World Bank and IMF which better reflect the world of the 21st century. In my personal view, it means that the IMF should switch its focus from dealing with monetary issues to global financial market challenges. In my personal view, it means a permanent seat for the European Union at some stage on the Security Council. And it means a Security Council which accepts new majority voting fast-track procedures for dealing with extreme humanitarian disasters requiring urgent response,” Ferrero-Waldner said. 

But the main focus of the foreign affairs commissioner’s speech was energy security, where the EU message was again that Europe needs to work hand-in-hand with the United States. 

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