‘New Europe’ fears losing privileged status with US

No matter who becomes the next US president, Eastern European countries are afraid that the privileged relations they have enjoyed under the Bush administration could be lost. EURACTIV’s network in Central Europe and Turkey contributed to this report.

The sentiment in Eastern European capitals is that the next US President will prioritise repairing relations with Western European capitals, which have suffered under neo-conservative US rule, and that Eastern European countries – despite being America’s strongest allies under Bush – could find themselves somewhat neglected. 

The fact that the pro-American Czech Republic will be at the EU’s helm when the next US President will assume office is not expected to change this trend much. Indeed, according to Eastern European diplomats, the new EU-US agenda, now dominated by the financial crisis and attempts to reform the foundations of capitalism, will inevitably favour stronger involvement of the EU’s economic powerhouses, such as the UK, Germany and France, over its newer member states. 

Agenda puts onus on Western leaders 

The current financial crisis has already brought to the fore Western European leaders like French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, along with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. All four will attend a G20 summit in Washington on 15 November (EURACTIV 27/10/08), aimed at finding a common response to the financial crisis. 

While the next US president will already have been elected by then, he is not expected to appear at the summit, since he will not be sworn in until 20 January 2009. Nevertheless, Sarkozy has already called for the economic team of the new US president to be present at the Washington meeting, which he insists must produce “real decisions”. 

In contrast, the Czech government has been struggling to survive following recent local elections (EURACTIV 27/10/08), scraping though a series of no-confidence votes just weeks before taking over the helm of the EU. Sarkozy has in fact already suggested that the Czech Republic and its successor as EU presidency holder Sweden will not be up to standard when it comes to dealing with the financial turmoil as they are both outside the euro zone (EURACTIV 24/10/08). Instead, he suggested creating an informal “economic government” of the euro area, through which the leaders of the 15 eurozone countries would meet regularly to discuss the bloc’s financial health. 

Avoiding the vacuum 

The Czechs will nevertheless seek to take the lead as soon as the next US president comes into office. “We should not waste time and talk to the new administration as soon as possible in order to prevent a vacuum [in transatlantic relations]. We should strengthen and deepen transatlantic relations,” Czech deputy foreign minister Tomas Pojar declared, speaking at an international conference entitled ‘From “Fortress Europe” to “Europe without Barriers”‘, held on 20 October in Prague. 

Transatlantic relations will indeed figure very highly on the Czech Presidency’s agenda, a Czech diplomat told EURACTIV, pointing out that his country would be in charge of organising the first EU-US summit with the new US president. He insisted that the summit would have a full agenda, meaning that not only would external relations be on the menu, but also trade talks and a possible agreement on action to address climate change. 

Either/or on foreign policy 

Although public opinion in Eastern Europe follows the general trend across Western Europe in preferring to see Barack Obama in the Oval office, officially, Eastern European representatives say they do not have a preference for either Barack Obama or John McCain. Indeed, as far as relations with Russia are concerned, both candidates have been critical of Russia’s actions in Georgia but ruled out any kind of military response. Neither seems keen to revert to Cold War politics and, in general, the next US president is broadly expected to follow in the footsteps of Sarkozy rather than pursue the more hardline approach favoured by Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic countries, a diplomatic source said. 

Turkey prefers McCain 

Unlike in Eastern Europe, anti-Americanism is on the rise in Turkey and grew during George W. Bush’s second term, when he launched the Iraq war. Also, the political class appears to have a clear preference for John McCain in the upcoming US elections. 

The main reason for this is that Obama repeatedly irked Turkey during his campaign. When Obama announced Senator Joe Biden as his nominee for vice president, this caused a negative stir in Turkey, EURACTIV Turkey reported. Turkish public opinion considers Biden to be too close to Armenian and Greek lobbies, and he has also been reproached for suggesting a partition of Iraq into three parts including a Kurdish area, something that Turkey sees a threat. Obama also called Turkey an “occupier” in the context of the Cyprus divide. 

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