New moves hoped for in EU-US relations

As US President Bush was sworn in for his second term, Europe’s
leaders expressed hope for a fresh start in transatlantic
co-operation.

The official launch of US President George Bush’s second term on
20 January has prompted the rest of the world to begin addressing
realities, which in several European capitals translates into a
desire to base transatlantic relations on a new footing based on
mutual respect.

France, whose ties with Washington suffered major setbacks
during Bush’s first term, now seems keen to keep going what it
identifies as a forward momentum. In Prime Minister
Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s opinion, Europe has “no choice” but to work
together with the US on the biggest issues of international
concern, among them terrorism, weapons proliferation or global
poverty. “Who can seriously imagine that Europe would take an
initiative hostile to the US while our supreme interests and values
are so close?” Raffarin has told the French parliament, where the
legislators agreed on the need for France to identify its own
previous faults and from now on concentrate on facing the
common challenges. In the words of Foreign Minister Michel Barnier,
“a new relationship means that we respect each other and that we
listen to each other”. 

The quest for a fresh start is also manifest in Brussels and in
other European capitals in that the emphasis appears to have
shifted from the unilateralism versus multilateralism debate to the
need to nurture transatlantic relations through dialogue and mutual
respect. This despite the realisation that it will take time to
repair prior damages. Bush is scheduled to visit Europe in
February, and this is widely seen as an opportunity to make that
fresh start. 

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that
“evolution comes from experience […] In the end, we can take
security and military measures against terrorism, but […] the
best prospect of peaceful co-existence lies in the spread of
democracy and human rights”.

Meanwhile, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook chose
a dissenting tone. In a comment published by The
Guardian, he pointed to the “sharp contrast between the
self-indulgent hubris [of Bush’ inauguration] and the fragile
political victory which it celebrated”. In Cook’s reading, the
second Bush term means that “he won another four years and was
going to enjoy them, while the other side lost and was going to
have to put up with it”.

In a similar vein, in a commentary piece the French
daily Le Figaro warned against people
entertaining too many illusions about changes in transatlantic
relations. Bush will not change policy at the dawn of his
second mandate, the paper said, adding that “Bush II sera la
continuation de Bush I, avec un effort de relations publiques en
plus”.

Read more with Euractiv

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