BRUSSELS, March 15: Three years after their acrimonious public clash over the US-led invasion of Iraq, European and American policymakers are engaged in a long, uphill struggle to repair the bruised and battered transatlantic relationship.
The struggle to rebuild trust between has resulted in some important victories.
Talk of Europe emerging as a counterweight to America has all but faded from EU leaders’ public speeches and the anti-European rhetoric of hawks in the US administration has been silenced as Washington seeks allies support to stabilize Iraq and fight insurgents in Afghanistan.
In stark contrast to their verbal skirmishes over the Iraq war –- opposed by France, Germany, Belgium and several other EU states — officials on both sides of the Atlantic are now working closely on defusing tensions in the Middle East and curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Germany’s new chancellor Angela Merkel has been particularly successful in mending fences with the Bush administration, ending years of angry sparring between Berlin and Washington.
The European Union’s foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana is in close consultations with the US over ending the bloody ethnic conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Europe and America have “reconnected,” the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said last year. US officials talk enthusiastically about supporting the development of a united Europe with which they share common values.
True, most of the venom that marked transatlantic relations ever since the Iraq war has progressively disappeared from the public utterances of policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic. But even as European governments and the US strive to put past differences behind them, ordinary Europeans remain extremely wary of US foreign policy.
Opinion polls continue to spotlight European dislike of Washington’s rhetoric on the so-called “war on terror”, scepticism over America’s post-war strategy in Iraq and growing criticism of the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Allegations that the CIA has run secret prisons in Europe have further tarnished America’s public image in Europe.
Europeans’ negative perceptions of the Bush administration’s dealings with the rest of the world are an important brake on EU leaders’ efforts to put relations with Washington back on track. Unwilling to confront their public opinion, European politicians are being extremely careful over how far they go in rebuilding bridges with the US.
Merkel’s decision to raise concerns over the CIA allegations in her first meeting with the US administration last year is a case in point. And despite her determination to draw closer to Washington, Merkel has said repeatedly that Germany will not be sending troops to Iraq.
America’s standing in Europe is not going to improve, at least in the short term. Wider public suspicions of the US created by the Iraq war are being further fanned by what many see as America’s policy failures in Iraq and rising violence and bloodshed in the country.
Still, despite continuing public unease about America’s role in the world, policymakers in Washington and European capitals have changed both the style and substance of the transatlantic dialogue.
Acrimonious mutual name-calling and finger-pointing have been replaced by a more cordial discourse on promoting a transatlantic partnership. And while they still disagree fiercely on trade and agriculture protection, trade and investment flows between America and Europe are booming.
Both sides have been making an effort to turn over a new page. US President George W. Bush’s summit with EU leaders in February 2005 was clearly aimed at sending a strong signal of a new era in transatlantic relations.
In addition to Merkel’s determination to give top priority to relations with the US, President Jacques Chirac has toned down France’s traditional anti-American rhetoric. Significantly also former Portuguese premier Jose Manuel Barroso, who backed the Iraq war, has taken over as head of the EU Commission from Italy’s Romano Prodi who never disguised his dislike of US foreign policy.
In addition, the EU entry in 2004 of several pro-American central and eastern European states has made the 25-nation bloc more open to Washington’s overtures.
The second Bush administration, for its part, also appears to be going the extra mile to make new friends and mollify old ones in Europe.
Strident anti-EU statements by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld have been replaced by the softer pro-European rhetoric of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Diplomats in Brussels point out that the Bush Administration also appears to be replacing its earlier focus on unilateral action by a new readiness to consult allies and try out United Nations-based multilateral diplomacy.
In a far cry from its attitude prior to the attack on Iraq, the US has been willing to show patience in its dealings with Iran by backing EU efforts at nuclear diplomacy.
The new mellowness in transatlantic relations is not just the result of a deliberate policy choice by both sides. In contrast to three years ago, both the EU and the US have been weakened by domestic troubles.
Public disenchantment is on the rise on both sides. The US tone is softer on many issues because President Bush is weaker. Last year’s rejection of the EU treaty in France and the Netherlands, meanwhile also means that Europe today is in a much more vulnerable position than it was three years ago.
Instead of focusing on new political ambitions, the EU is focused on fighting rising domestic protectionism and making sure that the fragile economic recovery is not undermined by inward-looking national policies.
At the same time, realizing that the over-stretched US army cannot work alone in either Iraq or Afghanistan, the US Administration is turning to its allies for help.
The US may have once believed that winning wars was all about which side had the best hard military power. But faced with continuing chaos in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington is suddenly less scornful of Europeans’ soft power expertise in crisis-management, nation building and managing transitions.
