In 1991 the ECC (the European Economic Community which became the EU in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastrich) and the US agreed to a system of regular summits to deal with a wide range of economic, environmental and travel related issues that could impact the Americans. Each time these summits were held in different cities in Europe or the United States. This year, with the changes that the Treaty of Lisbon brought to the EU, things got a little confused. The summit was supposed to take place in Europe but it was not very clear if it would be held in Brussels, where the new EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, has its office or in Madrid, it being the capital of Spain which holds the rotating presidency of the EU. From the beginning the US has been disinclined to attend the summit and this supposedly confusion with the place to hold the summit has provide the Americans with a good excuse not to attend. Then it was explained by the Obama administration that the president had visited Europe a lot last year and that he had a busy domestic agenda. The first excuse was a little strange as I am sure the lieu of venue will be resolved with ample time. The second excuse, well, all participants in all summits have busy agendas and surely previous US presidents had busy agendas as well. Finally it has been disclosed that a meeting with European leaders is planned for later this fall, during the NATO summit in Lisbon. The question is then, what about the EU/US summit if one of the participants does not plan to attend? Well, even if the meeting was due to take place in Europe, it could be more important to have it that to follow an established rotation. Maybe Van Rompuy and the European leaders offer to go to the US at a time that fits everyone’s agenda? In any case there is a feeling in Europe that when not needed for sending troops or aid, Washington is not too focused in Europe.
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