The Incredible Shrinking Europe

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PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: MAY WONG FOR TIME; FLAG: IMAGESOURCE / GETTY

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Others notice the failure of the E.U. to find a single voice. China, for example, has become skilled at playing the E.U.'s individual members off against each other. "There is a complete absence of a strategic debate in Europe about China," says Daniel Korski, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Instead of tackling that failing — an obvious priority for this century — Europe has spent much of the past few months obsessing over how Washington views it. Obama has visited Europe six times since taking office, and made just one trip to China. But the U.S. President's decision to skip the Spain summit, and his failure to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, has had Europe acting like a jilted lover. French press reported that Sarkozy was forced to console an upset Merkel ahead of the Wall ceremony by painting Obama as a distant being whose presence would not be missed. "If you make a really big effort, he'll send you a letter," Sarkozy said, according to newsweekly Le Point. "And if you get on your knees, he'll add 'Yours Truly' in his own writing."

As they contemplate the future, leaders of the E.U. can no longer avoid the hard question: Is a common foreign policy what its member states — and their domestic political constituencies — really want? If it isn't, then the rest of the world can adjust its expectations accordingly. If it is, then Europeans can start the real work of public diplomacy, speaking out for their asserted virtues of tolerance, compromise and liberality, not in a condescending way, but in one that explains how the world's true dark continent in the 20th century found a path to peace. And the E.U. could work harder to ease tensions in its sphere of interest — ensuring that Bosnia does not slip back into conflict, working closely with Turkey to ensure its enormous potential for encouraging a new prosperity to Europe's East is realized, reaching out in a true partnership to the nations of North Africa — another good Sarkozy idea — to see if they can be brought within the European zone of prosperity. Doing nothing, giving in to inertia, will win the E.U. few friends. "An unsentimental President Obama has already lost patience with a Europe lacking coherence and purpose," according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. "In a post-American world, the United States knows it needs effective partners. If Europe cannot step up, the U.S. will look for other privileged partners to do business with."

That, it should be said, would be easier said than done. We should not forget: Europe is rich and democratic; its values are closer to those of the U.S. than those of anywhere else. But Europeans cannot rely on that shared sensibility to secure American favor forever. The world beyond Europe's borders is changing fast. What counts now, says Constanze Stelzenmüller, senior transatlantic fellow at Berlin's German Marshall Fund, is what Europe "can bring to the table." So far, it's bringing too little. Do Europeans want that to change? If so, now would be a good time to say so.
— With reporting by Leo Cendrowicz / Brussels, Bruce Crumley / Paris, Stephan Faris / Rome and Tristana Moore / Berlin

Who's in Charge?
The E.U.'s Multiheaded Leadership

José Manuel Barroso
Position:
President of the European Commission
Powers: Head of the E.U.'s executive branch. It's possible that this role and that of Council President will one day be combined

Herman Van Rompuy
Position:
President of the European Council
Powers: Should Europe's top job be an administrative role or that of an assertive continental boss? Much will depend on the tone set by this former Belgian leader

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Position:
PM of Spain, holder of rotating presidency
Powers: The long-term Council President should make this role irrelevant. Member states may disagree

Jerzy Buzek
Position:
President of the European Parliament
Powers: Chairs parliamentary debate and represents Europe's legislature. Buzek, a Polish engineer and politician, began his 30-month term last July

The original version of this article misidentified Defense Secretary Robert Gates as Secretary of State.

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