Brussels, 06/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The responses from Europe and the United States to the Arab spring have been inadequate and inappropriate. That is one of the conclusions of the annual workshop in Venice of the Council for the United States and Italy, an organisation which brings together Italian and US entrepreneurs. Over two days on the island of San Clemente, Italian, European and American diplomats and experts, in camera, debated a number of issues of common interest, such as the Arab spring and unlikely peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the state of the economy and the future of nuclear power.
The debates, and the conversations on the sidelines, betrayed a certain longing for transatlantic negotiations of the past when issues between Washington and Brussels, or Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Rome, were headline news in the European and US press. Now, several diplomats noted off-stage, a visit to Europe by a US president is seen by the press as no more than a photo opportunity: Barack Obama has just completed a very low-key trip to Europe, with electioneering stops in Dublin and Warsaw in a pitch for the votes of Irish and Polish Americans in the 2012 presidential elections. Up until only a few years ago, visits by US presidents to Europe were bigger news: Euromissiles, the fall of the Wall, the Gulf wars, the war in the former Yugoslavia, the invasion of Iraq, trade wars, etc.
Maybe it is better like this: today the US and Europe do not really have trade, military or political disputes, and do not even have a common enemy, after the defeat of Communism and the weakening of the activities of al Qaeda. The US and Europe have, however, retained their strong shared values: freedom, democracy, human rights, a desire for open societies. And the two have a mutual interest in working together to find responses to the challenges which affect them: the Arab spring, the long-awaited peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the economic rise of China and the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), getting back on our feet after the crisis and globalisation. Courageous choices have to be made and problems resolved effectively and directly. (Gp/transl.rt)