German chancellor Angela Merkel–who currently holds both the rotating EU and G-8 presidencies–arrived in Washington last Sunday for the bi-annual EU-US Summit, which focused primarily on deepening transatlantic economic cooperation and fostering joint action on climate change. During their final press conference with Bush, Merkel and accompanying EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso hailed the summit as a success and stressed the U.S. Administration’s new commitments regarding energy security, efficiency, and climate change. Back in Germany, Merkel is getting rave reviews for the EU-US Summit and her foreign policy record. An online commentary from Germany’s influential center-left weekly Der Spiegel–titled “Merkel’s Pact with America“– highlighted the Chancellor’s strong commitment to close U.S.-German ties.
With Tony Blair weakened and about to leave No. 10 Downing Street, “Angie” has become America’s most important ally in Europe and is given red-carpet treatment in Washington:
But CDU Chancellor Merkel and her allies from the conservative Bavarian CSU sister party must be careful. For sure, their left-wing SPD “Grand Coalition” partner has lost more ground in recent opinion polls and now stands at only 26 percent (while the CDU/CSU parties made gains and get 37 percent). And if elections were held in Germany today, the result would most likely be a narrow center-right CDU/CSU-led government supported by the free-market FDP party. At the same time, however, CDU/CSU politicians fear that an increasingly desperate SPD leadership (i.e., party chairman Kurt Beck and, albeit to a lesser extent, the more technocratic SPD foreign minister Steinmeier) could be tempted to play the anti-American trump card to turn the tide ahead of the next general elections to be held by the fall of 2009. That strategy already worked very effectively back in the 2002 elections (held during the run-up to the Iraq war) and could now be used again with regard to U.S. plans to establish a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. President Putin’s stern warning at the recent Munich Security Conference that U.S. missile defense actions could trigger a new Cold War has already succeeded in creating new, daunting public diplomacy challenges for America, both in “Old” and “New” Europe. The system is opposed by an 85-15 percent margin in most European countries. Chancellor Merkel is trying hard to make sure that the 2002 transatlantic train wreck over Iraq does not repeat itself with regard to missile defense. First, she wants to see European missile defense discussed within the NATO framework (not just at the bilateral U.S-Polish / U.S.-Czech level). Second, she argues for missile defense “cooperation”–not just “consultation”–with Moscow to blunt Putin’s argument that the missile defense system is aimed at Russia. Finally, as was already mentioned above, Merkel is also trying to promote closer transatlantic economic integration, an area where transatlantic relations already work very well and where more gains are possible for both Europe and the United States. During the 2002-2003 Iraq crisis, Tony Blair was a European divider rather than a uniter. He was perceived, first abroad and then also increasingly at home, as Bush’s poodle and therefore failed to be an effective U.S. ally in Europe. As the Spiegel article put it:
Chancellor Merkel, in contrast, is working to find common ground with her EU partners while seeking closer–but not too close–ties with the United States and its current administration.
