MEPs call for EU-US fresh start

The European Parliament’s main political groups have called for a fresh start to EU-US relations, as George W Bush begins his visit to Brussels.

But with MEPs currently tucked away out of sight in Strasbourg, the parliament’s political groups are keeping a mainly low profile on the visit.

Hans-Gert Poettering, the German leader of the centre right EPP group, the parliament’s largest grouping, called the President’s visit a “turning point” in transatlantic relations.

“This is an important step not only in reviving Euro-Atlantic dialogue, but also in terms of raising the EU’s international profile in relation to the United States,” said Poettering..

“We expect this visit to produce new impulses on transatlantic relations and that the American president will get a political signal that the EU is a strong and reliable partner for the USA.”

Also in advance of Bush’s visit was Liberal leader Graham Watson, who said that Bush had a “golden opportunity” to make a fresh start with his European allies.

“The positive noises now emanating from the White House on strengthened multilateralism and a rekindling of the transatlantic relationship need to be nurtured,” said Watson.

“There is now a window of opportunity opening up for America and Europe to identify common goals and common means to pursue them.”

Reflecting on the visit in the current issue of the Parliament Magazine, Green group leader, Danny Cohn-Bendit, compared the president’s approach to multilateralism to a ‘shock and awe’ campaign on the international system.

“Smashing up the old world order in the hope that a new one – better suited to current US priorities – would emerge.  It has not,” said Cohn-Bendit.

“A growing realisation that unilateralism is leaving America isolated and weakened as well as Bush's apparent desire to improve his legacy, goes someway to explaining the new US desire to mend relationships it cared so little to maintain during the last four years. Whatever the reason, it is welcome.”

The parliament’s Socialists, adopting a less conciliatory line, blasted the US administration for refusing to support multilateralist strategies such as the Kyoto protocol and the international criminal court.

And group leader Martin Schulz warned that the president must come to terms with Europe’s new global standing and influence.

"The European Union is an area of peace and stability that more and more countries seek to join. The US, on the other hand, has been losing friends and meeting more and more resistance on a global scale,” said Schulz.

“The time has come for Europe to exert itself and claim its place as a global player that is becoming a civil superpower.”

"[Bush] must recognise…that he will have to cope with a more politically equal relationship from now on. Europe is ready to do business with him – but he must play his part, too."

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