Word: foreign
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...supposed to represent a united European foreign policy, but E.U. politicians still seem reluctant to cede the limelight. If another Iraq ... occurred, how could you ensure a united European response? Let's get out of the limelight first. Someone asked if I would be able to stop the traffic in Washington, but in fact my job is to keep traffic moving. I'm not interested in the limelight. I'm interested in what we can actually do. The way the E.U. approaches the issue is that we will look for a consensus if there is one. It doesn...
...what Europe stands for, which for an outsider is quite ill-defined. What is Europe's foreign policy? When I was E.U. trade commissioner, I represented an economic superpower of 500 million people. And that meant I could do better trade deals. I was able to represent the E.U. more clearly. In foreign policy, there are times when speaking with one voice - and it doesn't have to be mine - allows us to engage better on issues, and enables us to do things more effectively. For example, if we are trying to do things around development, then as 27 nations...
...other parts of the world. There is the old idea, which still resonates, that you support the ideals you hold. Not to impose, but to help with issues like nation building. To do that, we should be ambitious. There is no lack of ambition in the Foreign Affairs Council. I have to do it within the constraints of needing to build a consensus and with the resources we have. But there is no lack of ambition when we start to talk...
...Europe grew muscles. Last fall, after a decade of work to simplify policymaking and make the European Union more efficient at home and stronger abroad, the last few holdouts signed a 1,000-page document known as the Lisbon Treaty. In November, the E.U.'s first real President and Foreign Minister were chosen. Europhiles dusted off their familiar dream: of a newly emboldened world power stepping up to calm trouble spots, using aid and persuasion where it could, but prepared to send in troops when it had to. Brussels would lead the fight against climate change. And Europe's economies...
...dream didn't last a month. At the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, it was China and the U.S. who haggled over a final deal, while Europe sat on the sidelines. Instead of a foreign policy triumph, 2010 began with an unseemly squabble over whether or not to bail out Greece, whose debt has dragged down Europe's currency. At the same time, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would be skipping an E.U.-U.S. confab in Spain in May, frustrated, it appeared, with the endless summitry that goes with accommodating the E.U. Little wonder that Europe finds...