WISHFUL THINKING

Recently Mr. Enrico Letta, President of the Jacques Delors Institute asks the question ‘How can we prevent a prospective rapprochement between Washington and Moscow from taking place to the Europeans’ detriment?

What Mr. Letta omitted to point out, however, is that with few exceptions, European governments do not think or act strategically. And since they do neither, how then can they have the ambition to shape foreign policy, especially on the EU level? And how can they prevent closer relations between the U.S. and Russia?  Instead of the EU forging a common strategic outlook, the Union has achieved the opposite. Ambition, if it exists at all, is inward looking and based on the national level, on narrow interests, on short-term goals. Ambition seems to have little to do with projecting a strong EU even though this is precisely what the Union should be doing.

The essential weakness of most of Europe’s governments is that they shy away from ambition because it means defining and taking risks and providing the means to see those risks through.

Foreign policy is about projecting interests and values but also influence, which all need strategic underpinning. In the case of the EU, it is increasingly difficult for Member States to go it alone. Most countries neither see the relevance of Europe nor want to make Europe relevant. As long as this perception continues, Europe will slip further into decline unless EU leaders embrace real, strategic foreign policy ambition for the continent.