Europe needs to show Washington it 'exists'

(BRUSSELS) - Europe needs to show Washington it "exists" and not fear being marginalised on the world stage, the Spanish EU presidency said Thursday after Barack Obama pulled out of a planned summit.

The scheduled visit by Obama had been a high point on the EU calendar, and some observers have seen his decision not to attend as a snub -- or, perhaps worse, a lack of interest in hearing what Europe has to say.

"We must be able to show our North American friends that Europe exists, that in a complex world we can best defend our values if the United States and Europe go forward hand in hand," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told a European parliamentary committee in Brussels.

"Europe today is always on the defensive" but it "must not fear the G2" he added, referring to the US and China club where Europe is having difficulty getting heard.

Moratinos, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency for the first half of the year, sought to play down the significance of Obama's decision not to attend May's planned EU-US summit

He spoke of a "delay" in the summit programme due to a calendar clash.

At the same time, Moratinos made it clear Obama's decision was not without consequence, saying an "ambitious new transatlantic agenda" could be delayed.

A senior US official justified the decision, pointing the finger at Europe and blaming confusion over who exactly runs European foreign policy.

The EU's new reforming Lisbon Treaty created the role of a reinforced EU foreign affairs supremo, a post handed to British peer Catherine Ashton.

The system of the rotating EU presidency is continued but, according to the treaty, at a lower level.

On top of that there is the EU Council's first president, Herman Van Rompuy, EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek, leaving ample room for confusion over who speaks for Europe.

According to analysts, Obama was unimpressed by the two EU-US summits he attended last year in Prague and Washington, and by the multitude of EU representatives across the table from him.

"You can see when he is looking down the schedule of things to do this year how he would say: 'Well, I can go to Europe for another nice ding-dong over nothing, which I don't really understand, at which the Europeans seem to want me along almost as an umpire'," was how Hugo Brady, researcher at the London-based Centre for European Reform, put it.

Moratinos appeared to agree; the lesson Europe should take is that the content of its meetings with the US is important, not just the frequency, he said.

"The summit's postponement shows there isn't a perception of urgency on the US side" regarding transatlantic dossiers, particularly when there are "burning issues" such as Afghanistan and Iran, Moratinos added.

Europe also felt snubbed at international climate talks in Copenhagen on December when the United States left it to one side and negotiated a minimal deal with China and India.

At Copenhagen "we didn't have a clear negotiating position or a single negotiator," Moratinos complained Thursday.