Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas und seine globale Rolle in Jalta

Auch heuer fand in Jalta eine Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas und seiner globale Rolle statt. Ich wurde gebeten -neben dem EVP Abgeordneten Brock – einige Bemerkungen zum Verhältnis EU – USA zu machen. Und zwar nach  einer kurzen Diskussion zwischen einem engen Mitarbeiter von Clinton und Obama aus der Chicago Daley Dynastie und dem früheren republikanischen Speaker des Abgeordneten-hauses Newt Gingrich. Dieser war ja auch im Rennen zur Nominierung des republikanischen Gegenkandidaten bevor er gegen Mitt Romney verlor. Beide versuchten natürlich die Vorzüge des jeweiligen Kandidaten hervorzusheben, wobei Gingrich das hinsichtlich seines früheren Konkurrenten sehr zurückhaltend äußerte. Er konzentrierte sich auf die Kritik an Obama.

Unmittelbar vor dieser “ Lunch Discussion “ gab es eine Rede zur internationalen Lage  von der ehemaligen US- Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice. Sie ist sicher eine beeindruckende Person, auch wenn sie dem falschen Präsidenten diente und manchmal auch der falschen Sache. Da sie eine außenpolitische Expertin ist, sprach sie auch über Europa, was die beiden Redner zur Präsidentschaftskampagne tunlichst vermieden. Rice forderte wie das in den USA üblich ist eine klare „Leadership“ der USA, meinte aber doch, dass es zwei „Nordsterne“ gibt die USA und Europa und beide müssten ihre globalen  Verpflichtungen erfüllen. Die inneren Probleme dürfen den Blick nach außen nicht verdunkeln.

Ich habe auch viel an der US Politik zu kritisieren, aber dennoch glaube ich an den Sinn einer tragfähigen atlantischen Allianz. Es gibt manches was uns trennt, aber vieles was uns gemeinsam ist – an Werten und an Interessen. So ist auch ein Freihandelsabkommen mit den USA durchaus sinnvoll. Das meinte ich auch der US Chefverhandlerin Shapiro, die mich letzte Woche in Strassburg  besuchte, gegenüber. Aber die Interessen unserer Wirtschaft und Arbeitsplätze und vor allem unsere kulturellen Werte und Identitäten müssen dabei gewahrt werden. Und in fast allen Fragen ist dabei  mein Vertrauen gegenüber Obama stärker als gegenüber Romney. Bei aller Enttäuschung über Obama im Einzelnen, viele Ansichten und Vorschläge von Romney machen mir Angst. So machte ich etwa folgende Bemerkungen:

„It is always a question, if elections today change very much. Things -internally but also externally- are so complicated and there are so many influences and interconnections, that to change things dramatically is very difficult. During election campaigns the differences  are underlined.  But after? This also enhances the disappointment of many citizens about democratic procedures and leads to strong abstention. This is also a problem for Obamas reelection.

Nevertheless I expect of course some changes, especially in internal policies. But what about the relations between US and Europe? During Obama, Europe left Obama alone and did not have any effective growth policy which could strengthen our common economic recovery. We relied and still rely too much on an extreme austerity policy. So Mitt Romney’s election and policies may ironically bring Europe and the US closer. But personally and as leader of Social Democrats I see this very negative.  Because we need a lot of structural reforms and also some savings. But we cannot rely only on cutting wages, pensions and by thus internal demand even more.

Now you may increase internal demand by reducing taxes. But the reduction of taxes for the rich with their lower propensity to spend will finally reduce internal demand not and increase unemployment. So tax policy including policies to fight against tax evasion is an important issue for the cooperation or non-cooperation between the US and Europe.

Also the regulation of the financial markets should be of Convention for both and be subject for close cooperation. Both the Congress and the European Parliament tried to cooperate in their legislative work immediately after the beginning of the financial crises. Unfortunately this has been far too inefficient and timid. We also got no support from the US, concerning a Financial Transaction Tax. But Democrats have at least a readiness to discuss these issues in contrast to the Republicans.

Concerning the Free Trade Agreement between the US and EU we are just starting exploratory talks and both sides have their preferences and their obstacles to overcome. It will be at least as difficult with Mitt Romney as with Barack Obama.

We just heard about the enormous danger of cyber criminality. Also here we need a lot of cooperation not in attacking cyber systems but first of all in defending our structures against attacks.

Concerning international especially military intervention Europe is much more hesitant than the US. And after the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq even new Europe, to use the expression of Donald Rumsfeld, will be much more hesitant. Nevertheless the field of foreign and security policy is the big field of strong cooperation. And until now we cannot see how the election in the US will make a big difference.

Certainly in the Middle East it was easier to cooperate with the US under president Obama. But even here we had a lot of differences not so much on principles than on the question on implementing these principles and on putting pressure on the present Israeli government. And concerning the Arab and Islam world in general we welcomed very much the Cairo speech by Obama. I cannot imagine such a speech by Romney.

Condoleezza Rice expressed her hope for Europe and the US to stay as shining  „North stars“.  If we want to stay as North stars we can do it only together, alas not without criticism and without dialogue. But we can only do it with mutual respect and with keeping an outward looking attitude, irrespective of our internal problems. If Condoleezza Rice speaks of leadership („we have to lead again“) it always is the question what leadership means. Anyway military leadership counts much less than before. Europe may underestimate the role of a strong military; the US very often overestimates military leadership. So let’s work together in realizing that we together have a declining part of world’s population.“