TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS | 20.05.2010
Greek bailout emerges as election campaign topic in the US
The title says it all. The European Bailout Protection Act would require the Obama administration to prohibit the International Monetary Fund from using any US funds for helping out Greece and other European states until those countries have curbed their massive debts. Mike Pence, a senior Republican congressman who introduced the bill, said American taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for countries that live beyond their means.
"I think what you see is the Republican Party trying to mobilise its base, trying to find issues it can use to discredit the Obama administration," argues James Davis, director of the political science institute at the University of St. Gallen.
It's an important election year in the US and the bill is essentially part of the Republican campaign in the lead up to the midterm polls in November, says Niels Annen, a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington and former member of the German parliament for the Social Democrats. "I don't think it's part of serious legislation," he told Deutsche Welle.
First, because Democrats are still in control of Congress. And second, President Obama could block the bill with his veto anyway.
Sklerotic Europe
Still, note the experts, it wouldn't be prudent for European and American politicians to merely disregard the bill as political pandering in an election season.
"A lot of American opinion leaders seriously think that the European integration project has come to an end and that Americans should be careful to look too closely at European integration as something they should follow," says Annen.
Europe which until the Greek collapse unfolded was thought to have navigated through the financial crisis fairly well, is now being perceived rather negatively in the US.
"The view of Europe is again this sort of dysfunctional, sklerotic European Union," says Davis.
That is of course an overly simplistic image of the EU that doesn't take into account that most EU member states are in much better financial shape than Greece. What's more, íf you look at its budget deficit and national debt figures, the US isn't that far behind Greece.
European leaders were criticized for responding too late to the Greek crisis
So perhaps it wasn't the pure numbers alone, but more the protracted inaction by European leaders to tackle the crisis that led to consternation in Washington and ensured that the Greek collapse and the EU's crisis management was noted far beyond the usual Washington elite.
"I think the credit and the image of the European Union and its leaders has suffered in the last weeks and months here in the United States," says Annen.
"And insofar as Europe has been asking the United States to take it more seriously, in particular as an economic player on the global scene, the failure of Europe to provide leadership in its own backyard registers very quickly in Washington and in the broader public and one questions whether Europe really is a viable partner for solving some of these global issues that affect us all," notes Davis.
Common values
On a lighter note, at least the current round of transatlantic fingerpointing - the previous one saw Europe blaming the US for causing the global crisis - established one shared transatlantic value:
"American and German taxpayers have something in common and that is they don't like paying taxes and they certainly don't like paying taxes to bail out other countries that have been irresponsible in the use of public funds," says Davis.
Greece will have to start serious reforms and the US and Europe must agree on global regulationsThe more difficult task, say the experts, is to convince Europeans and Americans that benefits from global trade don't come without risks and that in order to limit those dangers global regulations are necessary.
"The idea of shared government and trade means reciprocality," Hall Gardner, an expert on comparative international politics at the American University of Paris, told Deutsche Welle. "If we don't support each other trade relations will fall apart."
At the moment, notes Annen, people in the US and in Europe have the impression that it's not their elected leaders who make decisions, but rather CEO's and large financial corporations.
Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic must now work together and implement shared rules and regulations to regain the confidence in democratic decision making.
Author: Michael Knigge
Editor: Rob Mudge
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