European Institute

Offers of help from European countries to the U.S. in dealing with the Gulf oil-spill have been welcomed and publicly acknowledged in Washington. The Obama administration has been markedly more receptive to these trans-Atlantic overtures of solidarity than the preceding Bush administration was during the Katrina hurricane disaster. Alongside U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico, two littoral nations from Europe -- Norway and the Netherlands – have already sent equipment to help with the crisis. Both have experience with offshore drilling emergencies, and they have already sent over eight skimming systems, which arrived in the U.S. in early May.

The Obama administration has unveiled a broad set of national space policies that emphasize the President’s desire for a fresh approach to international cooperation in the space community – possibly including arms control accords about space. Until now, the U.S. has been a lone hold-out against the calls for such treaties concerning space and the goal of progress on “demilitarizing” space.

G-20’s COMPROMISE RHETORIC IS DESIGNED AS BRIDGE TO NOVEMBER SUMMIT – MEANT TO BE CRUCIAL G-20 EVENT

The outcome of the latest G-20 summit had something for everyone – mostly in the form of delaying any drastic policy changes by any of the governments involved. No binding decisions were taken on implementing any of the changes in financial systems that were on the table ahead of the Toronto meeting. Instead, the artful main decision offered a (non-binding) pledge that governments should focus on how and when to start curbing their pro-jobs stimulus and move toward budget cutbacks as the basis for more sustainable growth.

Ensuring a high-quality lifestyle is no challenge for European cities at their urban cores. A recent ranking of global cities – by special and sophisticated criteria reflecting modern priorities for living conditions – Europe claims 14 of the 25 top-ranked cities. The United States only made it into two slots, none in the top 10.

As leaders head to Toronto for a G-20 summit meeting this weekend, the stage is set for the EU and the U.S. to air their clashing views about the right priority for national fiscal policies at this stage of the crisis.

The meeting will thus be a sounding board – and little else. Major collective decisions are scheduled for the G-20’s subsequent meeting this fall in South Korea.

But a trans-atlantic clash of views has become increasingly strident about what fiscal strategy to adopt now amid signs of global economic recovery. The Obama administration is publicly urging Europe to copy the U.S. example of continuing to pump money into the system in order to spur economic growth. But key EU leaders – notably Germany – are publicly insisting that it is time to rein in deficit spending to tackle the accumulating (and already monumental) debt.