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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs June 1, 2007 Europeans and Americans want more Transatlantic Cooperation
To this end we went back in time - albeit only a few weeks back in time - to an encouraging survey conducted by the highly regarded Bertelsmann Foundation, created by Gütersloh-based German global media giant Bertelsmann to promote social change. In late April, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Bertelsmann Foundation and several other partners hosted the annual "Brussels Forum", a high-level meeting of the minds that brought together some 300 leaders and thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic in the capital of Europe for a series of collective brainstorming sessions. The Bertelsmann Foundation's clear and simple message, just ahead of the EU-US Summit held on April 30 at the White House: Europeans and Americans want more transatlantic cooperation. And it backed this message up with a compelling survey of 12,000 citizens in the US and in 11 European countries conducted by TNS EMNID on behalf of the Bertelsmann Foundation last March. According to this survey, people on both sides of the Atlantic agree that today's key issues are action on climate change, prevention of further nuclear proliferation, ensuring a secure energy supply and the international promotion of democracy. Among the Europeans surveyed, the Germans seem to have best overcome the tensions in transatlantic relations following the Iraq conflict. "They seem particularly open to the idea of closer cooperation with the US," the Foundation said in a statement. About 90 percent of Germans surveyed said they supported greater cooperation on climate change, while the numbers supporting greater coordination on the promotion of democracy worldwide and in securing energy supplies were 84 percent and 80 percent respectively. There was also broad backing for a shared approach to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in states such as Iran, and bringing peace to the Middle East. Cooperation with the US was moreover positively welcomed by the Germans, Finns and Spanish, albeit somewhat less so in a few of the other EU countries that took part in the survey. "The Americans in turn expressed great interest in entering into dialogue with Europe," the statement added. "Around 80 percent of those surveyed favored greater levels of coordination on climate protection, the control of potential nuclear proliferation in countries like Iran, and ensuring a secure energy supply." Action on climate change was at the top of the European agenda, while Americans were more concerned about secure energy supply and the nuclear question (i.e. Iran). However, awareness of climate protection has risen in the US, ranking third in the list of major concerns at 78 percent. Meanwhile 66 percent of Europeans and 75 percent of US citizens were in favor of greater cooperation in stabilizing the Middle East. At the same time, a majority on both sides of the Atlantic would like to see the mutual abolition of trade impediments - a topic that was addressed at the EU-US summit in Washington. Only a tiny number of respondents were against closer cooperation between Europeans and Americans. This figure was 4 percent in Europe and just 1 percent in the US. Gregor Peter Schmitz, director of the Bertelsmann Foundation's Brussels Project Office, said that the survey results reflect the willingness to place transatlantic relations on a new footing: "The period of uncertain reflection on the state of relations following the discord over the Iraq conflict has been replaced with a pragmatic rapprochement. Europeans and Americans are now less inclined to take this relationship for granted and are mapping out specific areas for greater cooperation." He believed that this was explained by the growing awareness in Washington of the limitations of military resources and the erosion of American "soft power". In Schmitz's analysis, "the openness to entering into dialogue with Europe is particularly pronounced in areas where US society has not yet found an agreed strategy of its own." You can download a summary of the opinion poll and all survey data at
www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de. Links: Germany's Presidency of the EU in 2007 Climate Change is Key Topic for Chancellor Merkel and House Speaker Pelosi (Germany.info) G8 Foreign Ministers Discuss Key International Issues at Meeting in Potsdam (Germany.info) EU/US Summit: Improving Economic Cooperation Between Europe and the United States (Germany.info) First Map to Use Name "America" Formally Presented to the United States (Germany.info) |
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