Social media, the EU-USA summit & the question who will be important

By chance I saw that there is a Facebook group supporting that the coming EU-USA Summit will not take place in Madrid but in Brussels.

This seems to be part of the power struggle between the institutions after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that foresees the weakening of the rotating Council presidency in favour of the permanent European Council President Herman van Rompuy.

I agree that a summit in Brussels might be more natural, but why having everything in Brussels - our Union is more diverse than the faceless Eurodistrict!

But there is more story to the EU-USA summit:

The main German online news Spiegel Online also reported yesterday that the summit in Madrid is seeing extreme diplomatic battles over who will shake Obama's hand first - Zapatero or van Rompuy - and who will sit next to the US President during the dinner later on.

According to the news, van Rompuy's team offered to Zapatero that he may have the first handshake while the European Council President will sit on the right side of Obama, Barroso will sit on the left and Zapatero will sit opposite to the US-President, a position without camera exposure.

If anyone from the Council or the Council presidency is reading this: I don't care where the summit is, but this kind of diplomatic bullshit that you spend your time (and thus our money) on is ridiculous!

Update: It seems to be confirmed as it has found its way into national media what Blaat has already written in the comments - that Obama apparently won't come to the summit which isn't much of a summit anymore if the president is missing. And there are sources quoted saying that it was exactly this kind of diplomatic comedy about who has the bigger ... that made the American side decide not to come on highest level.

Obama wins Peace Nobel Prize for talking

The only good thing Obama has brought to Europe lately is to abandon the missile shield plans.

For the rest, I share what I read almost everywhere on Twitter and Facebook: Obama should not have won the Peace Nobel Prize, not while having Guantanamo open, not before meeting the Dalai Lama, not while still having his military stationed in two foreign countries, not while he hasn't changed anything but talk.

At best, he gets it for hope - but winning for words is not enough, you need to win on action!

PS.: Proposed hashtags for Twitter: #warnobelprize #wordsnobelprize #hopenobelprize #failnobelprize

Barroso more expensive than Obama (and not worth the money)

Open Europe recently stressed that Barroso earns more than Obama and will receive pensions and other payments right after leaving the Commission that will reach about one million Euros. The story has been taken over by EUobserver.

From Puisney:

[...] les salaires qui s’élèvent à environ 236.000€ par an par commissaire, 296.000€ pour le président Barroso. Soit plus que le président américain Barack Obama (400.000$, soit 293.000€). Pas mal pour un super secrétaire représentant même pas élu au suffrage universel !

Very good remarks, indeed, given the recent salary bashing. Especially the comparison of a directly elected president and a quasi-secretary (although slightly polemic) is very pertinent to me.

In fact, we are paying a lot of money to somebody who is doing a bad job (and might be re-elected because of this) - and we cannot do anything about it!

Barack Obama, the inauguration speech, and the future of US-EU relations

Discussing with a colleague this morning, I said that Obama's national and international reputation is on its peak today, so if he can do something positive, inter alia for US-EU relations, than now is the time.

My colleague was rather sceptical about the international profile of Obama, saying that he will have to focus to build larger national coalitions in order to get things done at home. Therefore, his influence on international relations might not be as big as his image is.

Nevertheless, we were both convinced that Obama will never be able to stand to the expectations put into him, and that today will be the end of Obamania - tomorrow will start the real life.

European Parliament elections 2009 (29): PES, Obama, and the campaign

Apparently, the Party of European Socialists (PES) is, inter alia, discussing how to take elements of the Obama campaign onto the European level:

People wanted to know more about some aspects of the US campaign, how the Obama movement could be "exported" into Europe, some concrete ideas were presented and discussed, and the general mood was that this campaign will be an important opportunity for the PES family to present itself as the main political force in Europe.

This campaign of the European Socialists will, with or without Obama, run under the PES manifesto slogan:

People first: a New direction for Europe

which is nice but lacks some fire, some energy, because it sounds very impersonal. "People first" is a typical political slogan, but it is standard, it is dry, it is lame, because it does neither directly address the people nor does it include them.

Obama's "Yes, we can" was far more inclusive, and the success of his campaign - beside its professional organisation - was his ability to construct this message of inclusiveness. The PES slogan sounds again like top-down politics, like "We care for you, people", instead of "Let us jointly care for a new European Union". So it is typical EU, it is thought from the head, from the top of the pyramid. And that is the second thing: The PES slogan asks for a "new direction of Europe", but the elections are not about "Europe" but about the "European Union". This is a difference! The European Union's political scene has to realise that for 2009 we are not talking about this very vague concept of "Europe" but that we are entering into a campaign for a very precise polity which is called "European Union". Behind, there is the vision of Europe, and maybe the vision could be adapted, but its the Union that is mislead, not Europe.

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Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.
I know that this might also sound very technical to replace "Europe" with "European Union", and it might not be very nice for a slogan, but the difference is importance: "Europe" is an idea, a concept, a project, maybe even a fiction, but the European Union is concrete. It exists, it influences our lives, it regulates our food, it guarantees our freedoms, it finances projects that affect all of us directly or indirectly. So this campaign is partly about Europe, but it is mainly about the European Union.

If national and European politicians will be able to explain this to possible voters, these voters might start to realise that they are actually affected by the results of the 2009 parliamentary elections. Many might not feel attached to the vagueness of "Europe", they might not care for the vision and they might even not share it, but they at least need to realise the concreteness of the European Union and the concrete importance of these elections which are parliamentary elections, not just a game.

So coming back to the PES slogan: It is mislead and misleading in a double sense: It addresses people from the outside instead of including them, and it addresses the vision (which cannot get a new direction) instead of the real project (that definitely needs a new direction).

The slogan bores me - me, who actually shares the vision that the Union should be for everyone (and, for example, not just for elites), and it might thus also bore possible voters.

But that is not on me to judge.

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Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

A female Obama for Europe!

You are looking for a female Obama? You are looking for her on the European continent?

What about Rama Yade?!

No, Barack Obama couldn't!

Sorry, but this was kind of weak. This was a political speech, but not a historic one.

Okay, Obama presented some nice rhetoric, he got his applause, he made his compliments, he has his visions, but you could hear with every word that he tried to avoid every possible political mine, here in Germany and Europe, at home in the US, and elsewhere in the world.

In some phrases, his writers could construct his vision, but the visionary force he develops in domestic speeches was not in his eyes. He spoke out of calculation, not so much out of deep conviction. His personal story that works domestically does not really work on the international scene. This makes his message much weaker here than it is in the USA.

And he did not address some very concrete and important issues: No word about Guantanamo, no word about a wrong war in Irak, no real promise that an America under his leadership would join binding global agreements e.g. to tackle global climate and energy problems. And while he talked about a world without nuclear weapons, no word about global superpowers like the US also abandoning these disgusting weapons.

So, Obama got his European backdrop, he had his audience, and now let's see what he can make out of it.

Yes I could!

If I left now, I still could be in time for Senator Obama's speech here in Berlin. YES, I COULD! This man knows how to deliver a speech. And I love listening to him - not for everything he is saying, but for saying some excellent things in his positively prepossessing manner.

Yet, this kind of cheer-and-applause events for just one single person always make me hesitate. It doesn't count that this is the "Yes we can"-man Barack Obama. It doesn't count that he might become the Democratic candidate for the post of US president. It just counts that he as so many charismatic leaders wants the masses to follow.

But cheering within the masses means being a sheep in a herd following the shepherd, for the good and for the bad. And having German ancestors makes me quite reluctant being such a sheep.

I think I have a more active vision of political involvement, a more discursive one. So I will watch and listen to Obama at home. If he inspires me, you will hear about it. If he disappoints me, you will hear about. And if he remains irrelevant for me or for Europe, I will find other interesting topics to blog about. And you will definitely here about these!

Big daddies grudge big mamma Obama

I was quite amused reading in leading German online news-source SPIEGEL.DE (with an English language sub-division lagging behind temporally) that French president Sarkozy and British premier Brown are not amused that Obama's trip to Germany gets more attention than his visits to their respective countries.

Obama's camp is cited saying that their focus on Germany is because Mrs. Merkel is supposed to be the most influential political figure in Europe, Gordon Brown being in troubles domestically and Nicolas Sarkozy being not long enough in power.

Rrr, nice little causeless conflicts... That is what the press is longing for.


Remark: Obama will speak in front of the Siegessäule (Victory Column) in Berlin on Thursday, and masses are expect to listen to him along the "17th June Street", famously known for the "Fans' Mile" during the last football World Cup and European Championship.

Obama at the Brandenburg Gate?

Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee as US presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, wants to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on 24 July 2008.

Since the Brandenburg Gate is an important historical monument and political speeches in front of this backdrop have always had historical importance, German politicians are now debating whether Obama as a candidate should be allowed to campaign there (that is, before he has been elected president).

Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democrats, centre-right) feels "alienated" by this idea while Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democrats, centre-left) has nothing against. However, the one to decide about this question is Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit (Social Democrats), famous for his inauguration speech "I am gay, and it's okay that way!". He seems to favour an Obama speech at the Brandenburg Gate, but has not yet decided officially.

The story on other blogs:

O'Connal Street
Tizona's Weblog