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Merkel in Washington

Hello America. Ready to Work Together?

By Gregor Peter Schmitz

German Chancellor Angela Merkel went to Washington with an ambitious agenda of initiatives ranging from deepened economic ties between the EU and US to a plan to get the Mideast peace process back on track. Merkel risks political capital by pitching her ideas to a lame duck president. But the world can't afford to wait.

Angela Merkel's visit to Washington this week was all business: The German chancellor flew, talked, ate and then flew again. It was a working trip with a simple message: Hello America, life goes on and we're ready to work with you again.

There's been a recent warming of relations between the European Union and the United States. But that is easily forgotten in a Washington that seems paralyzed as it waits for Bush's next step in Iraq and for a new Congress to take power. Enter Angela Merkel, who has pledged to make EU-US relations a priority during Germany's six-month presidency of the 27-member European club. Indeed, her first trip abroad in that role was to Washington, not Brussels -- and the gesture paid off. The trans-Atlantic tailwind of support from Washington will boost Merkel in the dual role as president of the EU and chair of the G-8 she assumed on Jan. 1.

Merkel traveled to Washington at Bush's invitation. It's not the complexities of EU policies that interest him, but rather Merkel's considerable influence across Europe. With Merkel at its helm, Germany has once again resumed its special role as being both pro-European and pro-American -- and that's something that Bush has come to appreciate during her first year in office. Merkel is one of the few European leaders who isn't the target of the prejudices many Americans harbor about the EU. Indeed, she actually has power to prove those skeptics wrong.

But how? Merkel has proposed closer trans-Atlantic economic cooperation. It's a reasonable idea precisely because it's so unreasonably visionary -- a rarity in European-American relations these days. The idea is to apply some of the core principles behind the EU -- namely reconciliation through trade -- to the US-EU partnership.

Of course, implementation will be a far more painstaking process than drafting the proposal -- and trans-Atlantic observers are far more skeptical than Merkel and Bush appeared on Thursday. The recent failure to forge a trans-Atlantic "open skies" treaty -- aimed at liberalizing international aviation markets -- underscores just how difficult cooperation can be in certain sectors. It could also take years before the two sides are able to consider the appropriate institutions to facilitate deeper trade ties. Still, even a slight increase in bilateral trade and closer trans-Atlantic coordination in the stalled Doha Round of WTO talks would be progress.

Mideast peace push

Even more pressing (and a greater threat to Germany's EU agenda in the coming six months) are the world's conflict regions. The suitcase of issues Merkel took to Washington was packed so full that some feared she might collapse under the strain before she even got there. It was bulging with new initiatives for the Middle East, Iran, adopting renewable energies and working to counteract dangerous climate change. In all of these areas, true progress is only possible with US participation -- and if the Americans refuse, Merkel risks standing alone.

Given how little Merkel has to offer the Americans, this is a daring act. She could offer to slightly step up Germany's efforts to train Iraqi police, boost the Bundeswehr's engagement in Afghanistan and Berlin's mediation efforts in Syria and the Middle East. But Bush's encouraging reaction to her Mideast proposal (he called it a "good idea!") and the announcement of Condoleezza Rice's plan to travel to the region shows that America is currently in a state of collective reflection. All of its strategies are under review and sentiment is even growing that the problem can only be fixed by working in concert with the Europeans.

Indeed, there was nothing coincidental about the fact that Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor under the first President Bush, published an editorial on the day of Merkel's visit echoing Europe's calls for greater US engagement in the Middle East peace process and talks with "rogue states" like Syria. Rather than obsessing over the same old debates about whether the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is the central conflict and whether the military option is "off the table" or still on it for Iran -- it's time to push for new initiatives.

But maneuvering with a president who is nearing the end of his career and whose successors will do everything they can to distance themselves from him, will be difficult. Indeed, during her next visit to the US, Merkel will have to carefully consider which presidential candidates she chooses to meet with. Nevertheless, two years is too long to wait -- and it was prudent of the chancellor to also include on her agenda issues like energy and climate protection that transcend partisan politics. These issues could actually present the greatest opportunities for trans-Atlantic cooperation.

The eternal fixation on the Kyoto Protocol has prevented many Europeans from engaging in a lively debate over climate change. American states (and not just Arnold Schwarzenegger's California) are testing new instruments like CO2 emissions trading schemes. When the Bush Administration dismissed the British "Stern Report" about the threat of climate catastrophe as "one of many," people all across America protested. And former Bill Clinton campaign guru James Carville made headlines with a study claiming that an independent energy supply will be the most important issue during the next presidential campaign. A renewed awareness of the environment will no doubt result.

Together, these developments have forced a slight change in Bush -- at least in his rhetoric. Bush said during his press conference on Thursday that the "stale debates" over climate change were behind him. Still, even if he does plan to comprehensively address the issues of energy and climate in his "State of the Union Address" at the end of the month, there is little chance one will hear the words "save energy" muttered by members of the current administration.

But perhaps his successor might dare to create an energy policy that would slowly put an end to a wasteful "American way of life" that sees gas-guzzling SUVs plying the streets and too little effort when it comes to improving energy efficiency. The crucial step now is to advance the discussion over emissions reduction targets for the period after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. And even if this is the only vision that remains at the upcoming EU-US summit in April, one word from Merkel's vocabulary from her former post as Germany's environment minister will still apply to her policies: sustainability.

Gregor Peter Schmitz heads the trans-Atlantic office of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Brussels.