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| Europe |
| Obama to Skip Annual EU Summit |
| 2010-02-03 |
| WASHINGTON—The White House has decided that President Barack Obama will not attend what has been an annual summit with the European Union this spring, as Mr. Obama scales back from his record-setting foreign travel last year. No one left to bow to? White House officials said Sunday that the subdued travel schedule was always planned. But it comes as the president's domestic agenda is faltering and he is focusing on economic and political troubles at home. His State of the Union speech last week concentrated heavily on economic and domestic issues, with just a small section on foreign policy. The decision to skip the EU summit will likely disappoint many Europeans, especially in Spain, current holder of the rotating EU presidency, which expected to host the summit in Madrid in May. It may also feed fears that Mr. Obama views the EU as irrelevant. Most Americans, though, are unfamiliar with the meeting. They should have arranged for him to receive some kind of award. A spokesman for the Spanish foreign ministry had no comment. A European foreign minister said he was told that the U.S. might reschedule the session for this fall, when Mr. Obama plans to travel to Portugal for a NATO summit. Another possibility is to invite Europeans to Washington for a session this spring. U.S. officials didn't say what, if anything, they are planning in place of the summit. Last year, Mr. Obama went to Europe six times. He had a total of 10 foreign trips to 21 nations, more than any previous president in his first year, according to statistics kept by Mark Knoller of CBS News, who tracks presidential travel. In the coming year, the president will travel to places he hasn't visited and consolidate as much of the travel as possible, a senior administration official said. In his first year, Mr. Obama needed to The president has been expected to travel to Asia this spring, to South Africa this summer and to Portugal for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in the fall. Officials have said he might go to Europe again to sign a nuclear disarmament treaty if an agreement is reached. Foreign policy requires work. It involves a lot more than showing up once and bedazzling leaders. Obama has demonstrated how ill-prepared he is for such a role. |
| Posted by:Free Radical |