EU: The depth of the task facing John Bruton in Washington is laid bare in the latest survey to show a widening gap in relations between Europe and America.
The two are drifting further apart on security issues and the use of force following the Iraq war, according to the major transatlantic opinion survey published yesterday.
The Transatlantic Trends 2004 opinion poll of 11,000 Americans and Europeans, conducted in June and issued two months before a crucial US presidential election, suggested a fundamental change in transatlantic relations may be under way.
A growing majority of Europeans seek a more independent role from the US and three-quarters disapprove of President Bush's international policies, the survey found.
Some 58 per cent of Europeans said strong US leadership in the world was undesirable, an increase of nine percentage points from a similar poll last year. Only in Britain and the Netherlands do a majority desire strong US leadership. By contrast, 79 per cent of Americans support strong EU leadership in world affairs and look to Europe as their preferred partner for solving global problems, even though 51 per cent of them approve of Mr Bush's foreign policy.
The poll, conducted for the German Marshall Fund of the US and the Compagnia di San Paolo think-tank in Italy, highlighted wide differences over the justification for war and who should legitimise military action.
While Americans are almost evenly divided along ideological lines, 80 per cent of Europeans surveyed do not believe the US-led invasion of Iraq last year was worth the loss of life and cost. Some 73 per cent of Europeans believe the Iraq war increased the risk of terrorism, as do 49 per cent of Americans.
Asked whether war is necessary in some situations to obtain justice, more than 80 per cent of Americans - but only 40 per cent of Europeans - supported the proposition. Only Britain, with 69 per cent, came close to the US figure. The poll was not taken in Ireland but included nine other EU states: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia, as well as EU candidate Turkey.
The survey found 59 per cent of Americans support bypassing the UN when the vital interests of their country are involved. Europeans were more evenly split but a majority in several EU countries - Britain, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Poland and Portugal - supported that proposition.