28 October 2008

BRUSSELS - "You're either with us or against us." The words of US President George W Bush on 6 November 2001 came to be seen in Europe as embodying everything that is wrong with the United States' current foreign policy.

While the European Union has 27 member states with widely differing attitudes on everything from nuclear power to defence spending, they all want the same thing from the next US president - cooperation.

Challenges such as the financial crisis, climate change and terrorism have "no respect for national frontiers. America and Europe have no choice but to face them together", the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, wrote in a letter addressed to the undecided future president of the world's biggest power on 24 September.

On 4 November, US voters will elect a new president. Just hours before polls open, EU foreign ministers in the French port of Marseille will write a joint letter to Bush's successor detailing how they want the EU-US relationship to develop.

Diplomats in Brussels told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) that their key wish is for the US to abandon Bush's unilateral foreign policy and work with Europe to address the world's biggest problems.

"The question is how much isolation will be applied in the US after the elections. We're saying that we would like close ties, so it would not be the best option for them to close up and focus on internal problems", an official from a new EU member state said.

Diplomats highlight five key areas where they would like to see more cooperation: financial stability, climate change, the reform of international organisations, trade and foreign policy.

World leaders will hold talks on the world financial crisis on 15 November in Washington as they search for a joint response.

But EU diplomats also want the US to commit to compulsory cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions, something Bush long opposed.

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