Most of the countries in the region are today legal members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. The countries of our region have a unique opportunity to emphasize the fundamental common strategic interests of the European Union, the United States and other democratic countries of the world.
Welcome Address
The current moment is quite unusual in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the short history after 1989. And as for the EU: Will we witness a dominance of the feeling of fundamental bonds and unity of interests with.
Opening Speech
And it is precisely the situation within states that determines relations between states today. The case of Poland can be generalized to include the other countries of East Central Europe and to prove a substantial change in the situation of the region.
Jacques Rupnik
From 1992 onwards, Germany was practically not involved in the management of the crisis itself. This historical and political divide in the political culture of Central Europe now has a limited meaning in the context of "Europe vs.
Timothy Snyder
Now some conclusions about the importance of historical reference points in the context of the EU. It is important to emphasize the influence of the situation in Austria on the opportunities of Ukrainians in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Discussion
That is why in the 1830s and 1840s there was the movement, a fairly important one, of 'Young Europe'. The dilemma of Central and Eastern Europe is completely different from the dilemmas of the 19th century.
Europe in US policy
David P. Calleo
The US is not interested in European integration in both senses of the word "interest". After all, Western Europe was the great prize of the Cold War, one that the United States could not afford to lose. As we saw things in America, the Soviet collapse left the US the big winner of the Cold War.
America's obsession with its own unipolar fantasy has displaced America's interest in the grand vision of Europe.
Pierre Hassner
This is not necessarily the case for their interests, for although there is a contradiction between the two agendas of old Europe and the United States, there are still many basic points of common interest, such as terrorism or the predictable rise of China, the interest in a stable capitalist system; out of necessity both are interested in the Middle East, in oil, in Iran and in non-proliferation. And Acheson's idea was that one should encourage European unity, but only so long as it is in an Atlantic framework, under the benevolent leadership of the United States; should not be allowed to compete. This is an area that Europe and the United States must take care of, and where European integration can be a very important and powerful tool, as this is Europe's main tool.
There is a difference in the visions between the US and Europe regarding the relationship with the countries on the threshold of Europe, which are politically very important for the US.
Ken Jowitt
If the US were to 'withdraw' from the world during a second Bush administration, there would initially be enormous relief in many sectors in Europe. And enjoy, or at least benefit from, an ambivalent but effective relationship with both the US and the EU. If the choice was for America, those in the US who fear a Mexican immigrant takeover would be delighted, as would the UKIP.
Europe does not need military power equivalent to the United States; it needs a level of political and ideological coherence on which its past success was based.
Anne-Marie Slaughter
I realize this sounds very utopian; I am aware of many of the EU's problems. This would make Europe even more attractive to the rest of the world. I think the addition of ten new members, many of whom are perhaps more reflexively Euro-Atlantic, will be valuable to the United States.
It is one of the few parts of the world where France and the United States work well together.
European attitudes towards US and transatlantic relations
Christoph Bertram
At the same time, the divisions we have witnessed between the members of the European Union (both those that were already in it before May 1, 2004 and those that joined on that day) will probably remain, at least temporarily. Enlargement has many consequences for the European Union's foreign policy and security policy in the Union. Today, it is interesting to see that when the Finns joined the European Union a few years ago, and did so primarily for security and not economic reasons, they managed to shape the Union's policy in one important aspect - the northern dimension. .
In relation to the USA, they will also be less pronounced, because the overall interest of the EU members is to have and maintain a close relationship with the USA.
Robert Cooper
Similarly, you can see it in the attitude towards, for example, the targeted assassination in Israel, which is again universally condemned in Europe and not in the US. So NATO, far from being the first place to deal with the problems, is not at all in the game. The most striking thing about solutions in the Balkans, although they are still a long way off, is that they are joint European-American solutions.
One last note, I don't agree with Christoph Bertram, I think there is some serious damage to the relationship and it becomes visible in the language.
Ivan Krastev
And these bureaucracies will be much more pro-European because this is their career. As a result, political elites and democratic elites in Central and Eastern Europe will not tolerate anti-Americanism as a mainstream discourse for domestic political reasons. There is also one important geostrategic difference that will cause problems in relations between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe.
I believe that the healthiest thing for US-European relations will be to try to treat the Iraq crisis and the fact that Central and Eastern Europe sided with the US as an isolated case from which no conclusions can be drawn can pull. (just like the Spanish case where the change of government meant a change of policy).
Dominique Moïsi
What do we propose to Morocco, to North Africa, which will not become members of the EU. The Middle East and the Middle East's Emotional Impact on US-Europe Relations. I think in the long run it can only fail, especially in that part of the world.
This alliance, of a member of the EU and the US, just smashes the EU. From this point of view the problem of the European interest is becoming very difficult. It is very difficult to simply say that we are going to avoid the war when one of the countries in the alliance is in a state of war.
Special Lecture
America and Europe
That's what both sides of the Atlantic need to answer, and that's something I'm committed to. They cannot be handled by the principles of sovereignty and the definitions of aggression that were worked out in the period of the nation state. It is a question of the tactics by which we get a UN resolution, but in terms of what we are trying to achieve.
In the Middle East, some of the issues are like those of seventeenth-century Europe during the religious wars.
Questions
Any political action is mostly incomplete and represents only a partial solution and therefore never fully fulfills absolute values. I respect the representative of the Secretary-General who goes around trying to assemble a government. You must understand that I am speaking here as a private citizen, not as a representative of the United States government.
My basic point was that President Bush was right in principle when he pointed out what the parameters of a solution should be, but that it should be achieved through a combination of America, Europe and moderate Arab countries.
Central and Eastern Europe in search of a place in Europe and worldwide
The question we would like to ask is what we think today about the new position and about the prospects of our region in Europe and in the world. I would like to remind you of a sentence that Timothy Garton Ash wrote in the 1980s saying that 'in Europe there are those who have Europe and those who know what Europe is'. There are a number of practical questions: what will be the role of East-Central Europe, I would not dare to use the term 'the new Europe', in the European Union.
And finally, the question that was discussed yesterday and today - what will be the role of our part of Europe in building new relationship between Europe and the United States, the transatlantic relationship.
Timothy Garton Ash
Paradoxically it seems to me that the main effect of this expansion is to focus our attention on the necessity of future expansion. This means that the strategic definition of greater Europe comes down to what it does to its neighbors, and it can do two kinds of things. What we know how to do is what I call 'induction policy', that is, a set of policies that lead eventually to membership of the European Union.
The second example – the Maghreb, an area of vital interest to Europe as immigration policy, especially from the Muslim world, threatens to destabilize the entire internal politics of the European Union.
Bronisław Geremek
My second comment is the question of whether the concept of the West is a completely outdated term. In such a situation, when we are faced with the emergence of terrorism, the concept of the West can be useful and applicable. Because of the fifth article of the Washington Treaty, it is still relevant as far as peace in Europe is concerned.
Thinking about the future of this relationship: perhaps this reference to the unity of the West can be a good argument.
Heather Grabbe
And the somewhat different understanding of power also affects how the new members will approach one of the biggest strategic issues the EU must face in the coming years – and that is its relationship with Russia. The final issue is actually these three big countries – of course the new EU members do not want to see the EU dominated only by the big countries. I would like to ask a question about the eastern dimension of the new enlarged European Union.
Recently I have seen at least two important expressions of the EU's international role and responsibility that is the European security strategy.
Elemér Hankiss
Moldova, also in the Ukraine, and you certainly hear it in the Caucasus right now, which brings me to the second interesting point, about Georgia and Russia, that Robert Cooper raised. But just to add to what Robert Cooper said about this issue of Russia coming up on the agenda - there is strong division in Europe about whether it is right and fair and inevitable for Russia to establish a natural sphere of influence in the countries which part of its influence during the Soviet period. Collin Powell was just in Tbilisi to congratulate Sakashvili on the Rose Revolution, when will a high-level EU delegation go to Tbilisi to do the same?' And Franco Frattini, who was of the Berlusconi persuasion on this matter, replied: "We only consult - with Moscow when it will be appropriate." It tells you a lot about the differences in the views between some of the old members and the new members about the power of Russia.
The determinants of influence in the EU are not really votes or even necessarily size.
