EU looks for new date for US summit after Obama's bombshell

Feb 2, 2010, 14:34 GMT

Brussels - The European Union is still hoping to schedule a meeting with US President Barack Obama later this year, despite his decision not to attend a planned summit in May, officials in Brussels said Tuesday.

Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, had scheduled the summit for May 24, but on Monday White House officials confirmed that Obama had no intention of attending.

'We will work with the US to find a mutually agreeable date for the summit ... People have busy schedules and Mr Obama has been to Europe a lot,' European Commission spokesman Michael Mann said.

Since 1997, the EU and US have held an annual summit, with a rough rotation between meetings on either side of the Atlantic.

   Obama paid a record number of visits - six - to Europe in 2009, including major events such as NATO's 60th anniversary (April) and the Copenhagen conference on climate change (December). He hosted the EU's presidency, then held by Sweden, in November.

   However, his domestic agenda is now under threat following the shock election of a Republican Senator in Massachusetts on January 20, leaving him keen to focus on issues at home.

The decision to skip the summit is a blow to the EU in its bid to portray itself as an indispensable partner for the US - especially after the bloc's approval of the Lisbon Treaty, which was meant to make the EU a more powerful global player.

One of the treaty's main innovations was the creation of a full-time EU president, who would host third-country summits in coordination with the rotating presidency.

The current president is Belgium's Herman Van Rompuy.

Officials in Van Rompuy's office said that the question of the US summit was primarily one for the Spanish presidency to deal with.