CHICAGO — The United States and Europe need to strengthen their relationship, said José María Aznar, Spain’s former prime minister, at a speech sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Monday.
Aznar, who served as prime minister from 1996 to 2004, opened his hour-long presentation talking about how in the past, Americans died for the freedom of Europe. By the end of the hour, he lamented that the U.S. no longer recognizes Europe as a significant group of nations.
“It is very unfortunate to see that Europe is not a current priority for the U.S. administration,” Aznar said. “There are those who believe the Atlantic alliance is obsolete.”
- José María Aznar, former Spanish prime minister, mingles with audience members after delivering a speech at the Chicago Club.
Aznar spoke in broad terms about his assertion regarding this perceived dwindling importance placed on the North Atlantic Treaty, saying only that times had changed, and, in his view, the U.S. puts most of its emphasis on nations with rising power, such as China, India and Russia.
“Europe is an important part of the world,” Aznar said. And with a tinge of humor: “We have a lot of countries. We have a lot of meetings. I promote to reinvigorate the alliance. I can’t imagine the future of the world without this Atlantic alliance.”
The speech, titled “Beyond Lisbon: The Future of Europe,” was held at a banquet room in downtown’s Chicago Club and attended by more than 100 Chicago Council on Global Affairs members and local university students. Aznar discussed the Lisbon Treaty (signed by European Union members in December 2007) and its potential to transform European and transatlantic relations. The Lisbon Treaty redefined the EU’s leadership role in Europe – reestablishing rules and guidelines and altering the structure of its institutions and how they work. The goal was to bring more democracy and stability to the EU.
The treaty went into force in December 2009, but Aznar doesn’t seem to place much faith in it. He said Europe’s security to democracy and freedom was dependent upon its allegiance with the U.S., going so far as to say that Europe does not have the capacity to establish its own security.
“The Lisbon Treaty is limited,” he said. “How is it possible for Europe to become more influential in the world economy?”
Aznar answered his own question, stating that the EU needs to resolve its economic and immigration problems in Europe and define its interest in the world.
While the focus of his speech was on European economic policy, with Greece highlighted in the world media as a nation in economic peril, Aznar spoke adamantly of nuclear energy – and the exigency for Europe to acquire it.
“Nuclear energy is the key for European stability,” he said. “Without nuclear energy, Europe will be vulnerable. Freedom requires power.”
Aznar closed his speech reemphasizing Europe’s shared interests with the United States: democracy, respect for human rights, civil liberties, collective security, and economic freedom.
Just to drive the point home, he said: “I believe in a Europe that is open to war, in a Europe that is willing to compete in the global economy.”
During his time as prime minister, Aznar presided over economic and social reforms in Spain, saying he oversaw close to 5 million new jobs that left a clear mark on the Spanish economy. He no longer lives in Spain, but in Washington, D.C., where he teaches various seminars on contemporary European politics at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
