EU and US leaders convene in the US capital to tackle a daunting agenda which features major global challenges such as the continuing economic crisis, the pressing need for a common stance on climate change and a raft of foreign policies such as the ongoing war in Afghanistan and tensions with Iran.

But while the issues on the table read like a list of the world's most serious concerns, a number of equally problematic issues that are not on the agenda will be highlighted by the nature of the discussions themselves. Most of these will stem from the current climate within the European Union and the inability of the bloc to present a common policy on many of the topics EU representatives will discuss with their US counterparts.

"Everybody knows that the European nations have a problem arriving at a single common policy," Nick Whitney, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Paris, told Deutsche Welle. "In Brussels, there is a sense that there is no desire for any common policy at all so when it comes to dealing with these big issues, Europe often doesn't have a central policy and certainly doesn't have one which it is willing to assert against the US."

"The EU doesn't have a cohesive foreign policy; it deals with foreign policy issues on a case-by-case basis," said Jan Techau, a transatlantic relations expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). "Sometimes the states come together on a certain issue and form a collective stance. However, this doesn't happen very often."

Europe lacking any common policy on Afghanistan

The inability of the EU to find a common stance is glaringly exposed on the issue of Afghanistan. While 30,000 European troops remain deployed in the country, there is no such thing as a European strategy. Nick Whitney says this is because the Europeans have not discussed this within the EU and have confined their discussions to within the structure of NATO.

"With Afghanistan we've ended up with a situation where the EU has absolutely no voice," said Whitney. "The Europeans are waiting for Obama to finish his strategy review and to tell the EU what its new collective strategy will be. I think the European representatives will have very little to say at the summit because Europe just doesn't have a strategy for Afghanistan."

Jan Techau believes that the EU will continue to push for an international conference on Afghanistan, which follows the very typical European multilateral approach, while the US will continue to press individual allies within the EU to contribute more troops. However, he says, the common goal remains the same even if the approach differs.

"The two sides agree on what needs to be done, that is stabilizing the country and increasing the engagement but how they decide to do that, what the division of labor should be and the numbers involved, these are questions of procedure - and in international politics, procedures are substance," he said. "It's not so much the general aim the two sides differ on but the procedures - and I think it will be the US who leads here with Obama's troop decision influencing the EU's next steps."

Iran is an issue on which the EU has actually taken the lead ahead of the Americans, despite not having all 27 member states singing from the same song sheet.

Partial unity pays dividends in Iran negotiations

Ulrike Guerot, head of the ECFR's Berlin office, believes that Iran has been one of the few issues on which the European Union has shown a more collective and cohesive front, approaching negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions through the trilateral negotiation team of Germany, France and the UK which was backed by EU High Representative Javier Solana. She says that the EU's approach has led to positive responses from the US.

"There was a lot of dealing between the US and EU on Iran and I think the Americans have been quite happy with how the Europeans have been approaching the Iranian situation," she said. "In turn the Europeans were well prepared for Obama's u-turn decision to negotiate with Iran as this is something that they have been promoting for some time. This is a hopeful sign for a cohesive EU foreign policy on Iran and one the Americans can support."

Jan Techau also believes that the EU is an important player in dealing with Iran due to its close business ties, a connection the US doesn't have. But this places the Europeans in a position where they may have to agree on a collective role in any 'end game' scenario.

"The US wants to create a credible scenario for tighter international sanctions and they want the Europeans on board because the Europeans are key," he said. "The European position will send a message to the rest of the world. But the Europeans have to ask themselves how far they are willing to go. Diplomacy is toothless if it doesn't have a military option in the background. Both the US and EU say that Iran should be forced to comply with the UN sanctions but how they go about this is still a topic of discussion."

Leadership on climate but dearth of followers

Climate change is another of the few areas in which the EU presents the nearest thing to a collective front. The EU has effectively taken the lead in pushing its international partners towards a collective agreement and set of goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to help the developing world. With the Copenhagen climate summit on the horizon, the experts say it's time for Europe to show how strong its leadership can be.

"In terms of leadership, the Europeans issued some clear figures on what they would spend to help developing countries at the last EU summit at the end of October," Guerot said. "The question now is to what extent the US gets involved with the climate issue in terms of concrete figures. We need to see what the US will bring to the table. We do have a problem with managing the transatlantic dialogue on climate. We need better communication and a better framework for the discourse so we can build up a transatlantic strategy which is a win-win situation for bit the Europeans and the Americans."

Nick Whitney believes that while it's a positive thing that the EU has gotten its act together to promote a more unified stance on climate change, he doubts whether the Europeans carry enough clout to tie other global powers down to agreeing to the plan.

"This is the classic European approach: we will take the lead, the US will follow and the others will all have to fall into place," Whitney said. "Well, the Americans have shown that they're not going to follow, or if they are going to follow they won't go very far and not in the time frames that the Europeans consider necessary. The question is what Europe intends to do when others refuse to follow."

Whitney believes that there may be discussions in Washington about how to inspire the Chinese and Indians to be more forthcoming and how much developed countries should pay but the Europeans are unlikely to address the fact that the Americans are turning out to be one of the big problems for the EU approach.

"What remains to be seen is whether the Europeans will come out after Copenhagen and say that the US is actually one of the obstacles to getting what they want and if they do, what are the Europeans going to do about it other than argue with the Americans," he said.

Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Rob Mudge