Low-profile EU leaders mirror feeble global role

• With selection of van Rompuy and Lady Ashton, we are in danger of making Europe politically irrelevant

We undertook more than four decades ago to negotiate Turkish membership once that country became fully democratic with an open economy and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

For Europe to turn down Turkey would be tantamount to writing ourselves out of any serious script in global affairs.

We would be rejecting a country that is an important regional power, a significant NATO member, and a crucial energy hub.

We would stand accused of burning, rather than building, bridges to the Islamic world.

Unfortunately, van Rompuy, an author and poet, has spoken out against Turkish membership in far cruder terms than one would expect from a gentle haiku writer.

My final guideline for policy is that Europe is not and will not become a superpower or super-state.

Unlike the US, we do not matter everywhere. We do not require a policy on every problem and every place.

Nudge things forward

But where the problem affects much else, and where the region is close to home, we should have a policy that consists of more than waiting to agree with whatever America decides that its policy should be, as, for example, in the Middle East.

So what can we do to nudge things forward in a region where America is again engaged but not respected, and where Europe is neither?

At the very least, we could set out our own policy, beginning with an effort to end the fragmentation of Palestine and Palestinians between the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Does it matter if Europe is not on the same page as the US? Frankly, no.

Two weeks ago, when Obama had to choose between a meeting of ASEAN or the celebrations in Berlin marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, he chose to go to Asia.

Will Europe do enough to change his mind the next time there is such a choice?

As things stand, we are in danger of making Europe politically irrelevant, a successful customs union with a Swissified foreign policy and a group of fractious, vision-free leaders.