One thing is certain, President Bush's recent visit to Brussels has confirmed that TIESWEB and other like minded organizations are needed now more than ever. Although the reasons for Bush's visit may seem duplicitous at best, a calm before the storm or maybe a reconciliation with the other West before another war, it is clear that the EU has become the vessel by which European countries speak, act and are heard. And finally, Americans are waking to the EU call.

Be it through recent novels, like Rifkin's The European Dream and Reid's The United States of Europe, or exposure in the press, much of which is owed to Bush's recent visit, the European Union is slowly entering the vocabulary of everyday Americans, more than as just a dream but as an actual reality.

The IHT is no longer the lone paper for Americans seeking EU news, much as the Economist is no longer the lone magazine with EU coverage. And most importantly, this press tends to present the EU in a favorable light – one needs only skim the books mentioned above. The EU is being touted as European Socialism moving toward American free-market capitalism. The EU is moving toward that perfect mix of us and them, while the US seems to be moving toward something else (a subject for another paper) that nobody wants. That said, the EU will always have its detractors and no small wonder that they can be found in large numbers among the neo-cons.

Lately certain neo-conservatives have once again asserted that a united Europe is a threat to US interests. It would seem that their "ideal world" is controlled solely by US bullying - questioning the import of checks and balances, the very foundation of the success of the American democratic model. At least for now, it would appear that Bush 43 is no longer espousing this recent absurdity, one that negates the lessons of history and the World Wars, in the blind pursuit of the maintenance of US hegemony, without asking what is best for Americans but only what is best for America.

But, some say that any press is good press, be it good or bad. If this is the case, then the current neo-conservative focus on the ills of a united Europe are doing the EU a favor, helping to increase its presence in the US much as the above mentioned New York Times Best Sellers are. For every time the EU is mentioned, it is going to become more real, more substantive, more important in the American mind and then and only then we will be able to move to the next phase of Transatlantic relations, one of maintaining peace and furthering humanity with help from the United States and the "United Europe."

This growth in the name recognition of the EU will need to be accompanied by some basic education: an explanation of what the EU is, how it operates, and what it will be - a forum for discussion and exchange, between Americans and EU citizen specialists in the U.S. Fortunately, TIESWEB has been working on this very idea for sometime now through the Transatlantic Citizen Marathon (or TCM) which was conceived of to fill this very void.

The first leg of the TCM was a great success. From NYU to Harvard, Demos to UPenn, participants were eager to learn more about the EU and to exchange viewpoints, as European and American, sometimes clashing, perspectives on the EU and its future were exchanged. I had the fortune of attending several of these conferences, marked by the diversity of the attendees, from professors to students, Europeans to Americans, civil society workers to business men.

The subjects covered varied but several recurring themes took center stage:
• Why democratization in the EU?
• Widening vs. deepening: how far will the limits stretch?
• The upcoming Constitutional referenda
• Comparing the US Constitution to the EU Constitutional Treaty
• The future of EU/US relations
• The rise of populism in Europe

Although no one can boast to have guessed that the EU would become a center piece in the foreign policy agenda of the new Bush administration, this recent turn of events is welcomed. But with or without Bush, and long after he is no longer president, the US will still be doing business, exchanging cultural values, and participating in the bettering of the world with Europe. This is why Americans need to know and understand the EU as the future of Transatlantic relations lies in bilateralism with the Union and not the individual nation states of old.

Nicholas Reed
San Francisco