Bernard Guetta
Journalist Bernard Guetta (b. 1951) is considered to be one of France’s leading writers on international politics. Beginning his career at the Nouvel Observateur, in the 1980s he moved to Le Monde, where he was posted as a foreign correspondent to Warsaw, Washington and Moscow. Today, he presents a daily programme for the radio station France Inter, and writes a weekly column for Libération.
Updated: 3 November 2010
Whoever takes the White House for the next four years, Europe must face the facts: it is no longer considered a strategic priority by the United States. Europe must therefore reinforce its common defence structures and spearhead decisive diplomatic initiatives towards Russia and the Mediterranean countries, suggests a French commentator. 
Banking union, relaunched investment, deepening political and economic union; the summit of June 28 and 29 should reignite Europe, says columnist Bernard Guetta. Too bad the players managing the crisis are more like auditors rather than visionaries. 
In their discussion on common investment and eurobonds at an extraordinary summit on 23 May, the EU27 set aside the opposition between “virtuous” and “spendthrift” states and took a further step towards economic integration. 
Now that they are involved in Libya, Europeans have discovered that they do not have the means to achieve their ambitions. And without the backing of military means, EU diplomacy will not be credible in a strategic region for Europe. This is the logic behind the need for common defence programmes. 
The government of Europe leans to the right on one side; the "shadow cabinet" made up of the opposition leans to the left on the other. Step by lurching step, the economic and financial crisis is laying the foundations for democracy across the EU, finds the French columnist Bernard Guetta. 
The new far right not only exerts a growing influence on national governments, it is also organising at a European level and could soon weigh heavily on the very workings of the EU, warns French columnist Bernard Guetta.