There are certainly similarities with the USA - with its central power over economics and common foreign policy.
So when Europeans search for a common foreign policy, they naturally apply the principles of multilateralism that have worked well at home.
If so, far from being a success for Europe's common foreign policy, Iran could become a big irritant in relations between America and Europe.
ECONOMIST: The Europeans' soft approach to Iran seems to have failed
Mr. FITZPATRICK: Germany places a great value on European common foreign policy, and so it is willing to go along with the British and the French.
It does not feature much in their plans for a common foreign policy, and not at all in their early sketches of a common defence policy.
The new clauses focus on a common foreign policy, judicial and home affairs, and the notion of flexibility to enable some countries to integrate faster than others.
But if we had had an integrated Europe with a common defence policy and a common foreign policy, then I think we'd have seen a very different situation.
BBC: News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram
The last few months have shown just how difficult it will be to turn rhetoric about a unified Europe and a common foreign policy into reality, says BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris.
Mr. Pierini blames EU treaty law for giving the U.K., France and Germany the power to stifle a common foreign policy and says the separation of aid and humanitarian assistance from the EU's diplomatic decision-making has undermined some of the soft power it can otherwise project.
Tony Blair would not have been able to operate in the way that he has very successfully done so, in building the international coalition because if you have a common foreign policy or common defence policy, in the end you always have to go to the lowest common denominator.
BBC: News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram
Thinking about the practical implications of a common European foreign policy and, further ahead, a common defence, is a job for the commission as well as for governments.
She also talks grandly of a strong parliament, one that will stick its hands into matters such as Balkan reconstruction and a common European foreign policy.
The old cliche used to justify the establishment of a common EU foreign policy is that an American president needs to know who in Europe to ring in a crisis.
Foreign-policy conundrums such as Bosnia have found Europe's common foreign and security policy wanting.
Almost inevitably, she thinks a common foreign and security policy for Europe is long overdue.
ECONOMIST: Emma Bonino, Europe��s commissioner for the future
PESC, to use the French acronym for the common foreign and security policy.
Moreover, the Union's desire, reflected in the document under discussion, to build a common foreign and defence policy is welcome.
EU, which means that all members should apply common external tariffs on imports from third countries and adopt a common foreign-trade policy.
The commission is about to be left on the margins of another new project: the development of a common foreign and security policy.
In moments of hopeful fantasy, they imagine this wonderful machine serving Europe as the strong arm of a perfectly co-ordinated common foreign and security policy.
Since then governments have reserved to themselves, and not to the commission, the early development of a common foreign and security policy for Europe, the Union's new long-term project.
Earlier this year, to Argentine irritation, Brazil cut its own trade deal with the Andean countries, even though Mercosur is nominally a customs union, and thus supposed to have a common foreign-trade policy.
Indeed, one of the arguments for constructing a common foreign and security policy in the European Union is precisely that the European view of world affairs is likely, sometimes, to diverge from the American one.
If the Union's common foreign and security policy could be made to live up to its name better, there would be no harm at times, and possibly some good, in having military means to back it up.
But he or she is expected to chair EU summits, take on some of the functions of the current presidency of the Council of the European Union - held on a rotating six-month basis by EU heads of government - and represent the EU on common foreign and security policy.
Last Thursday, the European Elections Bill received the Royal Assent and, on the same day we re-affirmed and expanded 'constructive opposition' to include co-operation with the government on a Common European Foreign and Security Policy.
Between now and Wednesday, thousands of people from over 130 countries are participating together virtually to find shared solutions to common challenges, engage with US foreign policy leadership, and simply connect with each other -- through an online event called Global Pulse 2010.
Mr Cameron held talks earlier with Vice-President Joe Biden, where there was "common ground on the full range of foreign policy issues, " according to a Downing Street spokesman.
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