Europe

In an open letter to the next occupant of the White House, Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform called for a change of American direction. Europe was concerned, he wrote, at US failure to boldly commit to climate change initiatives, and the lack of US support for the International Criminal Court. Grant also hoped for the more restrained use of hard power after attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. In short the letter called for a leader who would heal transatlantic relations, widened by excessive US unilateralism. "Dear George Bush," the letter began, dated January 2001.

Europe must be suffering from an acute case of political déjà vu right now; eight years after the end of Clinton's presidency the message from the "Old Continent" is depressingly familiar. Europeans expect the next American president to reorient US foreign policy, engaging seriously with multilateral institutions and forging close partnerships with Europe on a range of important issues, from curbing greenhouse emissions to curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Across the continent, excitement at the end of the Bush presidency is palpable. From inauguration countdowns on Facebook to the huge crowds Obama drew in Paris and Berlin, Europeans are looking forward to the next American presidency with relish. Implicit is the assumption that a change in American leadership equals a convergence of US and European policies. Optimists highlight Obama's lofty "citizen of the world" rhetoric or McCain's criticism of excessive "lone ranger" diplomacy. Yet the stark similarities between Charles Grants' letter and contemporary European criticism of the US should caution against such hopeful expectations.

A gray sky hung over Brussels yesterday evening as we all piled in to the century-old Bibliotheque Solvay in the heart of Parc Leopold, the hilly oasis of green tucked alongside the European Parliament in Brussels, for the official launch of the Tomorrow's Europe deliberative poll. Whether the clouds would part or the rain begin to fall it was impossible to say.

Much the same could be said for the current state of the EU. In the last two years, since the rejection of the European Constitution by French and Dutch voters, the European Union has likewise been decidedly overcast, its future unclear.

Welcome to dLiberation, the new openDemocracy blog on deliberation which opens with coverage of Tomorrow’s Europe.

The European Union is the most complex political system in the history of the world. A body made of various parts of varying degrees of unity, it has the power to affect the lives of 492 million people.

These EU citizens are represented in a parliament of 785 MEPs, representing hundreds of political parties from 27 member states, speaking 23 official languages. The MEPs are elected not as individuals, as in the Westminster model of first past the post voting, but on a range of proportional representation systems that vary from country to country.