Despite all its prosperity, Europe is not at ease with itself. It does not walk with confidence. It fears being left behind, being excluded from the world’s top table. It frets about its identity. It is troubled about expanding further. There are no leaders with a dream or vision of the EU’s future.

For the past five years Europe has worried that, despite having the world’s biggest single market, China, India and Brazil are emerging as economic giants. It foresees a world dominated by America and China: a G2, with Europe cast in the role of spectator.

The voices that float across the Atlantic only underline that insecurity. Every US President since John F Kennedy has sought greater European unity. Washington wants a continent that speaks with clarity and acts with purpose. Many believed that the election of President Obama would transform the transatlantic relationship. The mood music remains good but the Americans have not disguised their disappointment. The Obama administration, like others before it, wants an effective partner in the struggle for global security and does not believe it has one.

The Lisbon Treaty was supposed to fix this. It was to give Europe a president who would speak with a powerful international voice. Some, including the former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, wanted a European George Washington. In his dreams he imagined the framers of the new treaty being honoured by statues in their native villages.

In the event, Europe lowered its ambitions. At its moment of choice, it preferred the world much as it was. The EU fell back on horse-trading, carving up jobs between political factions. It filled its two top jobs, which were supposed to increase its global influence, with the largely unknown and the inexperienced. Washington was decidedly underwhelmed.

It has been true in most of history that nation states do not like seeing their power diminish. It was true here too. France and Germany did not want to be overshadowed by a charismatic European Council president. Germany no longer feels it has to bury its national interest in being European.

When European Commission President José Manuel Barroso was asked the apocryphal Kissinger question about who to call in Europe in a time of crisis, he answered with certainty. From now on Washington would call the new European foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. Almost no one believes that. The first calls will still go to Berlin, Paris and London. And that is what the big countries want.

Europe likes to feel it has set the pace on climate change and has contributed troops to international missions, but on major security issues like Afghanistan and the Middle East it is the US that draws up the agenda. There are many who want Europe rather than America to take principal responsi......