US Ambassador to the EU Kristen Silverberg defends the legacy of President George Bush in the field of transatlantic relations. Appointed to Brussels in April 2008 by the Republican administration, Silverberg, who was previously posted in Baghdad, argues that Washington has taken increasingly seriously the EU during the second term of the Bush administration. Looking at the upcoming Obama era, she expects Afghanistan to be the first test for the transatlantic partnership.

In Europe, the common perception is that transatlantic relations touched a low point during the Bush era. How would you respond to that?

Obviously, the debate over the Iraq war put a big strain on transatlantic relations on both sides. But we fought very hard in the US to make sure that that issue did not really impact on our ability to cooperate on a broader range of issues. I think that President Bush's trip to Brussels as his very first overseas travel in his second term was an indication of our effort to reach out to Europe and to make sure that the president healed any of the divisions. I think we have been very successful in that. We now have agreed strategies on virtually every major foreign policy issues. We have established mechanisms for cooperating across the board. You can think of issues like Iran, where Mr Solana is the key negotiator with the Iranians. Or Kosovo, where the US is participating in a rule of law mission led by Europe. Or Georgia, where the French Presidency took the lead in negotiating with Russia and where we supported those efforts. We are also cooperating in Afghanistan, Iraq or in Africa.

Do you think there was a shift during the Bush presidency?

I think from day one President Bush took Europe seriously but we had a disagreement. That is only natural even among close partners. Sometimes we are going to have disagreements. Our views on long term interests are very close, our values are very close, but that does not mean we are going to agree on everything.

The perception in Europe is rather negative. Do you agree that President Bush's style did not fit well with the expectations of European public opinions?

I think it has been very possible for publics on both sides to misperceive comments from leaders. Sometimes the US reacted negatively to comments made by European leaders. I think that's actually something we have to work on. Troubled perception sometimes fails to reflect the very close cooperation that is actually taking place. Each year, we have 1,000 US government officials who come through this [US] mission to talk to their European counterparts. I guess this is more than for any other mission in the world. That is a reflection of what is going on here on a daily basis and the recognition of the importance of Brussels.

In sharp contrast with George Bush, Barack Obama enjoys huge popularity in Europe. Do you think this is actually a chance or rather a challenge?

The challenge is to transform all this goodwill into concrete actions in some of our specific shared priorities. We have to translate this trust into a stronger commitment to Afghanistan, which is in the core interest of both the US and Europe. We have to translate it into cooperation on the financial crisis. And we have to make sure that we work together to try to shore up our regulatory systems.

Do you think Afghanistan will be the first test?

Yes. Afghanistan has been a core priority of the US and President-elect Barack Obama has made very clear that he wants to make it a priority. There is a lot we expect Europe to do, even more, to help support development in Afghanistan. For example, a greater commitment to Afghan police reform would be a valuable contribution from the EU.

Do you think EU member states are ready to send more troops?

We hope so. There are a lot of different kinds of contributions we are hoping to discuss. At the moment, there are 200 personnel on the ground as part of EUPOL. The US is continuing to provide 95% of the police training resources in Afghanistan and we think that there is more that the EU can do in that area.

Will the US support ESDP?

We think there is more to do on ESDP and we are supporting it. We hope that both NATO and ESDP will become more comprehensive in their approach. ESDP needs to have stronger capabilities on the hard security sides. NATO also needs to be able to work with civilian actors. But they will always have different roles to play. NATO will remain the core European security institution.