Even as Europeans come closer to bridging the gap with America over who has the most stars on their flag, they shouldn’t keep look out for waves of congratulation drifting across the Atlantic. By Jim Albright.

The average Joe and Jane on Elm Street or Santa Monica Boulevard will probably wake up on May 1 without a thought about the EU’s eastern enlargement. „Absolutely, completely unaware“, André Bergeron (42) said recently of whether most Americans have any idea that the EU is growing eastward. Although the recording engineer and studio president considers the EU to be a powerful economic block, he is convinced that if you walked down a street in his home of Minneapolis, Minnesota and asked people about the expanding EU the answer would be „What do you mean?“.„Most people don’t pay attention to the EU”, Bergeron  said, adding that American attention is riveted to three things now: The current presidential race, Iraq and the economy.

„They don’t take it very seriously because it doesn’t do much collectively that they’re aware of,“ Pentagon reporter Vince Crawley (41) said. Crawley, who lived over 10 years in Europe reporting on the military, said Americans are also currently wondering „What’s Europe doing for me lately?“ and that when the U.S. needed allies for their war in Iraq Europe wasn’t there for them.„Americans aren’t paying much attention to Europe now,“ the Washington-based reporter said. The EU is „just not a factor in their lives“, he said. „They would probably believe that (the EU) is more federal than it is because they think of it being a block. They’d be awful sketchy on how it works.“

As to whether Americans would be knowledgeable of the 10 new EU countries, computer consulting firm president Martin Thomas of St. Paul, Minnesota, said: “I highly doubt it. I think that the press is not very good on Europolicy except for…the focus on the (Iraq) war and that Europe has been resisting the war.”

Thomas (33) who was born in Europe and lived 21 years in Germany, said most Americans are not aware of the political situation of other countries nor the complications of other nations. “The average person on the street is more U.S.A.-focused,” he said. They may be aware of the EU but “I think that’s pretty much where it stops.”

Electrical engineer and scientific consultant E. Marcus Barnes of Austin, Texas, said that he hears chitchat about the EU among colleagues from time to time. He limits similar conversations to smaller groups of Americans.

From knowing nothing to guessing something?

„I would say there is some awareness of the EU among people who are more globally aware.“, Barnes (68) said that there is limited coverage of international politics, including the EU, on network television. Some of what is there, however, is excellent, he said. “Yes, the commercial networks do have some pretty good stuff, like “60 Minutes” or “Meet the Press”. But he still doubts that the guy on the street, most of whom he assumes get their information from local newspapers or network television, would know much about the EU expansion.

“I think the EU awareness is in the making, is developing,” Barnes said. For his own information sources on international issues Barnes listens to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service coverage or tunes in over shortwave to the BBC, Radio Netherlands, and Deutsche Welle in English. He also uses the Internet regularly, including stories from the Toronto Star. “I love the Canadian press because they can say things about the Bush Administration that even The New York Times won’t say”, Barnes said.Begeron gives European news reporting high marks and said that their opinion of Americans and what happens there is accurate, in depth, better and more honest than U.S. medias. “I think there’s a big filter in the U.S. on what should be in the news,” he said. “I think I get a more balanced picture,” in European medias, he said.

Do Americans have any fears of Europe?

“I don’t think people are too threatened by Europe,” Crawley said, with an eye on the issue of job losses to lands outside the U.S., as in Latin America. “I never heard of anyone getting upset about lots of jobs getting sucked to England.” Thomas said, “I sense there is some fear of Americans of the strength of the European Union – maybe more subconscious.” He cited, for example, recent EU pressure on Microsoft which might not sit well with many Americans. “I don’t think we like that.”

And just how do Americans, at least traditionally, view Europe?

Many Americans still consider Europe as a place of craftsmen, Crawley said. “Europe is a place from which they get very fine luxury items,” he said. “They’d be hard pressed to know who’s a member of the EU right now,” Crawley said.

Diese Themenserie entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit: www.europaspiegel.de.