With each passing day, Greece's economic and political malaise deepens despite one massive International Monetary Fund-European Union bailout package after another to keep that country afloat.

What would most benefit America and Europe is a group of confident, independent European nation-states capable of deciding democratically they want to defend their interests, their values, and their allies around the world.

Obama's meeting with European Union leaders after the NATO summit not only left the question of Afghanistan unresolved, but they highlighted the continuing error of Obama's efforts to hit the reset button with Russia and other domestic failures.

While one would not want to minimize the short-term trauma that exiting the euro would involve for the eurozone's peripheral countries, it would at least offer them the future prospect of strong export growth.

If the European Union now accedes to Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates’ request last night for emergency funding to tide Portugal over until after its June 5 election, it will demonstrate that the European Commission is offering the Britannia of old some serious competition in the realm of disregarding its own rules.

The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama was an extension of European policy that champions consensus over achievement, but while Obama is still rhetorically European, he will continue to act as an American.

The potentially negative consequences for transatlantic solidarity of the European Union's navel-gazing and American lack of concern are very real.

European Union leaders will never construct an effective trans-national Europe by consistently avoiding the judgment of the people.