White House officials have allegedly confirmed that US President Barack Obama is not planning to attend the EU-US summit in Madrid this May, which is being hosted by the Spanish presidency. Obama travelled to Europe six times in 2009, but reportedly intends to concentrate more on the domestic agenda this year.

Philip J. Crowley, a spokesperson for the US State Department, told reporters last week that confusion arising from the Lisbon Treaty had affected the White House's position. They cite the lack of clarity of leadership roles for the EU following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.

"Up until recently, they [summits] would occur on six-month intervals, as I recall, with one meeting in Europe and one meeting here. The foundation of that was the rotating presidency within the EU. Now you have a new structure regarding not only the rotating EU presidency, you've got an EU Council president, you've got a European Commission president," said Crowley.

"We are working through this just as Europeans themselves are working through this: When you have a future EU-US summit meeting, who will host it and where will it be held? ... All of this is kind of being reassessed in light of architectural changes in Europe."

"Obviously, there's been some disappointment expressed by the government of Spain, and we understand that and we'll be working with them on that," he added.

Sources:

• EUobserver (1)
• EUobserver (2)