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Survey: Europeans Don't Like Bush's International Policy
Europeans do not like the international policy of President George W. Bush, saying he makes decision based entirely on U.S. interest and knows less about Europe than his predecessors.
According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, European approval of his foreign affairs runs anywhere from 40 to 60 percentage points below the levels former President Bill Clinton held.
The poll showed that more than four in five disapproved of Bush 's positions on the Kyoto treaty on global warming, two-thirds or more disapproved of his stand on missile defense.
More than seven in 10 in Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy said the president's international policy decisions are based on U.S interests. Almost three-fourths of the Europeans polled felt that Bush understands Europe less than other presidents.
The Europeans' disapproval of the missile defense system could make it tougher for European governments to yield to Bush administration pressure to go along with the system if it involves terminating the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, said Morton Halperin, a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations.
The survey, released Tuesday, was done in partnership with the International Herald Tribune and in association with the Council on Foreign Relations.
The study was based on roughly 1,000 telephone interviews apiece in Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany as well as a separate poll of 1,227 interviews in the United States. The poll, taken in early August, has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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