Everybody loves a good feather-ruffling. The European Commission should frankly be thanking Czech President Vaclav Klaus for the disparaging remarks he made on the Lisbon Treaty during a state visit to Ireland. At least Lisbon is back in the press, right?

Characterized as a “victory banquet” by the largely Eurosceptic media in Brussels, the anti-Lisbon organization Libertas invited prominent anti-integrationists to dinner in Ireland, including the incoming EU Council President Klaus, who has been an unequivocal critic of the Lisbon Reform Treaty. :
“We have the feeling - some of us - that it is not adding to positive development in Europe and that democracy and freedom are not to be enhanced by the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. To the contrary.”

The Irish government was quick to criticize Klaus’ inappropriate usage of a state visit to meet with Libertas and its supporters, given Libertas’ key role in the “No” campaign earlier in the year. Ireland's government is still weighing its options following the negative turnout in the Lisbon Treaty referendum, including whether or not it will let the country vote a second time.

Ironically, the Czech parliament has approved the Lisbon Treaty, but the decision for full ratification is awaiting the verdict of the country's Constitutional Court. President Klaus, however, has vowed to stop the Treaty, but his power would be eroded by a positive verdict from the courts and continued commitment to Lisbon by the parliament.

Energy independence become a key buzzword in the US presidential debates. The European Union has now launched a new initiative to reduce its member states’ dependence on Russian oil - a controversial move published just at the conclusion of the EU-Russia Summit, which concludes on Friday.

The Financial Times is reporting new EU plans to build additional pipelines from the Caspian Sea, decreasing European ties to Russian pipeline infrastructure. Union officials are looking to build a network of pipelines that would carry gas from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan into the EU. In addition, plans are being hatched to possibly create of European consortium to purchase gas from the region.

At the same time, the Council and Commission now seem to be weakening their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Union by 20% by 2020. The European Parliament announced immediate protest. It has vowed to hold the other parts of the EU administration to its commitments, outlined here.

The full EU proposals toward increasing long-term energy security can be found here.

Expectedly, reactions to the election of Sen. Barack Obama as the 44th US President were overwhelmingly positive across Europe. But in between the congratulatory lines dictated by diplomatic protocol shown the expectations European leaders have of this new President. Quentin Peel, International Affairs editor of the Financial Times believes these expectations might mean Obama is “doomed to disappoint the world”. Europe is waiting for a “listener” who will renew the trans-Atlantic partnership to make real progress on restoring the global financial system to order, bring stability to the Middle East, find functional solutions to the difficult situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and commit to global initiatives on climate change and international justice. (Read letters from European lawmakers, authors, artists and intellectuals here.)

Le Monde offers an overview of what Europeans expect, while EU Communications Head, Margot Wallstroem, has put her thoughts down in a open letter published by the English version of Der Spiegel. Naturally, the French conservative daily believes that its country's President and current EU leader (as the rotationary principle of EU leadership dictates), Nicolas Sarkozy, will be able to convince the US of the necessity of creating a global financial regulatory system as early as November 15, when the G-20 heads gather in Washington. European still largely believe that the cradle of the current crisis was the lack of Wall Street oversight.

Overall, Europeans are optimistic that Barack Obama will be more successful than a McCain administration in negotiating with Russia, Europe's largest neighbor. Volker Perthes, Head of the Institute for International and Security Affairs, notes that “Obama, after all, has not proposed kicking Russia out of the G-8 or forming a league of democracies aligned against it.”

The degree to which President-Elect Obama will be able to utilize support from Europe will depend on how much weight he places on the trans-Atlantic relationship. The Bush administration drove a stake down Europe's heart with the creation of “Old Europe-New Europe” dichotomy. It reduced annual EU-US Summit meetings from two to one. Leading US universities, including Harvard, no longer teach courses on the political evolution and significance of the European Union and Europeans are beginning to feel as if they are being pushed out of a global power play. Obama will have to reengage Europe to distribute some of the challenges he faces or risk the failure, which some are already projecting. Europe, on the other hand, will have to shoulder more responsibility - in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in the Middle East. Sen. Obama can motivate the masses. He demonstrated that all too clearly on Tuesday. Now he must rally his partners across the globe. Because irrespective of America's size and stature, faced with the challenges ahead, it cannot go it alone.