EU edges its way toward defining a ‘new Europe’

The European Union’s two preeminent political leaders will sit down this week in an imposing medieval fortress off France’s Mediterranean coast. And a lot more than croissants and canapés will be on the menu.

What they’ve be chewing over for some time is more substantial: the prospect of what might be called a “new Europe.”

For decades, European countries have been key partners of the United States. Yet with France and Germany taking the lead, the 27-member EU seems to be grappling its way toward a more assertively independent identity.

The extent to which this happens – whether the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, will