Amid global power shifts and new security threats, “The Obama administration must begin to think anew about the European Union,” wrote Spiegel Online last week.

“The new American administration would be well served to rethink the United States’ relationship to Europe: It should move toward a strategic partnership of equals with the European Union,” wrote Spiegel Online. “In the long-term, a close, respectful working relationship with the European Union would enhance America’s own security and enable it to engage much more effectively in a multipolar world.”

nato “no longer meets the needs of today’s world,” Spiegel continued. “The last decade has witnessed a striking displacement of power, away from the United States but also away from the West as a whole. The current implosion of the Western-led financial system has only expedited this shift.”

Dutch political scientist Peter van Ham says that “nato’s instruments have become blunt and outdated in the light of today’s non-traditional security challenges and techniques. … Whereas not too long ago the main question was how the European Union could use nato’s military tools … the debate is now how should nato draw upon the resources of the European Union ….”

America itself has facilitated much of this power shift in favor of a stronger Europe. The article states:

For years Washington had opposed―and actively blocked―European efforts to strengthen its military defense components on the grounds that it undermined nato. But this attitude seems to have softened in the past decade. At the nato summit in Bucharest last year both nato and U.S. officials publicly encouraged the Europeans to pick up the pace of defense planning, a request that implied the United States is no longer willing to provide security for Europeans in a world order with so many other priorities.

This could indicate “that Washington is ready for Europeans to play a greater role in maintaining international security, a first step in a new partnership,” Spiegel Online wrote. “Europe could and should be America’s closest partner in world affairs.”

America has already heightened its courtship of the EU. Spiegel Online wrote that “When the ongoing financial crisis peaked this fall, President Bush’s first call of help abroad was to the European Union.” The EU has made overtures toward the U.S. as well. Among other initiatives, “EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso has called for a Strategic Energy Dialogue between Europe and America. He has underlined the potential for increased EU-U.S. energy collaboration across the globe ….”

As theTrumpet.com has outlined previously, the progression of EU-U.S. relations has sped up considerably with the induction of the new administration in America. Sensing a more compliant U.S. leadership, Germany in particular has sought to influence Washington’s foreign policy. President Barack Obama and his team have made no secret of the fact that they welcome—and will even push for—greater European military involvement in places like Afghanistan and the Middle East. “In these respects,” columnist Ron Fraser wrote last month, “Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy inclinations mesh neatly with those of Germany.” He went on to point out that Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in particular “is pushing hard to take advantage of the new U.S. administration to gain across-the-board support for the development of a new transatlantic agenda.”

Spiegel Online wrote that the Euro-Atlantic relationship has to be based on “a partnership of equals, with the United States making important concessions to the Europeans and the Europeans finally stepping up to take care of their own security requirements.”

This is precisely what the Trumpet—looking to Bible prophecy—has been watching out for. We have also repeatedly warned of the outcome of America’s relationship with the EU. The Bible clearly describes an end-time flowering of German-U.S. relations, such as we are seeing today. But this unity immediately precedes a tragic backstabbing by a united German-led European union of nations.

Notice this striking prophecy in Ezekiel 23:9: “Wherefore I have delivered her [discussing America primarily] into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians [end-time Germany], upon whom she doted.” If you study this passage, it shows a perverse relationship between these two nations that ends with Germany, after gaining America’s trust and support, fatally betraying the U.S. in a tragic double-cross.

For more, read the section in our booklet Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany titled “The German Double-Cross.”