It's not as if there's a shortage of crucial issues for leaders from the United States and the European Union to discuss at their annual summit. This year it's being held in Vienna, which also happens to be home of the International Atomic Engergy Agency. The IAEA has been at the center of the international community's efforts to get Iran to abandon its controversial nuclear energy program.

Then there's Europe's concern over how the United States is prosecuting its war on terror, especially the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the concerns about the Middle East peace process.

But somehow the summit, hosted this year by Austria, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is a bit of a snoozer. German papers on Wednesday seem to think that's because both regional powers have their own priorities as well as a common agenda.

Conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes past annual summits between the EU and US have rarely lived up to expectations. But apparently both powers find them useful, since "they haven't come up with anything different or better. And apparently the process of having a dialogue at all is considered a gain." However, the editorial finds it "remarkable" that "the majority of participants leave a pitiful impression." Neither the US nor the EU is at the top of their game right now. But both powers need the other to sustain their interests, in trade as well as in foreign policy. The paper identifies the biggest problem between both participants to be that what "is tolerable by law and morally acceptable in the war on terror, Europeans and Americans have entirely different opinions on."

Business daily Handelsblatt writes that "Europe remembers America." Both Bush and the EU have come together on divisive issues recently, such as the strategy of how to handle Iran's nuclear ambitions. But "Jose Manuel Barroso is mistaken if he believes that the US and Europe are 'partners in leadership'" at the moment. "Right now, real leadership is nowhere to be seen, neither in Washington nor in Brussels." The editorial warns that "sure, right now common interests and values hold both sides together, but the conflict on the American prisoners camp in Guantanamo" has shaken this foundation. Europe needs to demand real consequences. "A noncommittal declaration by Bush about protecting human rights is not enough, if Vienna is supposed to be more than a fair weather summit."

The Financial Times Deutschland takes a different approach. Although they do agree with Barroso when he complains about "American politics, and its affinity to give national security issues priority over everything else is dangerously high," the editorial finds Bush not to be "the right addressee for the complaints." Instead, the ones to blame are "his government" as well as "parliamentarians, who often times couldn't care less about the prosperity of international trade." But "Bush seems to have learned in the area of foreign trade." And hence the paper doesn't expect "much conflict. The root of all problems lies with Congress in Washington."