BERLIN â While President Obama has tried to soften the blow, this weekâs disclosures about the extent of Americaâs spying on its European allies have added to a series of issues that have sharply eroded confidence in the United Statesâ leadership at a particularly difficult moment.  The sharp words from Germany, France and others this week are part of a broader set of frustrations over issues like the Syrian civil war, the danger posed to the global economy by Washingtonâs fiscal fights and the broader perception that President Obama himself â for all his promises to rebuild relations with allies after the presidency of George W. Bush â is an unreliable partner.  This American administration is âmisreading and miscalculating the effectsâ of its deeds in a Europe that is less ready than it once was to heed the United States, said Annette Heuser, executive director of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a research organization in Washington.  Early on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President FranÃ§ois Hollande of France emerged from a meeting of European leaders to call for talks with the United States on new rules for their intelligence relationship. A statement from the European leaders said a âlack of trustâ could undermine trans-Atlantic intelligence cooperation.  Earlier in the week the European Parliament had acted to suspend an agreement with the United States that allows it to track the finances of terrorist groups, citing suspicions that the United States authorities were tapping European citizensâ personal financial data.  The disclosures contained in the documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden have crystallized a growing sense in Europe that post-Sept. 11 America has lost some of the values of privacy and accountability that have been the source of the worldâs admiration for its version of democracy.  So fierce was the anger in Berlin over suspicions that American intelligence had tapped into Ms. Merkelâs cellphone that Elmar Brok of Germany, the chairman of the European Parliamentâs foreign affairs committee and a pillar of trans-Atlantic exchanges since 1984, spoke Friday of Americaâs security establishment as a creepy âstate within a state.â  Since Sept. 11, 2001, he said, âthe balance between freedom and security has been lost.â  To be sure, the United States and Europe are like a bickering couple that will never break up. For all the sharp words, they cannot even begin to contemplate an actual divorce. Many of the European complaints about the United States also seem directed mainly at a domestic audience, and may not result in concrete changes to a relationship that has weathered many storms.  But the United States under Mr. Obama had lost a considerable amount of European patience and good will even before the latest round of disclosures from the leaked N.S.A. documents.  First came the diplomatic shambles over Syria, where, in late summer, the United States seemed poised for military action after the killing of hundreds by chemical weapons. France keenly backed America, as did Britainâs prime minister, David Cameron. But Mr. Cameron unexpectedly failed to get support from his Parliament, Mr. Obama wavered, Russia stepped in with a last-minute diplomatic solution that left Germany and other nations diplomatically bruised, and France was left hanging out to dry.  Barely had the trans-Atlantic partners gotten over that discomfort than the divisive partisan politics of Washington precipitated a government shutdown and brought the United States â and thus Europe and the world â to the brink of default and economic turmoil.  This week, two American ambassadors, Charles H. Rivkin in France and John B. Emerson in Germany, were summoned to the Foreign Ministries in Paris and Berlin for a dressing down by two of Americaâs closest friends. The depressing spectacle reversed the traditional roles played by Europe and America, certainly for Germany. France is a proud nuclear power, and while relations have been exceptionally warm in recent years, it is strongly independent and a frequent critic, particularly of American culture.  Still, it was unusual to hear the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, lecture so sternly.
The offer was an attempt to defuse a trans-Atlantic dispute over eavesdropping by the United States that has hurt its relations with Europe and prompted calls to suspend trade talks.