EUROPEAN UNION: Not as Simple as Big v. Small, New v. Old

By Mario de Queiroz Reprint | | Print |

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Apr 30 2003 (IPS) - The rift created in the European Union by the largely unilateral U.S. decision to invade Iraq has cut into the debate on the bloc’s new Constitution, further complicated as preparations are underway to admit new members, including former socialist countries that are today aligned with Washington.

The rift created in the European Union by the largely unilateral U.S. decision to invade Iraq has cut into the debate on the bloc’s new Constitution, further complicated as preparations are underway to admit new members, including former socialist countries that are today aligned with Washington.

The 10 countries to join the EU in May 2004, eight of which were members of the former European socialist community, are pushing to delay of the approval of the Constitution until after their admission.

They want to ensure equal rights for the new and old, large and small member states.

But the EU Summit to take place in Greece Jun 20-21, ending the host country’s six-month turn as president of the bloc and marking the beginning of Italy’s mandate, aims to quickly resolve the constitutional treaty being drawn up by a body headed by former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

In response, the heads of the parliaments of 10 candidate nations for the expanded EU, meeting last weekend in Lisbon, unanimously agreed to demand the postponement of the new constitution until after they are inside the bloc.

The two European powerhouses aim to counter Washington’s plans to establish a new international order of its own designs.

The clash between the United States and France about the Iraq war "abruptly interrupted the dynamic of the European Convention and created a climate of doubt and suspicion that nobody can ignore," Portuguese analyst of EU affairs Teresa de Sousa told IPS.

With that crisis, "the initial European dynamic was lost and now one of the protagonists seems more intent on playing its own cards," she commented.

In the current climate, De Sousa believes "it will be practically impossible to overcome in a positive way the most difficult and complex phase of work, in which the relative weight of each EU member state comes into play."

Next year, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will join the European bloc. Bulgaria and Romania will be admitted in 2007.

Establishing the constitutional treaty prior to the admission of the new countries "would be absurd," and if it comes to pass "it could represent grave legal problems in the future," Katalin Szili, president of the Hungarian parliament, said in a conversation with IPS.

It would be lamentable if the new EU countries, upon entering the bloc, were faced with a different reality than the one they thought they were joining, "in which words like solidarity and cohesion may have lost their significance," said Szili, stressing that her opinion reflects that of the all ten new members.

Joao Bosco da Mota Amaral, president of the Portuguese Congress, openly supports that stance by speaking out against the Franco-Germany hegemony in the EU. In fact most of the current smaller members of the bloc reject the big countries’ dominance – and in that sense they are joined by the former socialist nations awaiting admission.

The formal motive behind the Lisbon meeting was to "share the experiences of the European integration process," and to mark the 29th anniversary of what is known as the "Carnation Revolution" of Apr 25, 1974, when a group of leftist army captains overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship that had reigned since 1926.

The parallels between the Portuguese experience and that of the countries that were under the aegis of the now-defunct Soviet Union were also discussed.

After 12 years of building its democracy, Portugal achieved solid reforms and was able to join the EU in 1986, almost the same amount of time past since the socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe began to fold.

But the confrontation between Washington and the Paris-Berlin axis, aggravated by the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq on Mar 20, is not the only factor interfering these days in the progress of the European bloc.

The smaller countries’ distrust of the five big EU member states began long before the war against Iraq and the subsequent U.S. appeals for trans-Atlantic loyalty.

The EU members friendly to Washington, such as the powerful Britain, Spain and Italy, do not form part of the group that is assailing the French and German proposals, that are demanding respect for the concept of "one country, one vote," defended by the smaller partners, whether allies of the United States or not.

As such, 20 of the 25 countries that will comprise the EU in 2004 are opposed to the Franco-German project.

In that group are current members Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, all seen by the future members’ parliamentary presidents gathered in Lisbon as important allies for postponing debate on the draft constitution.

The most controversial proposal put forth by Giscard d’Estaing refers to electing a permanent president of the European Council (the quarterly meetings of the EU heads of state), instead of the six-month rotating presidency.

According to the president of the Convention, and backed by Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the system of rotating EU presidencies is inefficient and disrupts the continuity and visibility of the European bloc’s political actions in the global context.

Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Portugal are against the permanent president initiative, as are the candidates poised to join the EU next year.

Greece is keeping to the sidelines in the debate because it currently holds the EU presidency, while the remaining members – Denmark and Sweden – have aligned themselves with the powerful partners in favour of a European president.

Another source of discord is the suggestion of reducing the number of sitting members on the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, to a maximum of 15, instead of the model of one commissioner per state. The smaller countries fear being left out of the bloc’s important decisions.

José Manuel Durao Barroso, Portugal’s prime minister, sent a message to the five big EU nations – and he did not mince words, stating that the smallest would not accept "that the stance of some of the member states is seen as the stance of the entire bloc." (END/2003)