THE EUROPEAN UNION MUST PRESS FORWARD

By Mario Soares Reprint | | Print |

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LISBON, Apr 6 2007 (IPS) - On July 1, Portugal will for the third time assume the presidency of the European Union at a time of considerable confusion and uncertainty for the European project as well as a time of major world crisis, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article Soares argues that those member states that do not want to go further can stay as they are, but they should not keep others who want to move forward from doing so. This was the solution applied regarding the adoption of the euro and the Schengen Treaty. We could also create forms of reinforced co-operation or return to the theory of concentric circles that Mitterand spoke of and that now excites the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt. What we cannot allow to happen is a prolongation of the institutional paralysis that has persisted for two years now and that threatens to break apart the union and rob it of its power of attraction. Europe together with US democrats should intervene to extract the West from the major impasse it was led into by the blindness of the neo-conservatives –Jewish and Evangelical– that are behind Bush. This must be done by the end of 2007, since 2008 is the year of the next US presidential election. This is the right moment for a small country like Portugal, during its EU presidency, with common sense, political courage, and the help of its allies, to play a historic role.

Portugal is a nation state with a strong national identity and a reasonable degree of social cohesion, which it is trying to strengthen. It also has a deep-rooted Europeanist political, social, cultural, and business consensus that preceded its membership in the European Economic Community (now the European Union) more than twenty years ago. The Portuguese people are fully aware of what they have gained from joining the Union and what is due to the Union’s support.

The Portuguese presidency falls in a period of considerable confusion and uncertainty for the European project as well as a time of major world crisis. Unfortunately for the first half of this year this position is held by Germany, where there is a major national consensus on advancing the EU. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a committed Europeanist who follows in the footsteps of her illustrious predecessor Helmut Kohl, has already placed on her agenda two of the basic problems that have blocked any forward motion of the European project: first, renewing the strategic global US-EU relationship at a time when the US for the first time seriously needs the help of Europe to overcome its disastrous policies in every area in which the Bush administration has committed not only its country but also the entire West.

Second, an EU with 27 member states cannot be governed without clear juridical-institutional rules that enable it to make decisions rapidly and speak with a single voice to the rest of the world. This is especially important given that the Union is one of the most important and creative economic, technological, cultural, and environmental zones of the planet. A revised or reformulated constitution would not resolve everything, but it would represent a necessary leap forward. There are certain more reticent members of the Union, like the United Kingdon, and others that for particular political reasons or an inability to adapt are not ready for such a leap.

Thus there is only one solution, which we cannot renounce: those member states that do not want to go further can stay as they are, but they should not keep others who want to move forward from doing so. This was the solution applied regarding the adoption of the euro and the Schengen Treaty. We could also create forms of reinforced co-operation or return to the theory of concentric circles that Mitterand spoke of and that now excites the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt. What we cannot allow to happen is a prolongation of the institutional paralysis that has persisted for two years now and that threatens to break apart the union and rob it of its power of attraction.

I hope that in the remaining months of the German presidency these issues can be worked out. France’s May elections will be decisive in this regard; Blair’s exit in the UK, on the other hand, will change little, while the crisis of Romano Prodi’s government in Italy has blown over. In the hour of truth I hope there will be more than twenty member states ready to advance towards a real political, economic,social, and environmental union – with, I hope, both political will and a minimum of courage.

On the other hand, if there is to be progress in firming up the Euro-American (or Atlantic) relationship, there must be a radical change in the policies coming out of Washington. The Bush administration has gone as far as it could. Its unilateral imperialism has been a colossal disaster. Neoliberal globalisation was another.

Generalised poverty is the reverse of globalisation, which is responsible for an international crime wave of unprecedented proportions which included a nuclear contraband market, the trafficking in human organs, and the establishment of a parallel economy that is a tenth as large as world GDP, according to Moises Naim, author of ….?????

The elites, first, and later the more lucid segments of US public opinion saw the errors in the policies of Bush, Blair, Aznar, and their followers in economics, the environment, global geo-strategic concepts, and the fight against Islamic terrorism, which it waged entirely with brute force and arrogant unilateralism.

But Bush still has a year and a half left in office despite the fact he has lost both political and moral legitimacy. What can be done? Moreover, how can the US exit Iraq and Afghanistan and promote a new peace effort between Israel and the Palestinians? And how can it respond to the escalation of tensions with Iran without attacking it — which would be a colossal catastrophe with vast and unforseeable consequences– and without agreeing to the intercession of Israel.

This is where a creative Europe together with US democrats should intervene. What is needed is a way to extract the West from the major impasse it was led into by the blindness of the neo-conservatives –Jewish and Evangelical– that are behind Bush. This must be done by the end of 2007, since 2008 is the year of the next US presidential election. This is the right moment for a small country like Portugal, during its EU presidency, with common sense, political courage, and the help of its allies, to play a historic role. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)