EU-U.S.: Transatlantic Ties and Iraq High on Summit Agenda

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jun 23 2003 (IPS) - Transatlantic relations in general and the post-war reconstruction of Iraq in particular will take centre stage when top European Union officials confer with U.S. President George Bush in Washington on Wednesday.

The EU delegation will be headed by Commission President Romano Prodi and President-in-office of the European Council, Greek Prime Minister Constantine Simitis.

It will include Javier Solana, High Representative for the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.

The summit meeting is being held months after relations between the EU and U.S. were strained because of the refusal of France and Germany – two influential members of the 15-nation union – to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

It takes place within days after the European Union (EU) leaders gathered in Thessaloniki, Greece, on June 19-20 and endorsed a draft constitution for the union whose membership will expand from current 15 to 25 next year.

A significant element of Europe’s first ever draft constitution that is set to be ratified by all 25 members of the enlarged EU in June 2004 is the union’s security and defence strategy.

The strategy, to be adopted in December, commits the EU to facing up to its "responsibilities, guaranteeing a secure Europe and a better world."

"To this end, the union will contribute relentlessly to strengthening and reshaping the institutions of global governance, regional cooperation and expanding the reach of international law," according to the Greek Presidency conclusions.

"We will support conflict prevention, promote justice, sustainable development, help secure peace and defend stability in our region and globally," the EU pledges in the document.

Media reports said Washington was taking the union’s security doctrine seriously. "The analysis is good. It will be meaningful when it is applied," a U.S. diplomat told the Financial Times.

The EU, on its part, looks forward "to continue discussions with the U.S. on proposals for strengthening relations including ideas that could emerge from the elaboration of the European security strategy," said the document emerging from the Thessaloniki summit.

Whereas the U.S. invasion of Iraq caused a rift within the EU, the message emerging from their summit in Greece was rather distinct.

The document prepared by the Greek Presidency said the European leaders looked forward to "an important United Nations contribution to the process leading to the formation, as soon as possible, of a representative Iraqi government, in which the UN can use its unique capacity and experience in post-conflict nation building."

Jonathan Faull, Director General of the European Commission’s Justice and Home Affairs department told IPS: "The EU and the U.S. must stand side by side to build and improve bilateral agreements and to improve the humanitarian situation there."

This view was supported by independent experts at a conference last week (June 18-20) in Brussels.

Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament, said: "We need a healthy transatlantic relationship – Iraq has shown us that. Although we have differences – the U.S. over-estimates and the EU under-estimates – these differences may be worth having and can help the process."

Going a step farther, Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, Director for Europe of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, said that the EU must use the reconstruction of Iraq to demonstrate its power on a global scale.

He said: "The post-war reconstruction of Iraq and the surrounding region will provide a test case for Europe’s ability to project its interests and to provide assistance via the United Nations."

"Europe’s commitment to help the Iraqi people and to transform the region into a more democratic place must go beyond the provision of humanitarian aid. On the other hand, Europe should not subsidise a U.S.-led military administration," he continued.

Mueller-Kraenner’s remarks were significant as the Heinrich Boell Foundation is close to Germany’s Green Party, whose eminent leader is Germany’s Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

The conference, hosted by the Commission on Globalisation, said the U.S. led invasion of Iraq had dramatically transformed the geo-political landscape.

The Commission is a think-tank examining the nature and character of globalisation. It has approximately 30 co-chairs and several hundred commissioners drawn from top international business and political institutions.

Against the changed backdrop, Mueller-Kraenner pleaded for redefining the transatlantic security relationship.

"This redefinition should not involve the mere duplication of Europe’s post-war security dependency on the U.S.; Europe should ask itself how its own security interests can be guaranteed by a new governance structure in which Europe has a decisive say," he said.

Tom Spencer , Executive Director of the European Centre for Public Affairs, one of the commissioners of the Commission on Globalisation, said the differences between the U.S. and the EU run much deeper than the war in Iraq.

"The rough water in the Atlantic is not caused by anything that the Europeans initiated or any inherent defect in Atlantic institutional structures," he said.

"Rather it is caused by a change in U.S. self-perception that fundamentally alters the nature of the game. The arguments of recent months have in reality been not about Iraq, but about the exercise of global power."

Spencer added: "With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Europe is understandably less important strategically to the Americans. The balance of American interest in European integration has clearly shifted, with the European Union now seen as a global competitor to America at all levels other than the military."