Yearender: France Pushes for EU Common Foreign Policy

France should feel proud of its efforts in pushing for a common foreign policy as its six-month EU presidency tips to an embarrassing end marked by the hard-won Nice Treaty, but it may sigh over the fact that there is still much more to be done.

To French politicians, following the launching of the single currency, a common foreign policy was anther important step for building up political integration in a Europe usually looked down upon as "an economic giant but a political pygmy."

With the United States dragged in its presidential elections this year and France resuming its rotating presidency in July, the EU showed more signs of better coordination and efficiency and exerted greater influence especially in the Balkans, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

However, as the U.S. remains the only superpower and national interests keep boggling the European governments in their attempt at building political integration, a EU common foreign policy is still a goal too far away to reach in years.

LEADING ROLE IN BALKAN RECONSTRUCTION

For the European Union, the Kosovo War in 1999 was remembered as a shameful experience. When conflicts got out of control in its own backyard, it played but a role of vassals for the United States, who, swanky with a modern weaponry, once again proved its military supremacy and domination over Europe.

As French President Jacques Chirac said, the Kosovo War taught Europe a lesson and has forced it to reflect on its own political and military strength.

The bloc got itself better equipped with a permanent mechanism since October 1999 when former NATO secretary-general Javier Solana took a top post specially created to coordinate the bloc's foreign and security policy.

The Helsinki summit last December further boosted the confidence of the old continent with the launching of an autonomous defense plan, including a 60,000-man rapid reaction force to be created by 2003, capable of jumping into Kosovo-like trouble spots within 60 days.

To materialize its dream of greater influence over the Balkans -- a strategically key region for which the US and Russia rivaled in decades, the EU stepped to the center stage with an eastward enlargement plan, wrapped with a large sum of reconstruction aid and promises of economic prosperity.

It did not hesitate to lock the post-Milosevic Yugoslavia into its sphere.

An oil embargo and flight ban were lifted within days following Vojislav Kostunica's victory in September. France took the lead in resuming diplomatic relations with Belgrade and pledged to

integrate it into EU-sponsored regional cooperation groupings like the Southeast European Stability Pact.

In October, Kostunica was invited to the EU informal summit in Biarritz where he got an emergency aid of 200 million euros (US$166.3 million) for his country.

In November, the first EU-Balkans summit opened in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, and the EU unveiled a 4.65 billion euros (US$4.17 billion) aid package for the western Balkans.

As Chirac called Europe "our continent" and the Zagreb summit a manifest of determination, it is evident that the EU has set a bigger role in the backyard as a common foreign policy goal.

PRAGMATISM IN RELATIONS WITH ASIA-PACIFIC

Since the first Europe-Asia Meeting (ASEM) in the Thai capital of Bangkok in 1995, the EU has regarded the Asia-Pacific countries, usually considered more of a sphere of US influence years before, as its partners for dialogue and cooperation.

Three events marked the new development of EU foreign policy concerning the Asia-Pacific region in the second half of this year -- removal of obstacles between the EU and China to Beijing's WTO accession, a visit to China by Chirac and the launching of dialogue with Pyongyang.

A series of high-level Asia-EU political and economic meetings also facilitated the forging of closer cooperation between the two regions.

In July, EU foreign ministers met their Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) counterparts in Bangkok.

During the October biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Seoul,the 15 EU countries and 10 Asian nations pledged to work together more closely on political issues.

At the end of this year, also held were ministerial meetings between the EU and ASEAN which had been suspended three years ago when the latter accepted Myanmar as a member despite the EU's strong objections.

The EU also declared its support to the rapprochement between Pyongyang and Seoul and agreed to provide technical and economic support to accompany the process of detente in the Korean Peninsula.

These moves, ranging from trade and investment to security and political cooperation, showed that Europe pursues a more pragmatic and perspective policy toward the Asia-Pacific region with a booming market and growing political weight.

As French Foreign Minister Huber Verdrine put it, consensus is reached within Europe that cooperation should not be sidetracked by disputes over sensitive issues such as human rights and those issues should be resolved through dialogue instead of confrontation.

HIGHER VOICE IN MIDDLE EAST

Because of its influence among the Arab world, the EU is always expected by the Islamic nations to play a bigger role in the region and therefore give some balance to Washington's pro-Israel policy.

The role was accepted voluntarily. On July 1, France took over the EU rotating presidency and held a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a sign widely considered indicative of EU's diplomatic focus.

As tensions grew between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, Paris arranged a round of peace talks between Israel and Palestinians under U.S. mediation in early October.

Along with several EU states, France later voted in favor of a motion at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the "excessive use of force" by Israel against Palestinians.

The Israeli government was more dismayed to see France win in supporting Arafat's demand for an international inquiry instead of an Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. one to probe into the causes of the three-month violence that left over 300 dead, mostly Palestinians.

And at the fourth Euro-Mediterranean summit held in Marseilles in November, the EU announced a new package of 5.35 billion euros (4.79 billion dollars) for the mostly Arab members of its Mediterranean partnership program and issued a document repeating its support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

However, Brussels' aim at louder voice was somewhat whittled down by discrepancy among member states. For example, Britain and Germany abstained in voting on the French motion condemning Israel.

As a result, while Israel accused Chirac of encouraging terrorism by supporting Arafat, some Arab nations were still unhappy with what they called EU's inaction.

NATIONAL INTERESTS HOBBLE COMMON POLICY

Holding the rotating presidency or not, France has never hidden its ambition to see the EU (and herself) play a more active role in the world.

Chirac has been one of the most vocal Western critics of US policies and the French people share a popular mood of dislike as the mighty superpower seeks to dictate recipes to others.

The French ambition certainly gets easier to fulfill with an integrated market, a single currency and one voice in foreign affairs, but common policies come at the prices of sovereignty and national interests, things that no one will easily let go.

But Paris' eager to become an equal partner with the US was derided as trouble-making by Washington followers in the EU.

During the Nice Summit, Chirac gave in to British Prime Minister Tony Blair who said that he was irritated by Chirac saying that the European rapid reaction force should enjoy a degree of autonomy from the NATO.

In fact, nothing mirrored each nation's own interests more clearly than the bitter disputes during the Nice summit.

Small countries fear for being sidelined, large countries fear for being outvoted by coalitions of small countries and several states want to preserve the right to veto in specific areas. All this made the goal of a common foreign policy more difficult to realize.

Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the EU, once said, "there is no Europe. You need to create it."

By the end of its term of EU leadership, France must have fully understood this phrase and Sweden, successor to the rotating presidency in January-June 2001, will find itself shouldering a no less weighty decade-old task.






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