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BRUSSELS, Jan 29: “Old Europe” still has much to teach the New World, top European Union officials said on Wednesday in response to an “insult” by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Dozens of European Parliament members stood up during a debate on Iraq to demand the United States back off from threats of military action, waving English-language cards reading “no war for oil” and “Old Europe, yes”.
The message was a pointed criticism of Rumsfeld, who last week consigned France and Germany to “old Europe” for opposing a war against Iraq.
The impromptu demonstration in the 626-seat chamber, which was three-quarters full at the time, came as EU foreign policy high representative Javier Solana briefed the MEPs on the Iraq crisis.
“I was at looking at some of these cards being held up so clearly by the members of the parliament,” he said in an aside.
“Both fortunately and unfortunately, I’m talking to you as an ‘old boy’, because of everything that Europe is, was and will be,” Solana said to applause.
The EU’s external relations commissioner, Englishman Chris Patten, recalled that his country had once “had a spot of trouble with one of our colonies on the other side of the Atlantic”.
“Speaking as a proud citizen of old Europe ... I’ve occasionally reflected that if King George (III) hadn’t made such a mess of things, instead of fetching up as the last governor of Hong Kong, I might have finished up as the governor of Arkansas or Texas,” Patten told laughing MEPs.
“Who knows what might have happened,” he said.
“But speaking as a citizen of old Europe, I think it’s often wiser to raise a quizzical eyebrow than to return an insult.”
Rumsfeld’s comments, made in response to a Franco-German declaration that they were in agreement that “everything must be done to avoid a war” in Iraq, sparked a firestorm of protest by European leaders.
“I think that’s old Europe,” Rumsfeld said when asked about the position of the two countries. “If you look at entire Europe today, the centre of gravity is shifting to the east.”—AFP
