BRUSSELS, March 18: With American military strikes against Iraq believed to be only days away, the European Union’s top officials Tuesday struggled to heal deep divisions among the bloc’s leaders over US policy towards Baghdad.
“The challenge now is to minimize damage to the EU,” European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten told reporters ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s leaders set to open in Brussels on March 20.
EU discord over Iraq is expected to make for a gloomy and acrimonious summit, however.
Despite rising domestic opposition to their pro-Washington stance, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spain’s Jose-Maria Aznar remain staunch supporters of US military action.
Opposing them in the United Nations Security Council and in the 15-nation EU are French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder whose stalwart refusal to use force to disarm Iraq has rattled the US and caused outrage in London and Madrid.
A fractured EU cut a “sorry figure” on the world stage, Patten warned, adding that the 15 countries had failed miserably to rise to the challenge posed by the Iraq crisis to the bloc’s efforts at forging a common foreign and security policy. “That is regrettable,” he said.
EU security chief Javier Solana, however, voiced confidence that member states would be able to heal wounds in the days ahead. “We will be getting together around important issues like the Middle East,” he predicted.
Despite the brave words, however, bridging the EU rift will require time and patience.
“This is probably Europe’s worst crisis since the second world war,” said an EU official. At stake is not only the EU’s still-embryonic efforts to craft a joint foreign and defence policy. Disagreements over Iraq are also poisoning the bloc’s long-awaited eastward expansion and have cast a shadow over work on drafting a new EU constitution.
Many in Brussels are also fretting over the economic fall-out from a military conflict on the already frail eurozone economies.
Already personal relations between leaders — an important element in EU integration — are at an all-time low. Relations between Blair and Chirac have never been frostier.
Worsening personal chemistry among leaders could have serious policy repercussions. As the EU’s top paymasters, Germany and France have hinted that Spain and Italy should no longer expect to receive generous handouts for their less-developed regions.
For the moment, however, Blair and Aznar, appear more worried about their personal future than the fate of the EU. The British premier’s unwavering support for hardline US policies is increasingly unpopular within the Labour Party, with critics speculating for the first time that Blair could face an internal revolt against his leadership.
Spanish premier Aznar is also defying massive public opposition to the war by siding with the US.
