[dehai-news] (FT) Cracks in EU unity on Russia


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Sep 02 2008 - 11:04:41 EDT


Cracks in EU unity on Russia
September 2, 2008

By Tony Barber

In Cold War times it was a rule of thumb that, whenever the Soviet
Union’s behaviour was particularly bullying, the US and western Europe
would put aside their differences and close ranks in reaction.
Conversely, when Moscow was less threatening, there was less pressure
for complete unity in the western alliance. France (Charles de Gaulle),
West Germany (Willy Brandt) and the US (Richard Nixon) each sought
benefits for their own countries from closer contacts with the Soviet
leadership.

For all the European Union’s show of unity on Monday at its
emergency summit in Brussels, the crisis over Russia’s destruction of
Georgia’s territorial integrity clearly hasn’t reached the point at
which all the Europeans are with each other in heart and soul. The
explanation isn’t hard to find.

Today’s 27-nation EU is a very different creature from the European
Community of the 1970s and 1980s, which started with six members and
still had only 12, all in western Europe, by the end of the Cold War.
It is the inclusion of Austria, Finland and Sweden in the 1990s and,
above all, of 10 former communist bloc countries since 2004 that has
made the difference.

Take the remarks made at Monday’s summit by the leaders of Poland
and Austria. In what was a clear reference to the Germans, Italians and
others, Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, complained: “There are
politicians, even in Europe, who would prefer empty conclusions because
of their intensive bilateral relations with Russia.”

By contrast, Alfred Gusenbauer, Austria’s chancellor, was adamant:
“I’m against any kind of escalation.” Russia and the EU, he said, have
“strategic reasons for reasonable co-operation”.

The summit saw a gap between countries such as the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland - all former Soviet satellites -
and France, Germany and Italy. The former group sympathises strongly
with Georgia, whereas the latter trio is highly critical of Mikheil
Saakashvili, the Georgian leader, and enjoy flourishing trade and
investment relationships with Russia that they have no wish no
jeopardise.

However, it would be wrong to assume that the eastern Europeans are
hotheads pressing for some kind of showdown with Moscow. Not at all.
Geographically, they are on the frontline. They are, for the most
part, small states. Two are extremely small and have restive Russian
minorities. Open confrontation is even less in their interests than it
is in those of France or Germany.

Rather, the eastern Europeans are drawing on their experience of
Soviet behaviour to alert their western European partners to the need
to respond firmly when Russia crosses the line, as all EU countries say
it has done in Georgia. Their alarm is understandable because Georgia
is part of the same former sphere of Russian control to which they once
belonged. “Who will be next?” they are thinking.

However, economic or even tough diplomatic sanctions against Russia
were never going to be announced at the summit. The EU is not a
military alliance or even a regional policeman for Europe. Its common
foreign and security policy is a work in progress, not a solid fact.
Negotiation, partnership and a knack for fashioning
ingenious compromises out of nothing are the EU’s very spirit and life
force.

The only problem is that Russia, in its present mood, may not be especially susceptible to this type of approach.

http://blogs.ft.com/brusselsblog/2008/09/cracks-in-eu-unity-on-russia/

         ----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2008
All rights reserved