FRANCE AIMS TO BOLSTER EU’S SWAY
The Associated Press
May 26, 2008
BRUSSELS: Bolstering Europe’s influence on the world stage – and
especially on the new American administration – will be the top
priority for France when it takes over the presidency of the European
Union in July, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France said Monday.
Kouchner said France wanted to promote efforts to create a common
EU defense policy and to work closely with Washington, once a
new U.S. president is elected, on issues like peace in the Middle
East. France will take over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency from
Slovenia on July 1, and a new American president will be inaugurated
in January.
"The American election offers a historic opportunity," Kouchner
told a gathering of diplomats and EU officials, to offer the new
administration "an agenda, a road map, that will correspond to
our priorities, our understanding of how to solve crises and find
solutions together."
He said a more effective EU foreign policy was needed, backed by better
and more effective cooperation on defense policies. "Our objective
is to put in place credible civil and military defense capacities
and means," Kouchner said.
EU nations had to overcome past problems in raising enough peacekeepers
to fill promised missions to Chad. "We learned difficult lessons when
we had to assemble 3,000 men for Chad," Kouchner said.
Today in Europe Health care fees trouble Eastern EuropeRussian jet
shot down Georgian spy drone, UN saysU.S. courts the support of
French Muslims There were problems in mustering enough soldiers from
EU nations to protect refugees who were flooding into Chad from the
Darfur region of neighboring Sudan. The EU mission also was hampered
by a shortage of helicopters and airplanes.
Similarly, EU nations have hesitated to participate in a joint police
training mission in Afghanistan.
Kouchner said the 27-nation bloc stood at a crossroads where it had
"to define renewed ambitious goals" to better the lives of Europeans,
notably in implementing the club’s new governing treaty, which is
currently being ratified by EU nations.
The Lisbon Treaty, signed last year in Portugal, aims to streamline
the way the bloc makes decisions and bolster its powers in such areas
as immigration and fighting crime. It also aims to make the EU’s
foreign policy more effective with the creation of an EU president
and a single envoy to represent the bloc abroad.
As EU president, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France will be
responsible for getting EU leaders to fill new posts created
by the treaty and setting up a new joint EU diplomatic corps in
Brussels. Kouchner said France aims to have posts filled before the
planned entry into force of the new treaty on Jan. 1, 2009.
France also aims to address growing fears that globalization spells
bad news for manufacturing and other industry jobs across Europe,
Kouchner said, as China and other emerging Asian economic powers
attract more industry from overseas.
Kouchner said investing more in innovation, research and technology
is key to economic growth. He said EU nations must also agree on a
common immigration policy, which could bring in more high-skilled
workers to fill increasing job openings.
In another development Monday, Poland and Sweden sought support from
other EU nations for a new outreach program to build closer ties with
Ukraine and the EU’s other former Soviet neighbors to the east.
The plan would go beyond the EU’s current "neighborhood policy,"
which groups East European countries like Ukraine and Belarus with
nations in North Africa and the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland said it was important
to make a distinction because the easterners are European nations
who could one day apply to join the EU. Poland and Sweden presented
the plan at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Russia was not included in the Polish-Swedish plan, but the EU
approved plans Monday to begin negotiations with Moscow on a new
cooperation agreement, which had been long delayed because of Polish
and Lithuanian objections.
"We are trying to normalize our relations with Russia," Sikorski
said before the EU talks. But he predicted the talks with Russia
would be tough, particularly over sensitive issues such as energy
and human rights.
Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, is concerned about instability on
its eastern borders as former Soviet countries are squeezed between
Russia and the West. With older EU nations wary about offering
membership to the likes of Ukraine, Poland is seeking other means to
draw the easterners close to the Western bloc.
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden said the plan would aim to
forge closer ties with countries that are of "fundamental importance
for all of Europe," including Moldova, Belarus and nearby Caucasus
nations like Georgia and Armenia.
"We think its time to look to the east to see what we can do to
strengthen democracy," Bildt said.
The Polish-Swedish plan includes easing visa restrictions on countries
to the east, closer cooperation on environmental issues and freeing
up trade.