European Disunion
WEINSTEIN, KENNETH R.
European Disunion Russia is far from the only issue dividing the EU. BY KENNETH R. WEINSTEIN Like the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the Russian invasion of Georgia reveals Europe’s weakness...
...Sarkozy has proved to be audacious, and at times unpredictable...
...Unfortunately, ever since FrancoGerman opposition to the Iraq war was portrayed as “European” opposition— never mind that Britain, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Poland, and other countries supported the invasion—the American media have treated Europe as a monolith...
...In midJune, the French government released a new defense policy directive, its fi rst since 1994, which announced the creation of a new defense and national security council and a new national intelligence council, both chaired by the president...
...and stressed the need for enhanced antiterrorism coordination...
...The true measure of European foreign policy unity should be judged on the basis of coherence under pressure...
...On global trade expansion and the Doha Round, Merkel and Gordon Brown have been devoted free traders, while Sarkozy has been more protectionist (drawing the ire of EU trade chief Peter Mandelson...
...After their visit of solidarity to Georgia this week, the Estonian, Lithuanian, and Polish presidents and the Latvian prime minister offered a joint statement that effectively criticized the EU-led peace initiative brokered by President Sarkozy for failing to address “the principal element—the respect of [the] territorial integrity of Georgia...
...The defense review sparked a critical reaction from Sarkozy’s domestic political opponents...
...Consider Sarkozy’s proposal for a Mediterranean Union that would be similar to the European Union and would boost cooperation among European, North African, and Middle Eastern governments...
...expectations on Afghanistan...
...British Labour MP Denis MacShane, who was U.K...
...I will make clear that we are not shirking our responsibilities for engagement, but I will also make the limits very clear, just as I have done with the current president,” she said...
...president will swiftly discover...
...Last August, he caused a stir by declaring that a policy of tough sanctions and incentives “is the only one that can enable us to avoid being faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran...
...Russia remains an especially diffi cult question...
...called for an EU defense force of 60,000 deployable troops...
...After some passionate negotiating—Sarkozy adviser Henri Guaino told the Financial Times that “there was a lively debate, a very intense, stormy discussion,” and EU diplomats were quoted elsewhere as saying that Sarkozy and Merkel “had quite a fi ght”—French and German offi cials agreed to include all 27 EU countries...
...Prime Minister Berlusconi’s policy followed the same path...
...but it is only one of many hot-button issues on which Europe is divided...
...In contrast, Merkel has placed less rhetorical emphasis on fi ghting terrorism and seemed less committed to the NATO campaign in Afghanistan...
...Prior to meeting with Barack Obama last month, Merkel urged a lowering of U.S...
...In a speech marking the white paper’s release, Sarkozy said that “the most immediate threat” to France “is that of a terrorist attack...
...For example: Britain favors Turkish membership in the EU, while France and Germany are fi ercely opposed...
...Whereas Merkel has consistently embraced multilateralism, the French president has shown a greater penchant for national initiatives...
...It’s a very Bushlike vision, very American—with a new concept of national security...
...For a period of time in 2007, when Washington and Paris pushed for robust sanctions, Berlin hedged...
...The underlying tension between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel throws the growing schism into sharp relief...
...Merkel and Sarkozy have also sparred over the European Central Bank...
...Sarkozy has also been more vocal and aggressive on terrorism...
...In fact, many of the debates that have separated the Bush administration from various European governments have also divided European governments from each other, with disagreements on a range of issues like Iran, terrorism, Russia, and the Mediterranean Union...
...The exclusion of Germany caused Merkel to object strongly, calling the plan “very dangerous” and fearing it would undermine the EU and erode Berlin’s strategic clout...
...As for global warming and slashing carbon emissions, there is even less harmony, with France at the head of the protectionist group that recognizes the need to preserve jobs in energy-intensive industries...
...As in many other areas—including Iran—Merkel has been constrained by left-wing Social Democrats within her broad governing coalition...
...advocated “the full participation of France in the structures of NATO...
...But suspicions linger in Berlin and elsewhere that Sarkozy’s true goal in forming the union was to expand France’s sphere of infl uence at Germany’s expense...
...minister for Europe under Tony Blair, dismissed Merkel and Berlusconi in a Daily Telegraph op-ed as “right-wing leaders . . . [who] appear to want to give Putin the benefi t of the doubt...
...When he fi rst began promoting the idea in 2007, the union was to include only countries that bordered the Mediterranean Sea...
...BY KENNETH R. WEINSTEIN Like the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the Russian invasion of Georgia reveals Europe’s weakness and disunity in crisis...
...Not surprisingly, NATO expansion and European military cooperation remain stubbornly divisive...
...Kenneth R. Weinstein is CEO of the Hudson Institute...
...positions on Iran and terrorism...
...After Georgia, it has once again been found deeply lacking...
...He has also moved France closer to the U.S...
...After Russia’s attack on Georgia, Merkel’s immediate reaction, like Barack Obama’s, was to avoid assigning blame to the Russians...
...Sarkozy has also promised to send several hundred additional French combat troops to Afghanistan...
...There are broader worries across Europe that Paris will use its six-month tenure as EU president—which began on July 1—in the service of French national interests...
...In Tbilisi on Tuesday, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt sounded surprisingly like John McCain, noting that “Russia will sooner or later have to pay a high price” for her action...
...It puts the entire defense sector in the hands of the president, but also civil security and the police,” one Socialist deputy told the Daily Telegraph...
...Sarkozy has been distinctly more hawkish on Iran than Merkel, describing the threat of a nuclear Iran as the world’s “most serious” crisis...
...That is misleading, as the next U.S...
...Germany has recently edged nearer to the French position, but it has traditionally been more resistant to harsh economic sanctions, given the extensiveness of German business interests in Iran...
...The same goes for her Russia policy...
...In contrast, the Balts, the Poles, and the Swedes have been Georgia’s most steadfast allies in the EU...
Vol. 13 • August 2008 • No. 46
