Since the world changed on Sept 11 last year, European Union (EU) integration has moved on apace. At the beginning of 2002 the Euro was launched as a unified single currency for the 12 participating countries. The eastward thrust of the EU entered a decisive stage and by 2004 this expansion will have embraced 25 countries. Arrangements for the European Rapid Reaction Force are moving ahead and the EU will soon have a fully independent defensive capability. 2004 will also see a meeting to address the historic issue of the setting up of a EU Constitution. All these developments suggest that the EU is trying to build itself into a major player on the world stage. Wu Yikang, director of the European Study Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, shares his insight and personal opinions on the EU political dream.
European Affairs Become EU Affairs
Since the end of the bi-polar world of the cold war, EU impact on the international community has been steadily increasing. The backdrop has become one of global economy and multi-polarization.
Learning from Kosovo, the EU is doing its utmost to promote the concept of “Europe is the Europeans.” It aims to secure the dominant role in European affairs, push forward Europe integration, consolidate common policies relating to diplomacy and security and so achieve a seed-change in Europe so that European affairs become EU affairs.
Meanwhile on the world stage, the EU has begun to plan its global strategy. It has conducted multi-directional global diplomacy through a mix of both diplomatic measures and trade strategies.
These measures have included eastern expansion, a southern projection of influence into the Middle East and North Africa and the restoration of cordial relations with Russia. There has been further consolidation of traditional ties with Africa, Canada and the Pacific. The world's largest free trade zone has been established conjointly with Latin America. The Asian-European Conference has become institutionalized. Such diplomacy has raised the profile and impact of the EU in the warmer parts of the world and is winning a favored position on the evolving global stage.
Independent diplomacy supported by its newfound integration and global strategic networks allows the EU to play a more active role in international affairs.
The EU has taken a stand against US unilateralism on a range of issues from the Kyoto Protocol to National Missile Defense (NMD) and North Korea. The EU’s approach to any escalation of the conflict in the Middle East is to engage in intensive mediation while maintaining a distance to the US’s stance. The EU position is to insist there should be a broad balance between Israel and Palestine. It has opposed US attempts to oust Yasser Arafat and has expressed dissatisfaction with US bias in favor of Israel.
And what’s more, while the EU completely backs the US on the war against terror, it sings from a different hymn sheet on a wide range of important issues. There are differences not only on the definition of anti-terrorism but also on the sphere of operations and strategy for the war.
Holding a different position on the role of the UN and on the matter of a possible war on Iraq, the EU has expressed sharp criticism of US arrogance. When Bush put forward his “Axis of Evil” proposition it was questioned by the EU, which criticized it for its “absurd logic.” The EU has improved its relations with North Korea and Iran, opposed an “anti-Sadam war” and rejected US demands for the extradition of terrorist suspects. Ironically EU disinclination to blindly follow the US lead, coupled with public denouncement of US foreign policy actually goes some way to mirroring the “go it alone” tendency usually associated with the US.
A New Assertive Europe
Although US-European relations could not be changed fundamentally in the short term, it is worth noticing that in recent years the EU and the US have tended to confront each other more frequently. The cohesive force of Europe-American alliance is weakening and the cracks are widening. Already the contradictions and friction between the two sides have spread from economics and trade to the political, diplomatic and security agendas. The gap has deepened from considerations of specific policies and interests to substantive issues of strategy, values and ideology.
Recent years have witnessed a confident new EU which both collectively and also in terms of its individual members appears not at all afraid of offending US. It now even dares to challenge the US on economic issues and in matters of trade and international affairs.
All this would have been quite unimaginable in the cold war era. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has attacked US foreign policy as unilateralism describing it as simplistic and far removed from reality. The German Ambassador to the US, Wolfgang Ischinger wrote articles to argue against a US myth of “omniscience” (knowing all things), Chris Patten, the European Union's commissioner for external affairs warned that the US cannot do everything on its own. European opinion now tends to the view that the traditional European-US relationship has been so significantly challenged that the EU should seek a new and more equitable strategic partnership with the US.
Europeans are increasingly talking in terms of “European Characteristics,” “The European Model,” “European Values and Ethics” as if in an adverse reaction to “US Hegemony.” Such anti-US sentiment is becoming a matter of concern for some elements in the US media. They see a deepening hostility between the US and Europe beginning to take the form of differences in underlying values. They think a united Europe might even turn out to rival US leadership. Such a reaction is sure to weaken the European-US Alliance across the Atlantic.
A Balancing Influence
As a growing force, in an international context of multilateralism jockeying for position with US unilateralism, the EU has an influential role to play. In other words the EU is a balancing influence countering US hegemony. Since the EU is in a unique position to promote multi-polarization, it will be of great significance to the final form of 21st century international power politics whether or not the EU can realize its ambition to become a major world player.
As for the EU itself, the concept of Europe is by definition the basis of its global strategy while the development of European integration is the key to its success. The ambition to establish a pan-European entity coupled with an ongoing competition for the leading role in the EU-Russia-US triangle is at the heart of strategy in the European context.
With the EU now posing a challenge to American dominance, the balance of power is moving towards the EU. As a result, the defense links between the EU and the US are loosening and Europe and Russia are working towards mutual integration. For like Putin said “Russia is part of the European family.”
All this is indicative of the balance of the three-way relationship tilting the way of Russia and Europe. It would seem that today EU-Russian cooperation is closer than US-Russian cooperation in terms of scale, efficiency and mutual support.
In a single-superpower world where the US roadblock sits astride the road to multi-lateralism, the growing influence of the EU might well be the vehicle which will pave a new way for the world.
(china.org.cn, by Zheng Guihong, September 19, 2002)
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