Global Europe

As the EU moves towards finalising details of the External Action Service (EAS), it should consider a more active role for the European Parliament (EP) and national parliaments.

On Sunday, the International Monetary Fund’s board signed off on its part of the Greek bailout -- a cool €30 billion, nearly a third of the total. The IMF’s involvement is arguably essential to securing the markets’ confidence in the deal and to reassuring the European governments providing the rest of the cash. It may be the only institution hard-hearted enough to hold the Greeks to account or turn up the heat if they start to go astray.

The controversial burqa ban adopted last week by the Belgian parliament’s lower house and variants of the legislation being hammered out in France and elsewhere have prompted tough comments by some European Muslims as well as governments in the Muslim world. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is among those who warn that Islamic countries will point a disapproving finger at France if, as expected, Paris also moves to ban the full veil.

Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament, was in Washington last week to open the Parliament's new liaison office -- the first of its kind outside the EU. Buzek had many transatlantically-minded things to say, including support for a Transatlantic Single Market and a Transatlantic Assembly of legislators from both sides of the Atlantic. But the real message of his visit was that in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament is feeling its oats, and is ready to assert its prerogatives in U.S-EU relations.

Much has been said of the choice of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy; probably too much has been said about her initial performance. Yet, analysis on the institutional tools at Catherine Ashton’s disposal has been scant — or at least as ungenerous as the coverage of her first months in office. The EU’s External Action Service (EAS) is the case in point par excellence. In recent weeks, the mentions of the EAS in the international media have often been conflated to the ongoing bickering over the establishment of the service. But the substance, let alone the potential, of this fundamental, post-Lisbon innovation remains understudied.

Given the mess in Afghanistan, the European Union is understandably reluctant to become further entangled in South Asia’s multiple security dilemmas. Tension in the region – often described as the most dangerous place in the world – is mounting as Afghan President Hamid Karzai rages against the West, lethal attacks by the Taliban wreak havoc in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and chronically difficult relations become even more strained between nuclear-armed neighbours, India and Pakistan.

The creation of the External Action Service (EAS) offers a unique opportunity for Europe to redefine its foreign and security policies. In no other area is the opportunity as great as in the EU’s policy towards weak and failing states. It is here that Europe’s diplomatic corps can truly come into its own by providing institutional support for conflict prevention and amalgamating the EU’s civil and military resources.

The tragic plane crash that killed the Polish President Lech Kaczyński and members of the country’s political elite will be remembered as the end of the post-Cold War period for the country. It brought to an abrupt end a highly charged and controversial presidency of a Polish patriot who understood the world through the prism of his family’s history in the Second World War, his own role in the Solidarity movement during the communist times and efforts to reconstitute Poland’s national grandeur as a free country. He was a good reflection of his generation which went through tumultous political change and carried high the flag of national values as a result.

The Cold War is over but the dangerous spiral of force and counter-force especially in regions with weak or no government at all, as for example in Somalia, goes on. The threats and sufferings unleashed thereby do no longer spare Europe. Thus conflict prevention, crisis management and peacebuilding should become one of the top priorities in EU external policies if the EU wants to become a more responsible global actor. 

The European Union is in a decisive phase. We have a big, a unique chance -- the Lisbon Treaty which entered into force last December foresees numerous reforms which could make the EU more coherent, transparent and also more capable to take action in foreign affairs and therefore to become a global player rather than a global payer. The Treaty is predicated on the idea that no nation can tackle today's global challenges alone such as financial crisis, climate change, terrorism, migration, security of energy supply and that the EU therefore must become more coherent and efficient in order to take common actions and to speak with one voice.