An eloquent comment. Mr Barroso, still president of the European Commission for a few more months, recently reassured the Tunisian prime minister, Mr Mehdi Jomaa, of the EU's support for Tunisia, but Barroso added: “taking account of the limits of the possible extravagance of the European budget” (see EUROPE 11105). This small comment of course refers to the EU's relations with the outside, and its meaning is obvious - the EU's action to recover its budget deficits and review its various policies impacts on all aspects of its activity (including relations with third countries and also its enlargement policy). It's not a case of blocking developments but of taking account - in the EU's links with third countries - of the austerity measures and of the recovery that the EU is applying at home. I'm not expressing my personal opinion here but mindsets and concerns that are now increasingly widespread in Community circles.
Wishes that call for reflection. Most of the candidate countries for EU accession are, in practice, pursuing three objectives - EU financial support; participation in common policies; and free access for their nationals to the Community area. Asking for EU membership has become a normal step. Upon signing their association agreements with the EU, Ukraine announced “its sovereign choice for future member state status”, Georgia “unofficially lodged a request for membership” and the prime minister of Moldova, Iurie Leanca, said that his country aspires to become “a full member” (see EUROPE 11110). It would be pointless my recalling the position of several Balkans countries, some of which have been candidates for a long time.
Farewell to Turkish membership. As for Turkey, Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP Group (the leading group in the European Parliament), announced that his party now rejected Ankara's plan for EU accession and instead favoured a closer partnership (see EUROPE 11113), believing that full accession would not work. This column has been saying this for years. The negotiations have been under way for ten years - but just one chapter has been closed. Time was needed to understand that a country situated very largely in Asia can't become a member of the European Union!
Mixed regions. Membership is not the only way to cooperate widely with the EU. The EU very wisely created Community regions and regions of nearby countries. The European Commission last month presented an action plan for the Adriatic and Ionian basin - a plan which unites the Community countries and third countries in this area (see EUROPE 11103). Of course, EU financing is planned even so - but it is moderate in comparison with the significance, and especially the results, of this formula (which allows action together while avoiding inappropriate accessions).
Protecting the EU identity. These different methods allow the EU to deepen and improve its relations with the countries that surround it, and in particular to avoid diluting itself to the point of becoming unmanageable, of losing its individuality and ultimately its political strength. In the immediate future, in order to make its consolidation and recovery possible, the EU must adopt a similar attitude in its external relations to the one it demands on the domestic level, bringing together control on spending and recovery of the economy, austerity and reforms.
Plans exist. It should be not be thought that these considerations limit the outlook for economic expansion. On the contrary, they involve a recovery in employment. Just one example from among many is that the European Commission has said that green employment resulting from the prevention and management of waste can create 600,000 new jobs rapidly, while helping improve the environment, the climate and energy efficiency. To this should be added a programme to eliminate the waste itself over time (see EUROPE 11113).
Positive for third countries. All that I have mentioned above is definitely essential for the EU and, at the same time, it is positive for third countries because, if the EU recovers and relaunches its political and economic effectiveness, the result will also be positive for the world surrounding it. This is one of the reasons why the future EU candidatures must be carefully assessed and accession must be reserved for those who accept the Community method and objectives - in other words, the stability and growth pact, with the possibility of flexibility it includes.
EU relations with the US require specific analysis due, in particular, to the deep developments under way in the US, and the repercussions these developments will have. (FR)