Brussels, 04/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The new Scorecard that has just been published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) reflection group underlines that while Europeans were united and invested large resources in the most critical issues in 2014, they did so primarily to address the threat from Russia, with the rest moving to a secondary level.
“The EU, which has traditionally seen enlargement, transformation, and cooperation as its best policy tools, is now forced to confront power politics”, the ECFR states.
The Scorecard says that sanctions have been a tool but that the EU should now develop a strategy to deal with Russia - “without abandoning its responsibility to protect the 'European choice'” in the countries where this choice has been made (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and the Western Balkans). In the view of the ECFR, the EU paid less attention to the Western Balkans in 2014.
According to the Scorecard, the EU achieved its best performance last year in sanctions and trade with Russia, relations with the US on Iran and weapons proliferation, the European policy of non-proliferation and the arms trade, the liberalisation of visas, and relations concerning energy with the Eastern neighbourhood, Iran and Somalia.
By contrast, the EU was relatively weak in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in countering the influence of the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Iran and Turkey. “The EU also struggled to find its role in the southern neighbourhood, where crisis followed crisis”, the Scoreboard states. It also seems that the member states did not “find the political courage” to develop a firm response to the crisis in the Middle East and to the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean region. “The EU's failure to grip this issue displays an alarming lack of solidarity with southern member states”, the ECFR believes. In 2014, the Europeans performed worst, therefore, in regional security in the MENA region, in the response to the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean, and to the crises in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Libya.
“The European voice continues to make itself heard largely through the member states rather than the EU institutions”, the ECFR states. It also states that while EU efforts have been prominent in advancing UN climate change negotiations, in the ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, and in the anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia, leadership in 2014 was centred around the member states. The ECFR underlines the dominant role of Germany, a “leader” country in terms of foreign policy, ahead of Sweden and the UK. Unlike in 2013, when the “leader” states had rather acted alone, in 2014, the leadership was much more about coalition building - “perhaps reflecting the style of two of this year's top leaders, Germany and Sweden”. By contrast, Malta, Austria and the Czech Republic had a weak influence.
The Scorecard can be found at: http://ecfr.eu/scorecard/2015. (CG)