London / Brussels, 05/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The series of meetings of these past few days between politicians from the EU and third countries on events following 11 September, in particular in Afghanistan and the Middle East as a whole finally led to a Summit, in London Sunday evening, initially reserved for three countries - United Kingdom, France and Germany - but which was then enlarged to take in Italy, Spain, the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council and the Union's High Representative for CFSP and, at the very last minute, the Netherlands. Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister (country which had just announced its concrete contribution to the American military operations in Afghanistan) was the first guest that Tony Blair added to the short list made up of Jacques Chirac, Lionel Jospin and Gerhard Schroeder, and was immediately followed by Jose Maria Aznar. The Belgian Presidency, only informed on Saturday that the Summit was being held, was finally also invited to London; Guy Verhofstadt, however, only accepted the invitation having, he said, secured agreement from Member States and the presence of the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana. "For me, what's important is that I represent the Fifteen. I'm not coming as observer. On the contrary, I received a clear mandate from the Fifteen". Finally, Dutch Prime minister Wim Kok, who had called Tony Blair to protest against the exclusion of the Netherlands, also turned up in London Sunday evening (but his last minute invitation enraged Dutch MPs). This Summit, even enlarged, nevertheless led to protests from Portugal (according to Reuters), whereas, according to AFP, Danish Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft said he could accept such meetings if the EU was represented.
At the end of the Summit, Tony Blair declared that the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain were the five EU countries most disposed to provide "a major military contribution" to the efforts of the United States, whereas, while placing emphasis solidarity between Europeans and Americans, Jacques Chirac stressed that military action was not the only way to combat terrorism, and that, at the same time, a political solution had to be found for Afghanistan. As or Wim Kok, he said that "most important in the short term is the humanitarian". Tony Blair also briefed his colleagues on his recent trip to the Middle East, and President Chirac stressed the unanimity of the participants as to the absolute need to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Asked about the absence of the Commission at the London Summit, the Commission spokesman, Jonathan Faull, said that the Commission, "which has no direct responsibility in the matter", could accept the presence of Verhofstadt and Solana at the meeting which was held "outside the framework of European institutions". Mr. Blair invited Messrs. Verhofstadt and Solana to reflect the "contribution of CFSP" in current circumstances, he added. "We did not phone" to be invited", "the problem does not lie here but elsewhere", he said in answer to another question (allusion to the phone calls from other capitals wanting to be present in London). Tony Blair then called Romano Prodi to brief him on the Summit, Mr. Faull pointed out. As to why Mr. Prodi had been upset at the Blair-Chirac-Schroeder Summit in Ghent, whereas not now, Jonathan Faull recalled that the President of the European Commission had, before Ghent, feared that such a meeting, just a day before the European Council was to be held, should give the impression of "disunion" at a time when the contrary was required.
You may recall that EU Council President Louis Michel, who last week ended a round of Central Asian countries with a visit to Moscow, where he met Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, also stressed the need to find a political solution in Afghanistan.