Brussels, 27/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a speech on Tuesday on the lessons and challenges of CFSP, the Commissioner for external relation, Chris Patten, acknowledged that institutional changes could contribute to developing the common foreign and security policy, but placed emphasis on the need for the political will "not lagging behind institutional arrangements". Mr. Patten, who was speaking at a breakfast organised by The European Policy Centre, announced that he would soon be setting out his ideas before the European Convention's working group on external action, chaired by Jean-Luc Dehaene (which will meet on 8 October and should hear Javier Solana: Ed). On the proposal of uniting in a single person the roles of High Representative and the Commissioner for external relations, Mr. Patten said he suspected they would first have to "tread one or two interim steps".
The fact of "grumbling about the United States", "is not the same as having a European foreign policy", warned Mr. Patten, for whom the Union must demonstrate its credibility in a concrete manner by assuming more responsibility, ensuring that multilateralism is maintained, as well as respecting the "global rule book", and by being more "proactive" in conflict prevention. This means that the EU must be prepared to do more in security matters too, even though it could not "rival" the United States militarily. How could it, moreover, faced with an American President that has just asked Congress to approve military spending of 14% of the budget? he wondered. He then noted: "the other day, I asked MEPs if their parties could win elections by making a request of that type, and only General Morillon said yes. No, we don't have to pay such an entry fee to assume our responsibilities", said Patten.
In what circumstances would a pre-emptive strike against Iraq be justifiable? "I hope that whatever the international community is obliged to undertake is on the basis of a UN mandate and international consensus", Mr. Patten repeated, while adding: "what can we do if Saddam Hussein continues to defy the UN? Do we write a letter to the Financial Times? Organise a petition?". If we have gone down the UN route, we cannot simply "walk away", the Commissioner stressed. However, "if we want inspections, it is not helpful to confuse them with other objectives", insisted Patten who, to the question of whether the UN inspectors should be accompanied by military personnel, replied: "Mr. Blix, if I consider his experience, including in North Korea, has enormous credibility". He then raised the fundamental issue of the use of force by recalling the metaphor of the man who meets a bear: if he has no gun, he will try to distance himself intelligently, if he has a gun, he'll probably shoot, but if he does so, he risks attracting other bears.. "Being strong does not mean that the only way of being yourself is to use your military strength", Patten concluded.