Brussels, 10/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the Greek Presidency invited the Member states of the European Union to take part in a special Summit on Iraq in Brussels on 17 February after the presentation, in New York on 14 February, of the latest Blix El Baradei report to the UN Security Council. This summit will be preceded on the Monday by an informal meeting of the Foreign ministers of the Fifteen. (If the Member States' response is positive and the Summit takes place, the EcoFin Council scheduled for the beginning of next week will be moved: Ed.). "The aim is to appease the situation, in the framework of UN resolutions", said the President of the European Council Kostas Simitis (Last Friday, in Cairo, EU Council President Georges Papandreou and the Union's Special Representative for the Middle East, Miguel Angel Moratinos, once more placed emphasis on the need to exhaust all possibilities to avoid war.)
Monday, a special Council of the Atlantic Alliance at ambassadorial level met in Brussels in the afternoon, following the refusal by Belgium, Germany and France to agree to accept the American requests for NATO support in case of an attack against Turkey. Ankara has invoked Article IV of the North Atlantic Treaty (never used so far, which provides for consultations when a Member state considers that "the territorial integrity, political independence or security of one of the parties is threatened"), and Belgium, France and Germany confirmed they would support Turkey if it were attacked and would meet all their obligations under the 1949 Washington Treaty, but said the UN weapons inspectors needed more time before making such decisions. The meeting was still underway as we went to press.
At a press conference last Friday in Beirut, European Commissioner Chris Patten said that in his speech to the Security Council, Colin Powell had made a serious case against Iraq but Patten said he was not sure that bombing Baghdad was the right solution to make people in the area more moderate. He said this would require an enormous act of faith, asking whether he should imagine the region becoming more democratic, prosperous and moderate if there were a war against Iraq. Asked about the views expressed by the Iranians on Iraq during Chris Patten's visit to Teheran last week (see Europe of 1 February, p.8), the External Relations Commissioner's spokesperson, Emma Udwin, said that Iran had expressed concern about destabilisation of the region in the event of military action. She said Iran was concerned that Iraq would fall apart and a massive wave of refugees in the event of war, adding that the EU would pursue discussions with Iran to determine what support the EU could provide if required.
On the fringes of their press conference on trade and development (see p.12), Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Poul Nielson were questioned about the potential impact of a war on Iraq on the WTO negotiations and the Commission's humanitarian policy. Pascal Lamy replied: "So far we have managed to keep the WTO as a multilateral body, a little like the UN, even when the situation has been tense. Strengthening geopolitical activity increases the need to have an even stronger multilateral body. Our role is to increase stability". Poul Nielson, for his part, insisted that humanitarian aid should be impartial and refused to go into detailed figures fearing that the threat of war would thus become more real. He went on to say: "Once we know what the scenario is, we shall continue our humanitarian aid to Iraq. ECHO has not stopped working within Iraq over many years, with EUR 15 million per year. The point of departure for our planning for 2003 is of the same order. The International Red Cross is currently carrying out studies to verify whether it is possible to form reserve stocks. This is a reasonable measure, but I believe it is better for these preparatory analyses to be kept secret in order not to fuel the hypothesis of a war and in order to keep military action and the role of humanitarian aid quite separate. Neutrality will be our guiding line. It would be pointless to put figures forward".
In Strasbourg, the European Parliament decided, on Monday during opening of the plenary sitting, to include on the agenda a debate with the Council and the Commission on Iraq, contrary to what had been planned. The debate will be held on Wednesday at 15h00.