Brussels, 23/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The French Presidency of the EU intends to organise an informal foreign affairs ministers meeting in the next few weeks in Paris (the exact date has not yet been arranged) in an effort to continue the debate began during the Avignon “Gymnich” (5-6 September) on the future of transatlantic relations. The idea of the acting president of the Council, Bernard Kouchner, is to put forward “the European vision” to the two candidates in the US presidential elections, John McCain and Barack Obama, on the main international challenges and to produce proposals on “the most efficient way of tackling them together”. In a reflection document distributed to his colleagues during the Avignon meeting (EUROPE 9735), Mr Kouchner affirmed that the transatlantic relationship “can and must be stronger and more efficient”. US and European links must be based “on the principle of trust, responsibility and mutual understanding”. There must be upstream consultations as well as joint and coordinated action to tackle common challenges. The Presidency of the EU underlined that “nobody can solve today's global questions alone”. The Presidency appealed for “an updated transatlantic partnership”.
Washington believes that current transatlantic cooperation is working “quite well” but is also prepared to have a dialogue with the Europeans on its possible improvement. On Monday, the new US Ambassador to the EU in Brussels, Kristen Silverberg commented, “we welcome this conversation among EU member states on the future of our relations”. Ms Silverberg informed journalists that “in our view we are cooperating quite constructively on a range of issues but there is plenty of room for us to go forward on issues like climate change, Afghanistan, development of Africa or human rights”.
In its reflection document, the French Presidency listed several but not all of the issues, which in its opinion, “will never be able to be resolved by a divided transatlantic community”, namely:
Russia. The French Presidency affirmed that ““the Georgian crisis has just confirmed that our goal, in the immediate aftermath of the cold war, to get Russia in step with Europe and the West has failed, perhaps because it was too ambitious and certainly because the Europeans and Americans were unable to collectively gauge the level of ambition of a re-assertive Russian power”. The Georgian crisis should be seen as a “signal, of an awakening Russian power”, which requires “reinvestment” from Europeans and Americans. In the context of European security, Brussels and Washington would do well to examine the recent proposals from Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev and respond to them, explained the French Presidency. On the other hand, the French Presidency's document stipulates that the debate on NATO expansion should be “exclusively based on the Alliance's own interests”.
Middle East. The EU should encourage the next US government to make the peace process, “one of the external priorities of its new mandate” and, at the same time, “convince the Americans and Europeans that they can play a useful role” in peace talks. The French Presidency believes that Europeans should also request “more active intervention” from the US for improving the context of the peace negotiations, for example, on the issue of settlements. Finally, the reflection document states that it could prove “useful…to encourage the Americans to agree to the Europeans adopting a more pragmatic attitude in their future approach towards Syria, if they themselves don't want to adopt such an attitude”.
Afghanistan. Faced with the resurgence of the Taliban and stagnation in progress made by the Karzai government, the presidency affirms that, “our values are at stake (preventing a return to power by the Taliban), including our security (terrorist threat on our territory) and the credibility of our institutions (NATO)”. Europeans and Americans have to “jointly and realistically” identify their essential objectives and define a strategy for reaching them. The French Presidency says that the central objective has to be “Afghanistan's stability so that we can rest assured that the country can never be used as a rearguard base for jihadist terrorism”. The Presidency of the EU said that “the Afghan people have to understand that we will not stay a day longer than necessary…we are not an occupation force…but the Taliban have to understand that we will not leave before these objectives are accomplished”. The Presidency also appealed for “an improved structuring of civilian and military strategies…Today there are as many military strategies as there are regional commands within ISAF…this situation is unsustainable”. The document also indicates that “the Americans have to help us get out of this impasse. At the same time, Europeans have to make a minimum commitment to maintaining their military presence”.
The document also indicates that “the Americans have to help us get out of this impasse. At the same time, Europeans have to make a minimum commitment to maintaining their military presence”.
Pakistan. The Presidency affirmed that by promoting, since 2001, “the short term, and therefore the absence of conditionality” in their relations with this country, the EU and US have “reinforced the medium and long term risks. The current situation (in this country) is largely due to this bias”. The Presidency considers that Europeans and Americans should first of all demonstrate, “greater reciprocal transparency” with regard to their economic and military assistance to Islamabad. The priority ought to be “to counter the development of forces inside the Pakistani power structure, of which we are already feeling the negative effects in Afghanistan”. The Presidency affirmed that “European facilitation, with US support” could help towards tension building up between Kabul and Islamabad, on the condition that the objectives and interests of the two parties are identified at the outset and that we manage to work out a field for dialogue, for example around the question of the border.
Iranian nuclear programme. The French Presidency believes that the Europeans and Americans have to pursue their “dual approach” (sanctions and dialogue). On the other hand, “we have to increase our efforts towards reaching the public in Iran and the region of non-aligned countries so that our position is understood and supported”.
Climate change. The French Presidency affirms that “the US commitment to long term objectives is essential for obtaining the commitment from the major emerging countries”. The Presidency said that given that the EU is committed to reducing its emissions by -20 to -30% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, it expects the US to also adopt a “national medium term emissions reduction objective, which will help stop and then reverse the growth in emissions”.
Reform of the multilateral system. Europeans and Americans must work to promote, “efficient multilateralism based on respect by all, of the rules of law and the basis of common values”. To this end, the French Presidency is proposing: to work with Washington to improve crisis management within these bodies; to pursue and expand the system for reforming the UN (including, the “necessary enlargement of the UN Security Council”); continued reform of the G8 to better involve it with major emerging powers; to relaunch “efforts needed to control globalisation”, which has to be fairer and more solidarity-based and to promote development of sub-Saharan Africa.
Democracy/Human rights. Despite the difference in practices (death penalty, personal data protection etc), the promotion of democracy and human rights has to be one of the key subjects of Presidency cooperation, the objective being to “promote values of which the universal nature is currently contested”. In practice, the French Presidency suggests working with Washington to “recreate consensus” on the promotion of human rights in multilateral bodies (especially the UN). The next US Administration will also need to be encouraged to close down Guantanamo Bay, Bagram and Diego Garcia, which “collectively harm our moral credibility”.
International security. The Presidency believes that “Europeans and Americans should reinvest in the fight against destabilising exports of conventional weapons”. It also suggests that Europeans put more pressure on getting the Americans to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The French Presidency also mentioned the possibility of updating a “code of conduct on security in space”, which would also be in the interest of the US, “given the projects by China and Russia in this domain”. (HB./transl.rh)