With Solana at helm, EU packs more global clout

By Shada Islam and Leon Mangasarian Mar 24, 2007, 15:31 GMT

Brussels/Berlin - 'Who speaks for Europe?' famously asked former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1973. These days, most foreign leaders seeking to talk to the European Union simply pick up the phone and call Javier Solana.

As the 27-nation bloc's 'High Representative' for foreign and security policy, the 65-year old Spaniard - formerly a NATO secretary general - is certainly not the sole EU spokesman.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso often speaks in the name of the EU as do presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of the nation holding the six-month rotating EU presidency.

But while Barroso holds the key to EU purse strings, he has only a small role in forging EU foreign and defence policy. And since the EU presidency changes every six months, its representatives are in the spotlight for a short time.

Solana, on the other hand, has been de facto EU foreign minister and head of military operations since October 1999. His staying power - and tireless diplomatic efforts in the Balkans, Iran and the Middle East - have given him a global reputation with which few EU politicians can compete.

Appropriately, the EU chief diplomat received the prestigious 'peace through dialogue' award at the Munich Security Conference last month just hours before a meeting with Iran's leading nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. Solana has been spearheading western efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the worsening nuclear crisis with Iran.

Despite the international praise, however, speaking for Europe on the global stage is no easy task.

While the EU has pushed ahead over the last 50 years in breaking down internal barriers to trade, introducing a single currency and bringing new nations into the bloc, efforts at forging a common foreign policy have been stymied by countries' national interests and continuing reluctance to cede sovereignty to a central power.

As a result, EU governments have been - and often remain - at loggerheads over how best to deal with global flashpoints.

The EU was badly divided in the early 1990s over the Balkans crises triggered by the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia. European politicians were unable to stop the fighting and EU peace monitors in the region were ridiculed as 'ice cream men' because of their white suits and lack of authority.

Although Luxembourg's former foreign minister Jacques Poos said 'this was the hour of Europe,' the EU had to surrender a military and political role in the Balkans to the United Nations and the United States.

More recently, disagreements over the pros and cons of the US-led Iraq war - which was backed by Britain, Spain and Italy but opposed by France and Germany - have provided another example of EU infighting over foreign policy.

However, while the discord over Iraq clearly tarnished Europe's international image, it did spur Solana and others to try to forge a united front on global affairs.

One result was the adoption of a first-ever EU 'security strategy' in 2003, underlining Europe's commitment to strong international institutions and the use of 'soft power' instruments of trade and aid to prevent crisis.

However, the soft approach - compared to the US policy of giving higher priority to military action - was tempered by a recognition that more active policies were needed to tackle 'new dynamic threats' including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

When diplomacy failed, the strategy said the EU would be ready to envisage 'early, rapid and when necessary, robust intervention.'

The security strategy was the 'founding act' of the EU's moves to forge a defence identity distinct from NATO, according to General Henri Bentegeat, head of the influential military body which advises Solana.

Since then the EU has deployed 16 civilian and military missions, including in Bosnia, Darfur, the Palestinian Territories and Iraq. However, EU governments want to do this in partnership with the UN, the 26-nation NATO military alliance and the African Union, said Bentegeat.

The general added that the EU's role as world security actor was 'unique' because it could combine military and civilian operations when tackling crises.

In addition to a lead role in seeking to defuse the nuclear crisis with Iran, the EU last year sent troops to supervise national elections in Congo and to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. EU forces are also deployed in the Balkans.

Solana recently predicted an increase in international demand for EU peace missions, including in Afghanistan and Kosovo. If the spate of daily visits to Solana's headquarters in Brussels is any indication, the EU's global outreach looks set to become even wider.