Affiliated with the University of Nicosia |
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EU 'Supremos' anxiously await the Kissinger call By Christina Ioannou
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Lecturer Department of European Studies and International Relations, University of Nicosia Research Fellow, Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs |
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“Who do I call if I want to call
Europe?” The question that has been haunting Europe for over 30 years
now, seems to be a rhetoric question no more. Following the EU
extraordinary summit of November 19th – where EU heads of
state and government unanimously backed Belgian Prime Minister Herman
Van Rompuy as the first permanent EU President and former Trade
Commissioner Baroness Catherine Ashton as High Representative for
Foreign Affairs – the renowned former US Secretary of State question
seems to have been resolved. The EU has now got the answer to the
Kissinger question… Or does it?
In the run-up to the European Council summit, hearsay had
it that high-profile political figures were to be the ‘destined’ ones.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband even spoke about prominent
candidates who would have the ability to "stop the traffic in Beijing
and Moscow". Contrary to such expectations, however, the new EU ‘supremos’
who have filled the top EU jobs and are now assigned the taxing task of
revamping the EU to forcefully bring it to the forefront of world
diplomacy and global affairs, are no other than two discrete
politicians. The Belgian consensus-builder and the British labour party
steadfast ‘devotee’ with a far less than modest CV to say the least, are
anything but the
flamboyant political figures the world had been waiting for.
Both Van Rompuy and Ashton had something to say in defence
of their low-key profiles on the night of their (s)election. “There have
been many speculations on what the permanent President’s profile should
look like, but only one profile is possible. A profile characterised by
dialogue, unity and action,” said the Flemish
Christian Democrat,
who gained substantial support as a candidate for the Presidential post
after holding together an attention-grabbing coalition at home and
settling disputes between the
linguistically divided Dutch and French-speaking communities of Belgium.
Ashton, in turn, resorted to a diplomatic, “judge me on what I do and I think you'll be pleased with the
outcome”, as a way of defending her poor credentials.
In any case, these are today the new faces of EU diplomacy. They are the
faces that eight years of ‘wondering’ have generated as the most apt for
the jobs. Eight bumpy years – which began with the Laeken Declaration,
the Constitutional Treaty and the abortive ratification process, were
then topped with a self-styled ‘period of reflection’ and two referendum
rounds in Ireland, and were finally garnished with a Czech ‘parody’ –
came to a climax on November 19th. So, 11 days before the
Lisbon Treaty’s entry into force, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton found
their European ‘counterparts’, who, according to Van Rompuy are
“anxiously waiting for the first call.”
But what kind of message is the EU trying to send to the world by these
two choices (aside that of a gender balance in their top jobs)? Many
commentators have argued that the proclaimed federalist Van Rompuy
option, which was zealously backed by Merkel and Sarkozy, is intended to
send the message of deeper integration and unity in Europe. With the
European Council lacking however the legislative powers of other EU
institutions, the Presidential post is more of a ‘decorative’ nature.
So the discussion essentially boils down to the much more astute
question relating to the Ashton option. What kind of message is the
choice of a Baroness, with less than limited foreign policy experience
and a career filled with various middle-ranking governmental posts,
prior to her appointment as Mandelson’s successor last year, trying to
convey? Is the message which we receive, at the end of the day, the one
that the Franco-German axis has been hoping for? That of reliance, in
other words, on the Union’s concerted power, rather than on the power of
a glamorous individual with a loud voice? Or are we receiving the
message that the EU will now be effectively run by the British Foreign
Office? So while Solana is preparing to step down and make way for the
Lady, is the dream of a ‘federal state’ about to make way for a ‘puppet
state’? Whatever the answers to our questions may be, the undeniable
fact of the matter is that the new developments have irrefutably been a
diplomatic victory for the British.
It is therefore doubtful whether any European elite figure is even
concerned with the fact that Baroness Ashton is hardly the person that
can see eye-to-eye with Ms. Clinton, or with the fact that she is a
virtual unknown, who will be
striving to get her name heard and known (while at the same time Van
Rompuy will still be trying to first get the media have his name
correctly pronounced). So, while these new EU ‘Supremos’ will be
anxiously waiting for that legendary first call, the traffic in Beijing
and Moscow will continue to run unstoppable and so will also the British
Foreign Office influence over EU Affairs.
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