European Summit on Iraq: A few hours to put the pieces back together

(B2) The Fifteen Heads of State and Government are meeting in Brussels to try to restore their unity after the differences over Iraq

In a European district cordoned off by the police, where the slightest anti-war placard is immediately taken off, the summit of heads of state and government did not really have this perky little air of spring… despite its title. It took a whole dinner for the fifteen Heads of State and Government, gathered at "50.7", the Justus Lipsius room reserved for the Council of Ministers, to digest their resentment and their deep differences on the Iraqi question and the intervention United States army. The time seems to have come to pick up the pieces. But it will be difficult. Some delegations, starting with the British, want to bring the question of the post-war reconstruction of Iraq back on the table. A very sensitive subject. The European Commission itself, through its Commissioner responsible for external relations, the Englishman Chris Patten, considered that it would be difficult for Europe to approve such a step in a war taking place without a mandate from the UN. A few hours before the summit, Jacques Chirac therefore preferred to opt for a battlefield, calling on his colleagues to "be aware of the need" for a foreign policy and "credible common defense". “France is not resigned to Europe remaining unfinished,” hammered the French president to the press. A statement approved by the Greek Presidency of the European Union. Georges Papandreou, the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, thus estimated before the parliamentarians gathered in extraordinary session that "Europe should quickly take stock of its divisions if it wanted to be able one day to speak" with a single voice. crucial as this morning, after a (very) short night, European leaders will have to consider other more prosaic subjects. Together with the Ministers of Economy and Finance, they must refine what is called "the Lisbon strategy". In other words: how to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world by 2010? … ahead of the United States. With topics such as the liberalization of certain economic sectors, the modernization social protection and the strengthening of the fight against exclusion Could the economy be the balm of political divisions… It would not be the first time that Europe has played the role of mercurochrome.

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

(article published in France-Soir, March 2003)