The last hour of Javier Solana's mandate, devoted… to Serbia
(BRUSSELS2) It was with a simple message, a press release that Javier Solana ended his mandate of more than 10 years as High Representative. Without unnecessary applause, praise or parting ceremony, the former Spanish Foreign Minister, and former Secretary General of NATO, gives way to the new High Representative, Catherine Ashton, in her discreet way. . And
effectively.
Personally, I am quite struck by the relative silence that surrounds this departure. While for any event, everyone is full of praise and hastens to weave a thousand words of thanks, just as flat as the other, there nothing or almost nothing. The Heads of State and Government, of whom he was an indispensable cog in Brussels, have so far not really paid him the homage that was due to him. And the various European leaders - whose ideal he served well by developing a foreign and security policy from nothing or very little - were no more talkative. However, the man did not spare his time for Europe. And if, today, there is the slightest bit of an EU foreign and security policy, it is partly thanks to him. According to the accounts of its secretariat, as reported by La Vanguardia (1), " he has traveled at least 2,6 million km and carried out more than 500 diplomatic missions around the world ». THEman is indeed worth the detour. And I had already been able to say what I thought of it, a few months ago, how behind a character, apparently confused, could hide a real diplomat of passion (2).
So I prefer to let him speak (once will not hurt! -:)). Here is his farewell message sent to all the press in Brussels: “My mandate as EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy comes to an end today. I want to thank everybody and in particular the press and media for the interest with which they have followed our work over the past decade. Over the last ten years, Europe has become a global player whose voice is heard on every continent. We have developed a foreign policy, with the structures and tools to underpin it. The European Union is working hard to make a difference to people's lives where its missions are deployed. The media have played a vital role in all this with its coverage of our activities and I know that they will continue to do so. »
A final visitor: the President of Serbia. It is also not insignificant that the last visitor he formally received in his office was Boris Tadic, the President of Serbia. On this subject, he expressed - not without a certain emotion - " personally, all my wish that Serbia will very quickly be a member of the European family. It is a very deep meaning. I don't believe that Europe's mission will be fulfilled without Serbia. I hope that the Stabilization and Association Agreement will be fully implemented at the next Council (3). And if this is the case, then we will have, during the month of December, to take a decision for the accession process of Serbia (candidate country status)”. As for his successor, Catherine Ashton, he wishes him " good luck, congratulations, I have nothing more to say to him publicly. We have met several times in recent days. And I don't think she really needs any advice." he added elegantly.
The Serbian President thanked Solana for all his action “for everything he has done for integration for his country and for his European spirit”. This kind of compliment, usually very diplomatic, finds all its flavor. For the one who commanded NATO ten years ago and was therefore hated in Belgrade for his air strikes on Serbia, one could not indeed dream of a better tribute. Boris Tadic also expressed all his satisfaction after the decision taken (on 30 November) to liberalize visas and also expressed all his responsibility and his "commitment to the stabilization of the whole region" (in particular of Bosnia-Herzegovina which does not benefit from the same measure).
(photo credit: Council of the EU. Top: Javier Solana with Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, and Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, at the last European summit, November 19, 2009. Bottom: Javier Solana with Boris Tadic)
(2) Read: Portrait of Javier Solana - Interview: "the time when a single country could solve an international crisis is over" + biography (March 2009)
(3) He was blocked by the Netherlands because this country considered - in particular in memory of its own not very glorious past in Srebrenica - that cooperation with the international tribunal in The Hague had to be impeccable.