How the Spanish Presidency will coordinate with Miss Ashton

(BRUSSELS2) In this period of transition, with a presidency that continues to rotate (the Spaniards on 1 January) and two new European leaders, who have a fixed mandate (the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs), the whole question is how "all this" is going to be organised?

The Spanish Foreign Minister was in Brussels on Friday to present his priorities to the press. And, naturally, I asked him the question: How did he intend to coordinate with the High Representative? Would the Middle East be a test region?

The Spanish minister at the disposal of the High Representative

For Moratinos, who met Catherine Ashton twice, “ we start from a very simple principle. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs is, at the full availability, Mr. Ashton. It is she who has all the capacity, all the elements (to) deploy her new function. And the Spanish Minister can be useful for her, in matters for reasons of history, experience, proximity, we have greater experience, such as in the Middle East, in Latin America, in North Africa or in Mediterranean, where we have an opportunity to bring some added value. But she didn't delegate a file to me. It is she, the High Representative, who will exercise this function. But we will do together so that the Middle East is an essential element of the Union's external action. Me, modestly, I will bring my modest experience in the region. »

The EU as a major player in Middle East

Can Europe have an independent policy in relation to the United States? " It's not question of autonomous policy or subordinate policy” explains Moratinos. "The great breakthrough that we owe to Javier Solana and all his
team is that, even if we consider that the Quartet has not always achieved what we would have liked, we have managed to ensure that the positions of the EU, the United States and the other players are not substantially different. We have differences in tactics. On the substance, the objective, the way of reaching agreements, we have no difference. What is needed is to work together. Because the two parties need a new commitment from the two main actors of the international community, including the European Union. »

(NVP)