Cowen to tell EU it should stand aside for US

THE EU should give up the idea of becoming a counterweight to the US in world affairs, Foreign Minister Brian Cowen will tell his colleagues today at a meeting in Greece.

Instead they should acknowledge that the members’ one-to-one relationships with America are the most important and then concentrate on slowly building an alliance of equals between the US and the EU.

Mr Cowen was invited by Greece, the current holders of the rotating presidency, to lead a major discussion on the transatlantic relationship at a meeting of all 25 new and current EU members. The Iraq war has created a major crisis and divisions within the EU and between the union and the US over the past few months and members are anxious to heal the rifts.

Mr Cowen’s ability to produce a way forward that does not exacerbate situations was appreciated in the lead up to the war when EU leaders took his advice to leave the Iraqi issue to the UN.

The minister will make the case for slowly building a new EU/US relationship in foreign policy concentrating on non-contentious issues on which they share common views.

He will give examples of how this has worked successfully in the past such as the series of agreements on fighting terrorism through sharing information and the co-operation on Afghanistan.

However, he will say they must acknowledge that all the member states have their own one-to-one relationships with the US and that these will continue to be the chief relationship and they should not attempt to replace it.

The EU as a counterweight to the US is a failed notion, he will tell the meeting.

“These bilateral relations will continue to have primacy. The EU should focus on the common interests between us and make that the bedrock of the EU thinking so we have more in common than we have at odds with one another. We should put in structures in the areas where we do not have common positions, such as Iraq, and try to build up that relationship when we can with dialogue,” a spokesperson for the minister said.

Mr Cowen will warn that building a relationship of equals will not happen overnight and will need to begin with issues that are not related to the US pre-emptive strike policy.

He will suggest Europe should try to understand the current US policies and perspective based as they are on their reaction to and fear of another September 11 style attack on their country. Yesterday the ministers discussed how best to giver the EU a role in post-war Iraq. So far the US has discouraged participation by the union or the UN and concentrated instead on asking individual European countries to help with peacekeeping.

This has added to tensions between the EU and the US as some countries believe America is willing to pick off member states to keep the union divided. This is the first time the foreign ministers of all 25 current and new members hold a full meeting together. The two-day event which began yesterday takes place on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kastelorizo in the Aegean Sea.