EC chief urges Europe to abandon Nato

Europe should abandon the Nato alliance if they want to have a meaningful say in world affairs, European Commission President Romano Prodi said today.

He praised Germany, France and Belgium for starting “a timely and good” debate on a European defence undertaking outside of Nato to ease Europe’s reliance on America for its security.

Prodi urged other EU nations to join them.

“It is evident the Iraq crisis has brought us to a new crossroads” in transatlantic relations, he said in Brussels.

“We must choose a different path.”

A non-Nato European defence undertaking would give Europeans a more clout on the international stage and prevent them from being “left out from the management of world affairs,” he said.

Next month, the leaders of France, Germany and Belgium are to assess how successful an independent European defence initiative can be.

At the Nato headquarters – and in many EU capitals – this is seen as pie-in-the-sky stuff.

To be credible, an independent European defence would require hardware and manpower investments of a magnitude European governments have been unwilling to make at a time of sputtering economies and tight budgets.

An independent European defence initiative without proper capabilities would be a “paper tiger,” Nato Secretary General Lord Robertson said today at a ceremony at which Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia signed membership papers. They will join Nato next year, raising the alliance’s membership to 26 from 19.

An independent defence initiative in Europe would inevitably erode Nato and decouple Europe from the United States which wants the Europeans to boost their defence posture, but within Nato, not independently.

Prodi spoke after a European Parliament debate on the Iraq war’s impact on transatlantic relations and the EU’s oft-stated but elusive goal of crafting a single foreign policy.

Britain, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands and a smattering of East European nations have supported Washington in the Iraq crisis.

France and Germany lead a smaller, no-war camp that also includes Belgium, tiny Luxembourg and neutral Austria.

European Parliament President Pat Cox said before complaining about the United States no longer listening to Europe, Europeans should look at their own actions first.

“If Europeans will not listen to each other, how can we seriously expect others to listen to us?” he said at the joint press conference with Prodi.