COMMON US-EU FORUM ON GLOBAL ISSUES IS NEEDED
Marcel H. VAN HERPEN
Director, The Cicero Foundation
Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, has upset many
allies with his remarks that NATO had ceased to be "the primary venue
where transatlantic partners discuss and co-ordinate the most important strategic
issues of the day." Mr. Schröder, however, is right. Henry Kissinger
observed some years ago that "NATO can no longer serve as the sole institution
for Atlantic co-operation, its functions are too limited, its core membership
too small, and its associated membership too large to deal with the tasks
ahead, including even some in the field of security." (H. Kissinger,
Does America Need a Foreign Policy, p. 58).
The US and the European Union should, indeed, develop a common forum to discuss
and co-ordinate their foreign policies. This forum should especially focus
on global issues that transcend the transatlantic framework (Iran, the Middle
East, N. Korea, China, Africa). There is, however, a problem when one wants
to organise such a transatlantic foreign policy forum. This problem resides
at the EU side. It will be easy for the US to send representatives from the
State Department, the White House, and, eventually, the Department of Defence
to this forum. But who is going to represent the EU?
It is logical that the EU high representative for the common foreign and security
policy, who will become a fully fledged EU foreign minister after the ratification
of the constitution, will represent the EU together with the president of
the Council. The CFSP remains, however, an intergovernmental co-operation
that is organised as the second pillar. It is therefore certain that the 'Big
Three' will be jealous about their privileged bilateral ties with Washington,
which could jeopardise the functioning of such a US-EU forum.
The solution could be to organise this new transatlantic foreign policy forum
according the lines of the Security Council. The EU could be represented by
its foreign minister and its president. The foreign ministers of the 'Big
Three' could be permanent members of this forum, and three or four foreign
ministers from the smaller EU member states could rotate on a two-and-a-half
year basis (the same period as the president of the Council after the ratification
of the constitution).
