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ROBERT GHEMENT/AFP
SUPPORT:
A Romanian soldier guards a U.S. plane at an airbase near Constanta; more Iraq-bound U.S. matériel is expected to go via Romania
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Europe's Family Feud |
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President Jacques Chirac puts pressure on E.U. candidate countries to toe the French line on Iraq
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By JAMES GRAFF | PARIS
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The arrogant superpower demands fealty from the lesser states, and quashes any back talk. We've heard it all before. But that familiar take on Washington's push for war in Iraq took a delicious twist last week when France marched blithely into the role of bogeyman. French President Jacques Chirac's intemperate broadside at European Union candidate countries who back America's stance on Iraq — he called them "not very well behaved and rather reckless" and said they had "missed a good opportunity to keep quiet" — deepened the schism within the E.U. at a time when the Union is already at loggerheads over foreign policy. Chirac also added a menacing codicil, directed at E.U. candidates Romania and Bulgaria: "If they wanted to reduce their chances of joining Europe, they could not have found a better way." Vladimir Lastuvka, chairman of the Czech parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, was among the flabbergasted. "Had it come from [U.S. Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld, it wouldn't have surprised me," he said. "But such a tone is not customary in Europe."
Really? Check out the tone of the headline on a special French-language front page of British tabloid the Sun, provocatively distributed for free on the Champs Elysées last week: chirac est un ver (Chirac is a worm), a reference to his opposition to U.S. plans in Iraq and to his handshake with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe in Paris last week. Welcome to the proxy war over Iraq, a spin-off of the traditional cross-channel battle waged with brio for centuries between the United Kingdom and France. This fight is not just about Iraq, nor is it entirely about Europe's relations with the United States. At issue is also who calls the shots on the E.U.'s still cacophonous foreign policy.
What drew Chirac's ire was the prominent place of E.U. candidate countries in two declarations of general support for a U.N.-sanctioned military action against Iraq. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the U.K. in a letter last month. Earlier this month another letter was signed by five more countries — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia — who will join the E.U. in May 2004. Two other signatories, Bulgaria and Romania, hope to join in 2007. "The trans-Atlantic community ... must stand together to face the threat posed by the nexus of terrorism and dictators with weapons of mass destruction," read the latest missive, before going on to declare that the signers considered Iraq "in material breach" of Security Council Resolution 1441.
All that was on the table when the E.U. met in Brussels for a special session to thrash out a common position on Iraq early last week. France had already inveigled the Greeks, who currently preside over the European Council, to retract the invitation to candidate countries, thus shutting out their input in this particular exercise of an E.U. diplomatic specialty: finding the lowest common denominator among disparate positions.
Even without pro-American easterners, the 15 heads of state and government faced a tough challenge squaring Germany's staunch opposition to any military intervention with the U.K.'s firm support for one. The final declaration that emerged stated "war is not inevitable," while acknowledging that with U.N. approval it is an option, though "only as a last resort." Bracing stuff. The Germans managed to strike out a warning to Iraq that "time is running out." There was a sense that outright failure had been deftly avoided, but within the hour Chirac took the stage and his quarrelsome tone melted the consensus.
In examining the motives for Chirac's outburst, many reached for metaphors more suited to family therapy than international politics. "Every time I have a dispute with my wife, I shout at my sons," said Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. "So Mr. Chirac's problem is apparently with the Americans, not with Romania and Bulgaria." Ivan Krustev, the director of the Center for Liberal Studies in Sofia, Bulgaria, agreed: "In these situations, you don't hit the one you want, but the one you can. Bulgaria and Romania had the honors." Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said, "In the European family there are no mommies, no daddies and no kids — it is a family of equals."
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