European Union foreign ministers performed a useful and necessary task when they agreed to initiate drafting of a European strategic concept to define their overall approach after the war in Iraq. As the Greek foreign minister hosting the meeting, Mr George Papandreou, put it there is no point blaming the United States for not listening to the EU if it doesn't clarify its own point of view and define common interests.
Recognition that this should be done is a major development in the EU's common external policy. It could go a long way to repair the damage done by the recent deep divisions over the war in Iraq. This is easier to understand if the process involved is more closely examined. The EU's leading foreign policy official, Mr Javier Solana, is to produce a draft in time for next month's summit in Thessaloniki. He will ask each member-state to set out its ideas on how to deal with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, failed states, regional conflicts and refugee flows, multilateralism and the role of the UN, and the use of force to contain or pre-empt such threats. He will then seek to find common ground on which a draft European strategic concept could be based.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, suggested at the meeting, and in an article in this newspaper today, that while bilateral relations with the US will probably remain the primary way of relating to it and that each EU member-state has its own "special relationship", a common EU policy should be defined in a triangular setting between a strengthened EU common foreign and security policy, a firm commitment to multilateral institutions, and the overall state of the transatlantic relationship itself. The EU seeks, as he says, a more equal partnership with the US and to exercise greater influence on world affairs.This is an ambitious approach. Of necessity it will be built up step by step. Mr John Bruton, in a submission to the Rhodes meeting, made the valid point that "the aim should be to develop a new, predictable, well understood and intellectually stable doctrine for managing the post-September 11th world, with well understood rules about when war is justified and when not."
There should be no illusions about the difficulties involved, notably in overcoming political divisions within the EU on these issues - and probable hostility from the Bush administration, which is itself divided over whether a more united and coherent Europe is in its interests. There will be divisions too in each EU state. In Ireland this will provide an opportunity for a much needed debate on Ireland's neutrality policy as the European Convention concludes and a new treaty is negotiated under Ireland's EU six-month presidency from January.