Humbert Summer School: The European Union's reputation as an honest broker was enhanced by the Iraqi crisis despite the divisions that emerged between member-states, a Fine Gael MEP, Mr John Cushnahan, has said.
Calling for qualified majority voting on foreign affairs issues, the Munster MEP said current rules were too slow and produced "weak and hesitant" policies.
Speaking at the Humbert Summer School in Ballina, Co Mayo, he criticised the US for its unilateral actions after the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"With its approach to Iraq, the US demonstrated unmistakably how it perceived the US/EU transatlantic relationship. We were clearly a junior partner and were expected to slavishly follow US policy.
"The failure to do so on the part of some individual member states led to the unjustifiable criticism that they were anti-American," said Mr Cushnahan.Though he supported strong ties between the US and the EU, he said it was not in the EU's interest to be seen as simply "fodder for US foreign policy objectives".
He said that while the Iraq crisis was damaging to the credibility of the EU, it had demonstrated to the wider world that the EU had views on conflict resolution through diplomacy. "The EU's reputation as an honest broker has been enhanced in Asia and the Middle East and this is a reputation that should be built upon to enhance global security and to resolve conflict," he said.