EU: The EU External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, has called for authority to be passed to the Iraqi people as soon as possible, even in advance of democratic elections.
In an interview with The Irish Times and other European newspapers, Mr Patten pointed out that full authority had been passed to a government in Afghanistan before a constitution was drawn up or elections held.
"The danger of saying that you could only transfer power if there's an elected government is that you then put yourself entirely in the hands of political forces which you want to deliver an extremely rapid outcome but which may not do so. Plainly, whatever authority you transfer power to would need to have the maximum legitimacy and credibility and that is most likely to be provided by an election. In the case of Afghanistan, it was provided by the endorsement of the United Nations," he said.
Mr Patten was speaking in Brussels on his return from a three-day visit to Iraq, Kuwait and Syria, during which he met leading figures in the US-led coalition and the Iraqi interim authority. Within the next two weeks, he will outline to the Commission a proposal for EU assistance in the reconstruction of Iraq for the next year.
The move comes ahead of a donors' conference for Iraq to be held in Madrid on October 24th. Mr Patten hopes that the conference will agree to channel all donations through a multinational trust fund operated by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, independently of the US-led coalition.
"I think that is the best way in which we can make a contribution. It's the best way of maximising international efforts. I think that parliamentarians, for example, will want to be assured that they're not simply funding the occupation of the coalition," he said.
Many aid workers and UN personnel have left Iraq following last month's bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Mr Patten said that the security situation should not prevent donors from planning the reconstruction effort but he acknowledged that an improvement was necessary before the actual work could begin.
"If every time you put new equipment into a water purification plant, it's blown up, you have to ask whether you're wise to go on doing it. So it's a very practical issue," he said.
Mr Patten declined to estimate how much EU assistance to Iraq would cost but he suggested that it would be relatively modest, focused on immediate needs rather than long-term investment.
"We're not talking here about comparisons with the $87 billion that the President has asked for from Congress. We're looking at a contribution we can make to the Iraqi government's needs between the end of 2003 and the end of 2004. What President Bush is talking about is security in both Afghanistan and Iraq and the costs of being responsible for Iraq next year as the governing coalition, as well as individual investment needs. We're not in that position," he said.