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Schizophrénie, thy name is Europe |
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As if the Barcelona Process and the European Neighborhood Policy weren’t enough, our favorite hyperprésident, Nicholas Sarkozy, has been trumpeting his Mediterranean Union (MU) as the new foreign policy frontier for (some members of) the European Union. But as of this week, the much vaunted Union méditerranéenne, the centerpiece of the upcoming EU French presidency of the EU, has some competition for the European foreign policy spotlight.
On Monday, May 26, Foreign Ministers Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland and Carl Bildt of Sweden jointly presented a grand proposal for a so-called “Eastern Initiative” aimed at improving the EU’s relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and particularly Ukraine.
This has left Euro-observers (particularly this one) scratching their heads. Why would the Poles and the Swedes deliberately try to take the wind from the sails of the French presidency? Is this pay-back for having been initially left out of the equation of countries that would be included in the Mediterranean Union? What could have inspired such a direct affront to the French grand strategy of turning Europe’s attention southward?
The answer might lie in Berlin.
In this grand strategy tug-of-war, Germany finds itself in a somewhat odd position. On the one hand, the Germans will be the unofficial king-makers between the two competing visions and their blessing will be the key factor for the success of either grand initiative. On the other hand, Germany has ceased to be a foreign policy innovator-rather it has become a kind of “ratifier” of more sweeping foreign policy schemes from the West and the East/North.
Germany was none too happy about the original plans for the MU from which Berlin was initially to be excluded and which would duplicate many of the functions already sourced to Brussels. But the demurring stance of the German government of Angela Merkel toward Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union has had broader implications. A breakdown of the Franco-German core of the EU in European foreign policy could lead to a proliferation of grand initiatives on behalf of any number of European coalitions.
The so-called “Eastern Initiative” could be just the beginning.Â
