Paris,  6 June – The WEU Assembly and the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday held a joint session on “European Security and Transatlantic Relations”, attended by European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chris Patten.

This first joint meeting between parliamentarians of both assemblies opened on Tuesday with an address by Commissioner Patten (see Press Release 21/2003) in which he stressed the fact that the European Commission was seeking to develop a common and not a single foreign and security policy, as “foreign and security policy goes right to the heart of what it means to be a nation state” and reflects “the intimate loyalties and identities” of individual nation states.

The wide cross-section of opinion in Europe over the inferences to be drawn from the new US national security strategy and the divisions that emerged at the time of the crisis in Iraq and their effects on transatlantic relations were reflected in the debates that followed Mr Patten’s address and the reports on the subject presented by Philippe Morillon (France) on behalf of the European Parliament, and Lluis Maria de Puig (Spain/Soc) and Renzo Gubert (Italy/Fed) on behalf of the WEU Assembly.

In Mr Morillon’s view, "Europe faces the risk of turning into the United States’ batman, helping sort out peace-related matters from a subaltern status, while our American friends take charge of the serious issues, like war." Mr Gubert maintained that Europe could not accept global government by a single state, emphasising the danger to Europe of having to accept that the final decision, that of intervention by force, no longer came from the United Nations but from the United States alone. Conversely, Mr Geoffrey Van Orden (UK/Con), Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, warned against growing anti-Americanism and called on European  and transatlantic allies to speak out with one voice. He felt that Europeans must understand that transatlantic solidarity was vital and that their interests were best served by bringing the CFSP back under the NATO umbrella.

Most speakers were agreed on the need to maintain close links with the United States, as Mr de Puig recommended, and for Europeans to overcome their divisions and boost their military capability in order to become a credible partner for the United States. “Criticising and carping about the US is simply not good enough. We need to get down to brass tacks and define pretty clearly what we want to do about foreign policy, and about a European security and defence policy”, said MEP Catherine Lalumière (France/Soc). Guillermo Martínez Casañ (Spain/PP), Chairman of the WEU Assembly’s Political Committee, pointed out that “there has never been a European defence policy” and expressed concern at the slow progress made in the Convention on the Future of Europe in this area. “It is most important for the WEU Assembly to urge the Convention to take matters in hand” he said, “so that Europe can deal with the United States on an equal footing”. He also referred to the “disastrous experience of the Balkans”, when NATO and the United States had to prop up a Europe that was simply not up to the task.

Following the debate, the Assembly adopted a recommendation calling on the WEU nations “to make efforts to overcome the divisions that arose during the Iraq crisis ” and “to launch a debate within NATO on the consequences of the United States national security strategy for the NATO Strategic Concept, the cohesion of transatlantic security and NATO reform”.  At the same time the Assembly called on European nations to “move towards new goals in building defence Europe” by “setting up a form of structured cooperation between those member states concerned to have the kind of capability required for carrying out more demanding military operations”.

Background: the Assembly of WEU, Europe’s first Interparliamentary Security and Defence Assembly, was founded in 1954 by the modified Brussels Treaty. The Treaty contains a mutual defence clause similar to Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty and links WEU member countries’ security to NATO. It also created the Assembly, which is composed of 364 national parliamentarians from 28 European countries including all the EU member states as well as the EU and NATO candidate countries. It scrutinises European intergovernmental activities in all areas of security and defence including armaments cooperation. Following the transfer of WEU’s operational activities to the EU, the Assembly also serves as the interparliamentary platform for the European Security and Defence Policy.