The Iraq conflict uncovers difficulties for the member states of the European Union to find a common position in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. This essay describes the major differences in the interest and perspectives of the member governments on Iraq, and the US policy. How can this situation in Common Foreign and Security Policy be explained by the Theories of the European Integration? What has to be done to improve this situation? The capacity of the European Union to acquire a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is one of the major issues in the European construction in the years to come. With the Economic and Monetary Union, the CFSP constituted as one of the main contributers for the Treaty of Maastricht. But, if the single currency is henceforth a reality, this is not already the case of the Common Foreign and Security Policy which fuels harsh criticisms, especially regarding its role in former Yugoslavia and during the war in Iraq. However, the improvements made are tangible. In the 70s the European political cooperation was already a small beginning of the CFSC. Today it is more than a simple pragmatic harmonization .One could argue that the difficulties that is encountering the European foreign policy is not only due to institutional reasons, but due to the reluctance of the member states to renounce to a part of their sovereignty in the field. In order to better understand the mechanisms of the Common Foreign and Security Policy within the European Union and also the problems that are encountering this policy, I would like first to give a small overview of the facts that led to this, within the European Union concerning the war in Iraq. Then I would like to describe the major differences in the interests and perspectives of the member governments on Iraq, and the US policy. Finally, I will try to explain the historical and institutional backgrounds of the CFSP, in order to find some ways to improve this foreign policy situation in Europe.
[...] I am going to give an overview of the matters that are encountering the European foreign policy and try to give my own opinion about what should be changed and why in order to lessen this divide among the member states. How to improve the definition of a Common Foreign and Security Policy? In other fields of action of the European Union this question is solved by the implementation of the “community method”. But the CFSP obeys to an intergovernmental logic that respects the rule of unanimity. [...]
[...] The Neofunctionalist theory of European Integration is good in understanding why the common policy has to be set up within the European Union and why the Union needs this common policy. But I think that this theory doesn't fit very well to today European situation, to me it is too utopian. But anyway one could argue that these two theories are the most relevant ones in the field of International Relations How to improve this Common Foreign and Security Policy situation? [...]
[...] Tony Blair is Bush‘s major ally .Washington wants to keep this very close relationship with Great Britain in order that the latter will defend the interests of the US in Europe, Bush uses Blair as an intermediary between United States and Europe. But so what are the interests of Tony Blair to get closer to the US policy and therefore isolate Great Britain from the rest of Europe? To my opinion the essential element that led to this close British American cooperation is the 11th of September. [...]
[...] Description of the divide within the European Union regarding the Iraqi issue: The divide brought on by the war in Iraq between the European Europe and the transatlantic Europe has highlighted the extend of the strategic divergence in European security and defence policies .I would like to describe this differences in interests and perspectives of the European states on Iraq and the US policy. The Iraqi crisis divided Europe into two different .The first group is the one of the old European countries that is to say Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg and the other one is composed by Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark and the other eastern European countries. [...]
[...] Foreign minister Ana Palacio even stated that can't do an European defence policy with only three or four states ”.Spain was actually allied with the United States .To Ana Palacio the European defence should be a “common project and not an exclusion José Maria Aznar declared that he was proud that Spain was not relegated to the side of the ones which are now in an isolated and insignificant position on the international scene. He was of course referring to the governments of this mini summit. [...]
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