More haggling over Euro army
Greece failed to reach a compromise with its European Union partners on the issue of the European rapid reaction force at the Barcelona summit last Friday and Saturday and will continue talks with the Spanish presidency and the EU foreign and security policy chief, Javier Solana. The EU has decided to develop the rapid reaction force, in which member-states will contribute a total of 60,000 troops, and make it available for humanitarian missions. Given the fact that most EU members are also NATO members, and to avoid the duplication of resources, it has been decided that NATO would provide support to the force. NATO member Turkey, fearing that the force could be used against Turkish forces occupying the northern part of Cyprus, or as a mediator in a possible conflict with secessionist Kurdish forces, demanded, and was offered, guarantees that it could veto Euroforce operations it deemed contrary to its interests. These guarantees, offered jointly by the USA and Britain, have been rejected by Greece, which views them as limiting EU independence. Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar announced on Saturday that talks with Greece on the issue will begin on Friday between officials of the Greek and Spanish foreign ministries. At a later stage, the Foreign Ministers of Greece and Spain, George Papandreou and Josep Pique, will be involved, as well as Solana. Given that the EU has expressed its desire to take over NATO’s peacekeeping operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the issue of the relationship between the EU and NATO must be resolved soon, probably by the Madrid Summit in June. «The invitation (for a EU peacekeeping force in FYROM) must come from the government that will result from the elections. We don’t know when these will take place, but we estimate in September or October,» Papandreou told reporters. Papandreou also held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, who attended the summit along with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. However, little was said about the Cyprus issue. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides, who also attended the summit, along with leaders from the other 12 candidate members, had a brief exchange with Ecevit. He said yesterday that Ecevit told him «it is time to solve the Cyprus issue.» Cyprus is one of 12 countries currently holding accession talks with the EU and one of 10 likely to be admitted as early as 2004. Turkey, although a candidate, has not yet begun formal membership talks because of European concerns over its human rights record and its army’s involvement in politics. The European army and, to a lesser extent, enlargement, were only side issues in a summit which focused on economic policies and the opening up of markets. EU leaders have agreed, since a gathering in Lisbon in 2000, to devote their spring summits to economic policies and to the goal of making the EU the world’s biggest and most competitive economy by 2010. Discussions at the summit revealed that the EU has a long way to go to achieve this goal. «There is significant lag on a number of fields,» admitted Simitis. The efforts of free market enthusiasts, notably UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Spanish and Italian counterparts, Aznar and Silvio Berlusconi, for a faster market deregulation along the US model, were opposed by several other members, including France and Germany. Greece was opposed, Simitis said, to Aznar’s proposal for a universal retirement age of 65. It, and other countries, eventually succeeded in amending the text to a general statement that «efforts should be made toward raising the average real retirement age by 2010.» Simitis, faced with talks on social security reform at home, clearly expressed his preference for employees voluntarily choosing to work beyond retirement age. The next summit devoted to economic and social policies will be held in Greece in the spring of 2003. As a result, Greece has already begun the task of preparing for it.
