Addressing top French diplomats at a Paris meeting Monday, President Jacques Chirac lamented that the Middle East crisis had exposed weaknesses in EU foreign policy, with the bloc's 25 member states reacting too slowly to stop the destruction of Lebanon.

The French president criticized the refusal of some member states to allow Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, to speak on behalf of the bloc. Solana flew to Lebanon in July at the height of the conflict, but EU presidency holder Finland ignored pleas to grant him powers to do so. EU officials said at the time that Britain in particular was unwilling to let him negotiate on behalf of the bloc because there was disagreement on how to handle the crisis. Meanwhile other states were wary of losing sovereignty over foreign policy, they indicated.

"Europe was insufficiently active in the Lebanese crisis, although France had recommended on a number of occasions that the high representative be given a mandate to speak out on behalf of the 25 member countries, as he is doing on the Iranian issue," Chirac said.

The French president, who has long advocated a unified EU approach to foreign policy, said the bloc's future depended on its ability to negotiate with world powers.

"The future of the European project is today predicated on Europe's ability to be a leading political player," he said. "It must be a player able to contribute to a constructive dialogue with the major world powers."

The Israel-Lebanon conflict, which claimed the lives of over 1,100 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, the majority soldiers, has reawakened the divisions that split the international community over Iraq.

Ahead of the 2003 invasion, Britain, Italy, Spain and some eastern European states allied themselves with the United States, while the rest of Europe led by France and Germany mounted a staunch opposition. Chirac in particular was vocal in his rejection of the U.S. rationale for the war, and spoke of the need for a European superpower to act as a counterbalance to the United States.

Paris has long elucidated its support for a multipolar world order in which Europe and international organizations such as the United Nations would challenge U.S. hegemony. France believes that if the bloc remains no more than a collection of countries speaking with different voices on international affairs, it will be marginalized and have little influence on policy-making in Washington and elsewhere, an argument borne out to some extent by the stridently unilateral manner in which the United States went to war in Iraq. However the concept of multipolarity has been roundly dismissed by countries such as Britain, which cherishes its strong alliance with the United States and is fearful of ever-closer EU integration.

Technically the European Union established a Common Foreign and Security Policy in 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty. Since then, the CFSP has enjoyed a number of successes, most notably in the Balkans. But the Iraq war underlined the extent to which the success or failure of the policy depends on how far the individual policies of nation states coincide.

Since the Iraq crisis, the bloc has learned lessons, adopting in December 2003 the Common Security Strategy which for the first time defined the European Union as an autonomous geopolitical actor. The threat of international terrorism has highlighted the need for a united European response in both political and military terms, and the last few years have seen rapid progress on the creation of the European Defense Force, which in 2004 took over the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia from NATO.

While there is a broad European consensus in favor of greater unity on foreign policy and security matters, there remains disagreement over where the line should be drawn. Meanwhile the United States remains anxious about the emergence of the EU as a strong geopolitical player, and supports the CFSP and EDF only so far as they do not threaten American power or impinge on NATO's mandate. U.S.-aligned states such as Britain want to avoid at all costs a situation where they might be forced to choose between their European and transatlantic alliances, while few EU capitals are willing to relinquish their right to formulate independent foreign policy.

The Israel-Lebanon crisis once again laid bare the political differences between the EU's 25 member states. While France -- and most other EU nations -- was strongly critical of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon and demanded an immediate cease-fire, a few, such as Britain and Germany, refused to condemn the campaign and aligned themselves with the United States. The result was a series of toothless pronouncements that fudged the positions of all concerned and did little to stem, let alone halt, the violence.

To give it its dues, the European Union has stepped up to the plate in military terms, agreeing to lead and provide over half the troops for an expanded U.N. force in southern Lebanon. It was a commitment hailed by the EU presidency -- sensitive to accusations of European inefficacy -- as a display of the bloc's "determined support for effective multilateralism."

But to Chirac, clearly incensed by the stance of some governments, particularly London, it has come too late.

"In a few short days we saw Lebanon laid to waste, its people battered, 15 years of (diplomatic) effort laid to waste," he said.

If EU foreign policy has failed the people of Lebanon, there remains hope that it can play a major part in resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict, where European governments are united in their determination to secure a two-state solution.

Chirac urged a rapid meeting of the Middle East quartet -- the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- to discuss ways of reviving the stalled peace process.

"To resign oneself to the status quo is to risk being trapped in a cycle of violence which will get out of control," he said. "Israel legitimately aspires to security, but security does not go without justice."

But one thing is clear: even amid relative unity on this issue, the European Union lacks power. For that it needs the United States, and will do for a long time to come.

Related Links
Your World At War