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Blair Shifts On EU Army
In what some commentators are describing as a defining moment in US-British relations, prime minister Tony Blair has dropped many of the UK's objections to taking part in a proposed EU vanguard defence force.
While pro-NATO Europeans were quietly relieved last week when an anti-US group led by France and Germany shelved plans to base this force outside NATO's headquarters, Blair is thought to have agreed in principle to Britain joining the EU force.
Comprehensive coverage, analysis and background to this story is provided by John Vinocur in the International Herald Tribune. Blair is reported to have conceded on this issue when he was invited to join German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and France's president Jacques Chirac at their regular get-together in Berlin last month. Blair was allowed to join the leaders after they had discussed other issues of importance.
Suffice to say, British government officials say that they will not allow the force to challenge NATO, though some in the US dispute these claims. Despite having Europe's most effective military, Britain will find it difficult to exercise full control over a force created by people determined to make mischief for the Atlantic alliance.
Britain is demanding that Atlanticist countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland are invited to join the vanguard force, balancing anti-US representations from France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Denmark's prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already made his opposition to the force clear. He warned that it would be too costly to replicate capabilities already provided by NATO. He added that a hard core of states should not be allowed to develop military capability in the EU's name. Denmark won opt-outs from certain EU agreements when it joined the union in 1992, defence among them.
The Financial Times (subscription required) reports that Blair's concession puts him in opposition to Britain's military establishment. Schroeder and Chirac also risk upsetting their armed forces, which are like Britain's reported to be culturally pro-NATO. Military leaders also fear a transfer of power to Brussels.
Blair's agreement to join the EU vanguard force has been criticised by conservatives. Any EU force needs Britain much more than Britain needs it, and by signing up so early Blair may have thrown away his ace. If by doing so he hopes to win concessions in the intergovernmental conference on the EU constitution, it is difficult to see what there is left to defend. Of over 200 amendments tabled by the British when the constitution draft was published, all but a tiny number of 'red lines' have been surrendered. Defence was thought to be one of these. Only a veto on tax looks like staying the course, though as EURSOC reported last week, Ireland has complained that Britain is offering concessions that it sees as the 'thin end of the wedge' towards tax harmony.
Back in the IHT, Vinocur reports that despite having agreed to the EU force, Blair will shortly face difficult choices. The constitution, for one, could be worded in a way to make Europe's defence Europe's responsibility - elbowing NATO out of the way in the process (and infuriating the Americans).
Britain wants to see unanimous voting on EU military planning, which would scupper anti-US schemes. However, France and Germany are reported to be strongly attached to "a visibly separate EU operational planning operation" so Blair could find himself at an here impasse too.
If he fails to surrender, France and Germany are unlikely to scrap their military ambitions, and may decide to continue to build the EU force without Britain. Lack of UK input may damage its credibility as a military force, but there is little that is military and much that is political about France and Germany's ambitions.
