Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406270109
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DONALD E. NUECHTERLEIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Until it does, the United States will continue to be criticized for "not showing leadership" whenever European governments fail to agree on foreign and security issues. The Bosnian debacle is but one example.
The European Union's three major players - France, Britain and Germany - have divergent national interests regarding Europe's future. These deep-seated differences impede progress on economic and political union, as fallout from the Maastricht treaty demonstrated.
The fundamental issue is whether Europe should be a federation of states with a strong central authority, or a confederation in which member states retain a substantial degree of sovereignty. The debate is not unlike that which faced America's founding fathers in 1787.
France strongly favors federation and a strong central government. But Britain refuses to transfer sovereignty from its parliament to a European "superstate," as London labels it, on key issues of monetary and social policy.
Germany, recently united and boasting Europe's strongest economy, has been reluctant to take sides. Its long-term interest is expanding the EU into Eastern Europe. However, increasing the size of united Europe to some 20 members will, the French fear, make a tightly knit federation more difficult to achieve. For that reason, Britain favors EU expansion.
France has aspired to lead Europe ever since the Common Market idea was conceived in the l950s. In fact, President Charles DeGaulle rejected Britain's bid to join the Market in 1963 because British membership was a threat to France's national interests.
West Germany, which needed French political support in the 1960s, accepted Paris's leadership role, but it also supported London's successful second bid to join the Common Market in the 1970s. Bonn's interest was to have Britain act as counterweight when Paris pushed the federation plan too strongly.
The divergent views on Europe's future were manageable so long as the Cold War continued and American leadership in Europe remained strong. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan provided that leadership.
But with the end of the Cold War, reunification of Germany, and American withdrawal of substantial forces from Europe, the issue of European leadership took on new urgency. Germany took an independent position on relations with Russia and Eastern Europe, and it insisted on diplomatic recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, which France and Britain opposed.
France responded by moving to forge a federated Europe to bind Germany more tightly to the West and retain Paris's central role. Britain reluctantly agreed to the Maastricht formula for Europe, but it refused to relinquish sovereignty over monetary policy.
Bosnia became the roadblock that almost wrecked the European Union. Britain, France and Germany did not agree on whether to force a settlement on the warring ethnic factions and they appealed to the United States to "show leadership." When neither George Bush nor Bill Clinton agreed to send U.S. ground troops to help solve the Bosnia problem, Europeans accused Washington of copping out.
From an American viewpoint, Europe needs to get its own political house in order and not expect the United States to provide military power to solve local security problems that Europeans should be able to handle themselves. Germany, in particular, should get over the idea that its military forces can never be used outside its immediate neighborhood.
French President Mitterrand and German Chancellor Kohl, in their recent meeting in Mulhouse, France, set the stage for renewed movement toward a federated Europe and, hopefully, a more united European foreign policy. They agreed to support Belgian Prime Minister Dehaene, a strong centralist, to head the European Commission in Brussels, and to press ahead during the coming year with European economic and political union.
That should be good news in Washington, but only if it results in the EU showing more solidarity on regional security matters than it has recently. For the reality is that the United States is gradually detaching itself politically from Europe. It is therefore in Europe's common national interest that a political vacuum not result from this development.
Donald Nuechterlein of Charlottesville is visiting professor of international business at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He is the author of "America Recommitted: U.S. National Interests in a Restructured World.
by CNB