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“The European Union: Current Issues and U.S. Interests”
Global Leadership Consortium Forum
National Academy of Public Administration
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Desmond Dinan, Jean Monnet Professor at the School for Public Policy of George Mason University, provided representatives of U.S. government agencies and fellows of the Academy with his assessment of current issues in the European Union and their impact on the transatlantic relationship with the United States. His presentation was the fourth in a series arranged by the Global Leadership Consortium of the Federal Executive Institute, the Graduate School, USDA, and the National Academy of Public Administration to provide networking and training opportunities on global issues for U.S. government employees who are not part of the traditional defense or foreign affairs communities. A summary of the proceedings follows.
- From the European perspective, the major institutional issues at present are two: 1) the future of enlargement and 2) prospects for the constitutional treaty.
- Enlargement of the European Union (EU) historically has proceeded in phases since the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952.
- As recently as the 1980s, it seemed that the EU had reached its natural geographical limit.
- The end of communist regimes dramatically altered the status quo, resulting in the most significant expansion of the EU with the admission of 8 nations in central and eastern Europe in 2004, plus Cyprus and Malta.
- With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007, the EU will have 27 member states.
- The recent broadening of the EU coincided with the deepening of competencies of its institutions, sometimes at the expense of national interests.
- Political and practical considerations complicate further expansion of the EU, with the case of Turkey being the most obvious and significant example of the issues in question.
- Turkish aspirations to join the EU date from the 1960s, and the EU long has accepted Turkey as a likely candidate for membership.
- The “Copenhagen Criteria” for membership comprise political, economic, and practical requirements.
- Those requirements include stabile institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for minorities; a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive and market forces; and acceptance of the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic, and monetary union.
- The criteria do not mention geographical considerations, and the EU in effect has ruled that for its own purposes Turkey is a European country.
- Reservations on Turkish membership, however, are both practical and emotional.
- Turkey’s size—it would be the second most populous member state if it were to join—would significantly affect the finances and institutional structure of the EU.
- There also is a substantial body of pubic opinion in Europe that resists Turkish membership on religious grounds, although religion is not a matter of official concern.
- European diplomacy was maladroit in its approach to resolving related problems with Cyprus, scheduling its referendum on EU membership before the UN-sponsored vote on unification, thereby squandering its best opportunity to influence Turkish policy on Cyprus.
- Practical considerations—and apprehension in relations with Russia—also militate against membership for Ukraine, another large country but one where the religious concerns do not apply.
- The second issue, the future of the constitutional treaty, now is moribund, but illustrates some of the challenges that the EU faces within and among its member states.
- First, the rejection of the treaty by two nations—France and the Netherlands—that had been founding members of the EU demonstrates a certain disaffection with the lack of transparency and democracy in European institutions.
- Second, lack of support for the treaty, although 15 member states including Germany and Spain have ratified it, suggests that many Europeans do not think that it such an agreement is necessary or advantageous.
- To counter those tendencies, the EU should publicize its accomplishments, such as the benefits of competition, common borders, and peaceful reform through expansion.
- Although constitutional issues are almost exclusively a European concern, the United States does have real interest in the expansion and competencies of the EU.
- American commercial and economic interests, adept at working in regional and global markets, have benefited directly from European integration.
- The U.S. government, in successive administrations, also has supported the development of the EU from the outset.
- In the past, the U.S. and the EU have been able, in spite of disagreements on specific issues such as agricultural policy or support for aerospace industries, to support each other.
- The relative unpopularity of the policies of the current U.S. administration, however, has made American support a liability. Turkey again provides an instructive case in point: the U.S. long has supported the Turkish case for membership, but its leverage no longer applies.
- In spite of very public disagreements on agricultural subsidies, aviation, and intervention in Iraq, U.S.-EU relations are essentially correct and healthy.
- On the other hand, European preoccupation with the U.S. masks the lack of a coherent EU policy towards Russia, which easily exploits European dependence on Russian energy. The need for a more coherent EU approach to Russia is a matter of some urgency.
- The future of the internal and external relations of the EU will be affected by several important elections in the near future.
- The most important of these is the election in France, which regardless of outcome will bring a new president to the fore. A new prime minister in the United Kingdom also will change the dynamics of EU discussions. For transatlantic relations, the same will be true when the U.S. administration changes in 2008.
- All of those changes should improve the character and tenor of EU affairs and EU relations with the United States.
Discussion
The conversation that followed the presentation focused on trade policy, the relative distortions of European and American agricultural subsidies, immigration and demographic issues, disciplinary mechanisms to enforce policies in EU member states, and the prospects for membership for Turkey and Ukraine in the EU.
“A Balanced View of American Power”
The Hon. Lee H. Hamilton
Global Leadership Consortium Forum
October 18, 2006
Lee Hamilton, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, co-chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, and former chairman and ranking member of what is now the House Committee on International Relations, provided representatives of U.S. government agencies and fellows of the Academy with his assessment of the principles and practice of U.S. foreign policy in view of current events on October 18, 2006 (click here for the text of his remarks). His presentation was the third in a series arranged by the Global Leadership Consortium of the Federal Executive Institute, the Graduate School, USDA, and the National Academy of Public Administration to provide networking and training opportunities on global issues for U.S. government employees who are not part of the traditional defense or foreign affairs communities.
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