May 01, 2002
From Rory Watson in Brussels

EUROPEAN Union leaders called on the United States yesterday to rein in its unilateralist tendencies and resist growing domestic demands for “an unapologetic pursuit of national interest”.

Speaking on the eve of a potentially bruising bilateral summit in Washington tomorrow, they argued that transatlantic co-operation had to be rekindled to bring peace to the Middle East and defuse damaging trade disputes.

“I see the US unilateralist temptation as one of the central problems, perils, challenges and opportunities confronting the Englishspeaking peoples of today,” Chris Patten, the EU’s External Affairs Commissioner, told an English-Speaking Union audience in London last night.

If America wished to maintain moral authority for its leadership, it had to carry the world with it and not ignore its international obligations in “an unapologetic pursuit of national interest”.

A similar message was delivered by Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, who will join Mr Patten, José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, and other senior EU officials at meetings with President Bush and his advisers. He praised American efforts to end the Middle East crisis, but added: “I’m going to remind President Bush that these measures can only constitute an intermediate solution. Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless it is based on wide international co-operation.”

He would emphasise that only joint action by the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations could provide the guarantees for both the Palestinians and the Israelis to end the present conflict.

Mutual recriminations are likely to emerge over transatlantic trade disputes. The EU and US have been using increasingly strong language to accuse each other of ignoring international trade rules — and to threaten further retaliation — after the US decided unilaterally to impose hefty levies on steel imports. Condemning the US decision to apply “yet more protection” to its steel industry, Signor Prodi said he was confident that the World Trade Organisation would eventually rule against Washington. Signor Prodi was in relaxed mood after a Monday night dinner with Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, to discuss relentless criticism from Berlin of the Commission’s policies on European industry. They agreed to call a truce.

Signor Prodi also shrugged off political and media criticism of his appeal on Monday for Britain to become a fully committed EU member by adopting the single currency and looking less towards the United States. “The criticism has indeed been fairly hefty. But we do need the UK to be with us. We need a strong UK, and I think they need us.”

In his speech in London last night, Mr Patten supported Signor Prodi and said that Britain’s equivocation over Europe was “shameful”. He accepted that the Government acknowledged the necessity of abandoning Britain’s semi-detachment towards Europe — “but like Governments before it, it has found it almost impossible to change the weather”.

He depicted Tony Blair as being “caught like a rabbit in the headlights of the single-currency issue”, but directed even stronger words at the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

“With what he calls his ‘pro-euro realism’, he nails his colours firmly to the fence. What a wretched way to conduct debate on the greatest issue that will face Britain for years,” Mr Patten said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-283795,00.html