The EU has never been a serious global foreign policy player. Without a European army or a meaningful defence pact, the pretence of a Common Foreign and Security Policy is mere sound and fury signifying nothing. Back in 1991, the Gulf War served as a stocktake of the international weakness of the European communities with the Belgian foreign minister lamenting Europe’s position as ‘an economic giant, a political pygmy and a military worm.’ If anything that position has worsened today with China on the cusp of overtaking the EU economically. The global pandemic — in which Europe has been severely affected — is shaping up as another stock-take of where the EU’s vital international interests really lie.
Habitually the EU’s international posturing is less than the sum of its parts, as member state differences undermine even the flimsiest claims to collective policy. President Macron’s infamous attack on Nato as ‘brain dead’ was a perfect example of a member state shaking even a founding principle of the European communities: a commitment to the USA and the Atlantic Alliance. Annoyance in Berlin and central and eastern European capitals was icily contained.
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