US must adapt to growing EU ambitions, say Euro-MPs. This ought to be good! Let's see what they have in mind:
The United States must accommodate a more ambitious European Union. That was the main message that emerged yesterday from a European Parliament debate in Strasbourg on the state of EU-U.S. relations.
...
Representing the European Commission was Slovenia's Janez Potocnik, the science and research commissioner.
...
However, Potocnik said the United States must learn to accept a stronger EU role in the world. "That being said, it is clear that the EU-U.S. relationship must adapt to the changing security environment and to changing global priorities," he said. "But it must also adapt to changes within the European Union. We are convinced that as the enlarged EU's foreign policy strengthens, so too will the scope and intensity of our relations with the U.S."
Speaking alongside Potocnik was Luxembourg's development cooperation and humanitarian affairs minister. Jean-Louis Schiltz, who represents the EU's current presidency, expressed a similar sentiment. He said the EU-U.S. relationship must adapt to a "larger degree of choice and political will" on the part of the EU than during the Cold War, growing EU interest in securing its own collective security, and further coordination of internal EU policies. Schiltz concluded that direct EU-U.S. relations in the future would acquire increasing prominence.
It's kind of hard to pick out the kernels from all the chaff, but it sounds like they're actually thinking about paying for their own defense! Is that it?
Retired French General Philippe Morillon -- who commanded UN troops in Bosnia in the early 1990s -- put EU expectations most succinctly. He indicated the United States must bring pressure to bear on Israel following the recent election of Mahmud Abbas as the new president of the Palestinian Authority.
That's it? That's what has their narrow brows fevered? That's the big EUroweenie ambition? Sheesh, go back to worrying about
bananas.
