Heavy agenda for EU leaders in Washington

Date: 12/12/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

“IT IS not even a blip on the radar screen.”

It was not exactly what European Commission President Jacques Santer would have wanted to hear, but that is how one US senator characterised the New Transatlantic Agenda - the pact Union officials cherish as the working manual for EU-US ties.

There must be some truth in his remark, for when a group of US congressmen visited Brussels recently, none of them was aware that an EU-US summit was only weeks away.

Next Monday (16 December), Santer and Irish Premier John Bruton will travel to Washington to meet President Bill Clinton for the biannual event.

Strictly speaking, it was Clinton's turn to come to Europe, but the president's busy schedule ruled out a long aeroplane journey, so the Europeans will go to him, as they did in June.

This does not mean the president does not care about Europe, insist US officials. Instead, they say, the fact that Clinton will spend “two or three hours including lunch” with his European counterparts “shows a dedication to the process”.

Despite the meeting's brevity, the agenda is a heavy one. Foreign policy points range from the Balkans to Zaïre, and the list of economic disagreements to smooth over is no less weighty.

The EU and US have huge military and financial decisions to make about their continued presence in former Yugoslavia. They also have big political differences to settle about how to deal with the Serbs.

“The coming year will bring a lot of demands on us to produce visible results in the Balkans,” said a senior American diplomat. “We will be doing a lot of consulting [with the EU] on that.”

Consultation can only expand, furthermore, as plans solidify over the coming year for the enlargement of both the EU and NATO.

Washington is closely watching the Union's overtures to its eastern neighbours. “We follow with great interest the EU debate on enlargement,” said the diplomat. “What the Union decides will be critical for stability. This is not something NATO can do alone.”

He denied rumours that Washington is pushing European leaders to take Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Union so that the EU, not NATO, will be responsible for defending those countries from any Russian aggression.

“The notion that we are lobbying to include the Baltics is not accurate,” he said, but added: “The EU enlargement process is a very basic element for European security, and we hope enlargement does not get moved to the back burner as Europeans concentrate on monetary union.”

Troop deployments in Zaïre, political démarches in Belarus, and the policy towards China are issues hanging over both players.

And then there is the 'little matter' of Cuba. The Union has recently taken steps to appease US anger over its challenge to the Helms-Burton law. After EU governments approved a series of democracy measures to be jointly implemented in Havana, Washington hinted it might go easy on Union firms targeted by its anti-Cuba sanctions.

State department spokesman Nicholas Burns has said that the EU's hardening stance against President Fidel Castro's government “would certainly be a factor” when the president considers on 16 January whether to delay for another six months the implementation of a Helms-Burton provision allowing Americans to sue Europeans for doing business in Cuba.

But, warned the American diplomat: “The notion that the Helms-Burton legislation is going to be repealed any time soon is just not realistic. This is not an issue that is going to be resolved quickly and neatly.”

The problem will be further exacerbated if the World Trade Organisation rules next year that Helms-Burton violates international law. “If the WTO rules against Helms-Burton, it will have a very negative impact on the WTO's reputation in the United States,” warned a Republican senator.

Republicans failed earlier this year in their plans to create a panel of federal judges who could declare unconstitutional any WTO rulings that were unfavourable to the US, but congress could resuscitate the idea next year.

Havana and Sarajevo will not be the only locations on the minds of Bruton, Clinton and Santer, either.

Clinton will be thinking also of America's heartland, where grain farmers are complaining that the Union is undermining their exports. While EU scientists continue to examine US-grown, genetically-modified maize, all American maize is effectively barred from Europe.

In a letter to Trade and Agriculture Commissioners Sir Leon Brittan and Franz Fischler late last month, US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman wrote: “We are deeply concerned that the present position of the EU with respect to certain agricultural trade issues will cause serious disruption of agricultural trade in the beginning of the new year.”

They added that EU restraints on American rice, malting barley and veterinary standards were “unacceptable and threaten to severely damage US-EU trade relations”.

Barshefsky has also complained the Union has not helped the Americans in their drive for a global tariff-cutting information technology agreement (ITA). “Europe has been schizophrenic in its participation in the initiative,” she said recently.

Barshefsky will have a chance to complain directly to Brittan, as both will participate in Monday's meeting.