HÜRRÝYET- Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on the crisis facing the European Union springing from Iraq. A summary of her column is as follows:
The European Union is currently undergoing the most critical crisis of its history to date. It is not clear how long the current alliances, which were formed thanks to the Iraq war, will last. However, we can all see that this war has dealt a grave blow to old associations.
According to diplomatic sources, British Prime Minister Tony Blair not only wants to discuss with US President George W. Bush the Iraq war, but also the role to be played by the United Nations in the nation’s reconstruction. One of the issues close to Blair’s heart is restarting the Middle East peace process. Blair also considers it necessary to fix US-EU relations. However, Bush doesn’t seem to attach too much importance to these two issues.
When Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently said that the UN had been rendered ineffectual on the international stage due to France’s anti-US stance, French Ambassador to Rome Loic Hennekin responded that blaming France for the current crisis was only possible through a misinterpretation of recent events. Professor Yves Gotier, a prominent French analyst of the EU, believes that the EU is on the verge of determining its future, stressing that that would constitute a critical turning point for the continent. He believes that Europe’s failure to reach a consensus on important issues facing the world community is a serious problem and that the lack of coordination among EU member countries indicates even greater problems looming in the future.
Come April, the EU will have to face these problems. Valerie Giscard d’Estaing, the chairman of the European Convention, is to present the convention’s proposals to the members at that time, in a bid to find answers to questions on its future. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a French member of the Greens Party, believes that France and Germany should first try to reach a consensus among their fellow EU members before developing a new strategy on the issue of Iraq.
This is a very critical turning point for the Union. We don’t know how future developments could affect the enlargement process, but this question is very important for our country.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION