The EU will now also have a foreign policy
The Lisbon Treaty comes into effect today, something that will have no small impact on Europe's foreign policy. This already became apparent immediately before the treaty came into power when Russian President Dmitri Medvedev approached NATO and the European Union with a new security-policy initiative. Only a short while ago Russia refused to recognize French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a representative of the EU, in that his peace mission during the war in Georgia was referred to for days in Russia's diplomatic communiqués as a French initiative. In light of the EU's new presence on the foreign policy stage following Lisbon, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Polish think tank Demos organized a conference in Warsaw to bring together European experts for a discussion of the ramifications of this development.
The meeting commenced with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and his Slovakian counterpart, Miroslav Lajcak, giving appraisals of the current situation. Over the course of the two-day event it became evident that the EU's new high representative, Catherine Ashton, will have to define foreign policy strategies for relevant regions. These include China, India, Iran and Russia / Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan and Central Asia. In one of his remarks, Sikorski put it succinctly, saying, "Europe now has a telephone number and without a doubt will be getting calls. Of critical importance, however, is if the US will also be willing to call the EU a second time."
The Lisbon Treaty also makes a revitalization of Europe's foreign, defense and security policies necessary, the Polish foreign minster said, noting that Europeans will be undergoing an initial test in the coming weeks and months in that they will have to decide about increasing NATO troop levels in Afghanistan.
During the conference Germany's role in Europe was also critically examined from a number of perspectives. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question of which role Germany would like to play within Europe remains unanswered, a number of participants said. One consequence is that the EU's current reorganization is taking place without any clear support on the part of Germany's political elite.
Several attendees also called for the resurrection and restructuring of the "Weimar Triangle," a cooperative alliance that includes France, Germany and Poland. Following the EU's expansion, its critical mass has increased and a German-French motor is too week to move it forward, they said. The Weimar Triangle is thus the best option for helping the EU develop further.
In terms of foreign policy, a number of participants noted that the EU's most pressing topic will be energy policy, which will make it a sort of litmus test for the "new Europe." Similar to the European Coal and Steel Community in the 1950s, a common energy foreign policy could now serve to move Europe forward, they said.
Many in Warsaw also stressed that Russia remains the main topic for Poland when it comes to foreign affairs. Although Russia is weaker than the European Union, they said, Moscow is still more than willing to play the role of a global power and to bear the costs. The EU, in contrast, is not quite there yet, they noted.
In summary, the consensus at the gathering was that Europe is growing together faster than expected, and among the foreign policy elite in particular, it is difficult to discern who comes from which country. Poland and other new EU members approach current foreign policy challenges in a much more pragmatic manner than the Union's founding members, the participants also agreed. In addition, the assembled experts said current expectations of Germany's role in Europe are quite high, in contrast to the country's limited activities within the enlarged EU to date.
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