IV. The Union in the World

It is imperative that Europe steps up its activities in the external relations field. The European project will remain credible only if it responds to the growing calls from its citizens for greater unity and more effective ways of building and defending peace, stability and prosperity on the European continent and throughout the world.

The Member States of the Union have many common interests. The Union must increase its influence in world affairs, promote values such as peace and security, democracy and human rights, provide aid for the least developed countries, defend its social model, and establish its presence on the world markets. In addition to maintaining the territorial integrity of the Union, Member States must combine their forces to combat organized crime, terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons, prevent major damage to the environment and ensure sustainable growth with an optimum use of world resources.

Collective action by the European Union is an ever increasing necessity if these interests are to be defended, if full advantage is to be taken of the benefits of globalization and if the constraints it imposes are to be faced successfully. Europe’s partners, beginning with the applicant countries, expect it to carry out fully its responsibilities.

The enlargement of the European Union will affect not only the destiny of the Europeans, the Member States and the applicant countries. Through its international implications, enlargement will have an impact far beyond the new frontiers of an enlarged Europe because it will increase Europe’s weight in the world, give Europe new neighbours and form Europe into an area of unity and stability. The geopolitical impact of the enlargement process was already underlined in the Madrid European Council conclusions concerning "The Political Agenda for Europe".

1. A stable europe that is open to the world

Over the last four decades and in line with the basic intentions of Europe’s founders, the Member States have developed between them a real Community of security within which it is inconceivable that there would be the slightest threat of recourse to force as a means of settling disputes. The challenge is now to extend that basic achievement of the European project to new Member States. The enlargement of the European Union must therefore aim to make an additional stabilizing impact complementary to that made by the enlargement of NATO. This stability should facilitate the gradual definition of a common defence policy that could lead to a common defence, in accordance with Article J.7 of the Amsterdam Treaty.

An enlarged Union will have more direct frontiers with Russia as well as frontiers with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. It will enjoy direct access to the Black Sea which will lead to intensified contacts with the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia. An enlarged Union will also surround the Kaliningrad oblast, which is part of Russia, and will contain several hundred thousand ethnic Russians, living mainly in Estonia and Latvia. It will be important for the enlarged Union to deepen its relationship with Russia, Ukraine and the other NIS on the basis of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs). Among the Union’s new neighbouring countries will be those of the Balkan region. Stability through cooperation in this region will be all the more important for the enlarged Union.

The Union will have to continue and step up its policy of providing support for democracy, and assisting the reform process and the transition to the market-economy system, which constitute long-term guarantees of security and stability. There is likely to be an increase in trade flows, a rise in energy and raw material imports from CIS countries, an expansion of transport networks and increased cooperation on environmental protection. Moreover, these developments could lead to changes in the content and geographical organization of Community programmes such as Tacis in order to take account of new geopolitical circumstances.

Active measures will have to be taken to reinforce links between the Union and its Mediterranean partners. The stable development of the southern Mediterranean rim is a challenge of ever increasing proportions. The potential of the Barcelona process will have to be fully exploited to that end. The Union will also have to maintain an increased presence in the Middle East as one of the main promoters of peace in that region. Enlargement should therefore lead to an intensification of economic and commercial relations between the European Union and its southern partners, based on the pursuit of reciprocal interests.

Development cooperation constitutes the third major element of the Union’s external action. The Union’s development assistance and its efforts to reduce poverty and inequalities around the world are closely linked to the search for peace and stability, the need for better management of global risks and interdependence, and the promotion of a sound development path. As part of the new partnership arrangements which will have to be established between the European Union and the ACP countries, whose political and economic situations differ, the question of the inclusion of development cooperation in the Community budget will have to be examined.

The Union should also intensify its relations with the United States, with the implementation of the New Transatlantic Agenda agreed in Madrid in December 1995. Asia and Latin America are also among the regions which should be given particular attention.

2. A Strong and coherent europe

The enlarged Europe will have richer but inevitably more complex relations with the rest of the world. In order to be more effective and more present, in order to prepare as much as possible to exercise wider responsibilities and in order to assume its role on the international scene, Europe will have to reinforce its political decision-making capacity and ensure consistency in all of its actions.

• Making the European Union a global actor

It is in the interests of the European Union to exercise political responsibility commensurate with its economic power. The interdependence of modern economies and the increased importance of transnational factors mean that an active and effective foreign policy cannot be limited to the more traditional aspects of international relations. This applies in particular to the Union, characterized by its strong economic dimension. Ultimately, a common foreign and security policy can become reality only if the Member States accept, in terms of working methods and in substance, that progressively an integrated approach to external relations must be built.

This integrated approach will make it possible to support a common political will with the instruments of the CFSP, those of commercial policy, development aid or other common policies and the operational capacity of the Western European Union to carry out tasks recently included in the Treaty. It should also strengthen the complementarity, which is currently inadequate, between the activities of the Union and those of the Member States.

The provisions of the new Treaty for designing and implementing the common foreign and security policy will make it possible to strengthen the overall cohesion and continuity of external action. The Council and the Commission will have to cooperate closely to that end. It will of course be essential to resort more frequently to a qualified majority for the Union to be able to take rapid, specific action.

The European Union will increasingly have to acquire the capacity to take foreign-policy decisions involving the use of military resources. This is essential if the Union’s external action is to be credible. It will therefore be necessary to strengthen the operational resources of the WEU, both in order to carry out the new tasks laid down in the Treaty of Amsterdam and with a view to the WEU becoming increasingly integrated in the development of the European Union itself.

• Maintaining the commercial power of the Union

The international environment must not be seen as a threat to the Union, but rather as a positive challenge and development factor. The EU, the biggest trader on the world stage, has a strong interest in consolidating the new WTO structures and in promoting further international trade liberalisation beyond that which is already programmed. The alternative to a multilateral approach is likely to be a risk of less advantageous conditions of access and competition. It is also essential that the dismantling of trade barriers be accompanied by the development of competition policy principles within the WTO framework.

Taking account of the new forms of international trade, it will be necessary to make full use of the new opportunities offered by Article 113, as amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam, for conducting international commercial negotiations in the field of services and intellectual property. In this way, the enlarged Union will be able to act more decisively and more cohesively in international organizations such as the WTO or the OECD.

• Ensuring complementarity between internal and external policies

The advent of the euro will give Europe a key role to play in economic and monetary matters. During the next eighteen months, it will therefore be necessary to define the relationship with international financial institutions and the arrangements for external representation in this field.

The external potential of the Single Market should be developed. Both the strength and the experience of the Internal Market can be used to promote the Union’s interests and presence internationally, for example in the area of aeronautics and satellites. Another example is greater European assertiveness in international standard-setting, but the potential extends into many other areas, including financial services, intellectual property and competition policy.

Greater care will have to be taken to ensure coherence and complementarity between the internal and external dimensions in Union policy. Energy policy provides a good example of such a consolidated approach, where the achievement of market integration will provide the essential basis for the diversification and flexibility of energy supplies as well as reinforcing the competitiveness of European enterprises in this field. A careful coordination of external energy policy will also contribute simultaneously to enhanced supply security and the achievement of international environmental objectives.

Better integration is equally necessary for other internal policies of the Union, for example in the field of research, in order to promote the Union’s international interests.

• Handling transnational issues which are at stake

The process of globalization, from which the Union has benefited so much, also exposes it to both economic and political risks in the international arena, such as the consequences of demographic imbalances, failures in governance and environmental mismanagement. These must be handled resolutely with the Union’s international partners in multilateral fora.

The increasing importance of threats to the environment, like global climate change, is already high on the international agenda. The Union has, on various occasions, confirmed its leading role in this field, where it is particularly well placed for taking the leadership in international negotiations in order to reconcile conflicting interests.

The proliferation of drug trafficking and organised crime also requires coherent and concerted action at the international level. This should be developed in close cooperation with the Union’s main partners and with the countries most afflicted by these phenomena, focusing on preventive action in a multilateral framework as well as on measures aimed at eliminating the social and economic sources of these scourges of society.

• Increasing the visibility and adapting the procedures for the Community’s external assistance

External action should become more visible. The Community and its Member States finance half of the international development assistance effort, in particular through the comprehensive partnership embedded in the Lomé Convention. They are responsible for well over half of the humanitarian aid distributed throughout the world. They provide one third of total aid to the Middle East, including half the assistance granted to the Palestinian Territories, nearly 60% of international aid to Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union, and 40% of the reconstruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina. These figures, often unknown, show that the Union is the most important provider of international aid - a situation which should be consolidated by enlargement.

The reality of Europe’s presence will have to be explained and enhanced in order to increase the margins of manoeuvre in the common foreign policy.

Strengthening decision-making capacity, and the efforts which may be required in order to increase the speed with which action can be taken, will be decisive in improving the impact of the Union’s external assistance programmes.

The effectiveness of Community instruments in the external sphere is currently limited by slow, complex internal procedures. A reflection should be undertaken on how to overcome these constraints where rapid action by the Union is required. In addition, here as elsewhere, it will be appropriate to limit as much as possible the spread of financing over too many small-scale measures. It will also be necessary to promote closer coordination of Community programmes and national action by Member States.

Where the Union’s external financial action is concerned, it will be necessary to foster the synergy between the Community instruments and those of institutions such as the EBRD or the IMF, as part of a balanced financial burden sharing.

Given the prospects for economic growth, the maintenance of financial resources in terms of percentage of GNP will make it possible to ensure that Europe has a strong presence at world level.