In EU foreign policy, strength through unity hard to come by
By RAF CASERT Associated Press
RIGA, Latvia (AP) - It was enough even for the normally unflappable European Union President Donald Tusk to start losing his cool. He stuttered, staggered his sentences, as he assessed what Russian President Vladimir Putin was doing to the EU's brittle sense of unity.
"One of the most important goals for President Putin today is to divide Europe," he said in off the cuff remarks to the European Parliament. He called it a key reason why he is "so obsessed about unity today."
He'd better be. For EU unity has been in short supply here on the shores of the Baltic Sea, where Europe's top diplomats gathered this week to forge a common strategy on the Ukraine crisis. When it comes to Russia, the 28-nation EU is roughly split in two. Several former Soviet bloc nations - including the three Baltic states and Tusk's Poland - urge a tough line in the face of what they see as Russian aggression, while others like Germany and France are more careful to keep channels open.
At the same time, Putin has been wooing some nations like Hungary and Cyprus, making sure they can act as a thorn in the EU's side.
Since foreign policy is set by unanimity between 28 nations, Tusk will find it tough to speak forcefully when he meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday.
"Unity is a very good word. Everyone is for unity," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, with biting sarcasm. "But you know, unity to do nothing is not for me, I don't like it," he said at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Riga, which ended on Saturday.
That's exactly what U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and a group of top Democrats and Republicans sought to highlight in a letter to Obama on Thursday. In it, they complained that U.S. foreign policy on Ukraine and Russia was being "held hostage by the lowest common denominator of European consensus."
On Saturday, even any consensus was hard to come by as the nations remained far apart on whether to upgrade, extend or decrease sanctions, with Greece also coming out strongly for a better relationship with Russia.
And Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias insisted that Greece felt the impact of the Russia sanctions hard as it is mired in a devastating economic crisis.
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In EU foreign policy, strength through unity hard to come by