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EU Policy on Iraq: The collapse and reconstruction of consensus-based foreign policy

  • Part Two: External Relations
  • Published:
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Abstract

At first glance, Europe's discord over the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a foreign policy debacle. And when a majority of Member States publicly broke ranks with a tenuously reached common position, skeptics argued that the EU's consultative and consensus-based process of foreign policy making was either fictitious or irrevocably broken. But in fact, the Iraq crisis triggered a normative reframing of security and defense policy and renewed a commitment to consensus decision making. Rather than a lowest common denominator outcome, a compromise position was reached in the form of EU-coordinated economic and humanitarian assistance to rebuilding Iraq that has exceeded 200 million euros per year since 2004. This was possible because normative commitments to develop the EU as a global actor and to promote democracy and the rule of law worldwide legitimated EU action and constrained Member States with ‘do nothing’ and/or ‘let the UN do it’ preferences. The foreign ministers’ ability to reach agreement on coordinated recon aid to Iraq also displays the Union's principled commitment to make decisions in a norm-governed and consensus-based institutional environment of cooperative bargaining.

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Notes

  1. See also Crowe (2003, p. 534–535).

  2. See also Crowe (2003) and Youngs (2006, p. 33).

  3. Personal correspondence, former EU permanent representative, 12 February 2008.

  4. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  5. Nominally, this includes 5 of the EU15 and 15 of the EU27.

  6. The ‘Letter of Eight’ was signed by the Heads of Government of Britain, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Agence France Presse, 30 January 2003, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  7. Associated Press, 17 February 2003, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  8. The Financial Times, 18 February 2003, UK edition.

  9. European Report, 1 February 2003, No. 2747, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  10. European Report, 1 February 2003, No. 2747, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  11. Global News Wire, 1 February 2003, No. A2003020855-3BB6-GNW, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  12. Associated Press, 17 February 2003, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  13. ‘Europe: Making It Work.’ Speech by Atzo Nicolaï, State Secretary for European Affairs, European Institute, Bucharest, Romania, 17 February 2003. Accessed online at: http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/static/actueel/toespraken/2003/02/europe_making_it_work.html

  14. Financial Times Information, Global News Wire, 1 February 2003, accessed via Lexus/Nexus. Part of the motivation for the later ‘Vilnius 10’ letter may have been that some of these countries would have signed on to the ‘Letter of Eight’ had they been asked. On 31 January 2003, Agence France Presse claimed that Slovenia, Slovakia, and Lativa have declared their post-publication support for the ‘Letter of Eight,’ accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  15. For a discussion of this point see, Philippe de Schoutheete (2003) ‘Du bon usage de la diplomatie.’ La Libre Belgique, 29–30 March 2003, p. 11.

  16. European Report, 1 February 2003, No. 2747, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  17. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  18. European Report, 1 February 2003, No. 2747, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  19. European Report, 1 February 2003, No. 2747, accessed via Lexus/Nexus.

  20. European Commission, DG External Relations, Unit of the European Correspondent, ‘Note for the File,’ Seminar on ‘CFSP Confronting Iraq,’ at the EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris, 3 March 2003, dated 7 March 2003, p. 2.

  21. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  22. Bernard Bot served as the Netherlands EU Permanent Representative from 1992 to 2002 and was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 3 December 2003 to 22 February 2007. His first posting to the Dutch permrep in Brussels was from 1964 to 1970.

  23. ‘Making Europe Stronger: Our Common Task.’ Speech by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Paris, 14 May 2003. Speech available online at: http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/static/actuell/toespraken/2003/05/making_europe_strongerx_our_common_task.html.

  24. The Financial Times, 18 February 2003, UK edition.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Presidency Conclusions, Extraordinary European Council, Brussels, 17 February 2003, 6466/03.

  27. ECHO contributions between 1992 and 2003 were approximately 157 million euros (Iraq Assistance Program, 2004. COM (2004) 667, 4/3/04).

  28. The Independent, 21 March 2003, p. 10.

  29. Council of the European Union, Presidency Conclusions, Brussels European Council, 20–21 March 2003, 8410/03/32.

  30. Communication From the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, Recommendations for Renewed European Union Engagement with Iraq, COM (2006) 283 Final, 7 June 2006.

  31. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Ibid.

  34. UNSC Resolution 1483 was adopted on 22 May 2003.

  35. Personal correspondence with EU official, 5 October 2007.

  36. Around this time, the European Council issued a statement on 16 April 2003 to celebrate the accession of the new ten Member States. Known as the ‘Athens Declaration,’ it states ‘our commitment to democracy’ is ‘the fundamental value underpinning the Union.’

  37. European Commission, DG External Relations, Unit of the European Correspondent, ‘Note for the File,’ Seminar on ‘CFSP Confronting Iraq,’ at the EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris, 3 March 2003, dated 7 March 2003, p. 2.

  38. I thank Daniel Thomas for suggesting this point. A parallel ‘prewar’ planning body for recon assistance was initiated at the UN by the Secretary General ‘but was careful to keep the plan ‘secret’ lest it suggest a view on the inevitability of war’ (Mac Ginty, 2003: 608).

  39. Although such views did not become extinct. A year later, new Commission President Barroso found it necessary to state in an interview, ‘Some people in Europe may think that it is good that things are going badly for the US in Iraq. I really think that is an irrational and a bad policy’ (As quoted by the Associated Press, 20 August 2004, accessed via Lexus/Nexus).

  40. National Journal, 20 December 2003, p. 3833, cited in Peterson (2004a, p. 20–21).

  41. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  42. On this reading, there are interesting similarities (and possible ‘learning effects’) to the logic of EU Palestinian assistance. See Pace (2007, p. 1046–1047).

  43. Personal correspondence with EU official, 5 October 2007.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Interview by telephone with author, 16 January 2008.

  46. On the importance of restricted sessions and especially Council luncheons for CFSP decision making, see Hayes-Renshaw and Wallace (2006, p. 60–61). On the general role of in camera meetings of the Council in facilitating deliberation and consensus-based decisions, see Stasavage (2004) and Lewis (2005).

  47. Council of the European Union, Presidency Conclusions, Thessaloniki European Council, 19–20 June 2003, 11638/03/25.

  48. Similar effects on public support for EU security and defense are attributed to the post-Cold War Balkans crises. See Youngs (2004b, p. 418) for a discussion.

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Acknowledgements

For comments on earlier versions I thank the conference participants and especially Dan Thomas, Anand Menon, and Simon Duke.

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  1. Department of Political Science, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, RT 1744, Cleveland, 44115, OH, USA

    Jeffrey Lewis

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Lewis, J. EU Policy on Iraq: The collapse and reconstruction of consensus-based foreign policy. Int Polit 46, 432–450 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2009.3

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