Friday 20 May 2011

MEPs want Security Council seat for EU

Following on from my "US and EU" post , here's the latest from Daniel Hannan:
No sooner does the EU upgrade its status at the United Nations than MEPs demand a place on the Security Council. One by one, the EU has acquired the attributes and trappings of statehood. Now, it is awarding itself the legal status, too.
After an unreasonable amount of digging on the hateful Europarl website, I was able to find this text among the 'Texts Adopted' on Wednesday, 11 May 2011 (Strasbourg):
34. Welcomes the adoption of the UN General Assembly Resolution concerning the EU's participation in the work of the UN on 3 May 2011, which takes into account the institutional changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and enables EU representatives to present and promote the EU's positions in the UN in a timely and efficient manner; considers it essential to engage with the EU's strategic partners in order to find solutions to major regional and global problems; recommends, furthermore, that strategic partnerships be given a multilateral dimension by including global issues on the agendas for the EU's bilateral and multilateral summits; invites France and the United Kingdom, as permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), and in accordance with Article 34(2) TEU, to request that the VP/HR be invited to present the Union's position whenever the EU has defined a position on a subject on the UNSC's agenda; takes the view that the European Union should be represented as such in multilateral financial organisations, in particular the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, without prejudice to Member State representation;
I'm not sure whether this is what Daniel was referring to, or if there was more, but the Eurocrats' desires are clear.

Just as it doesn't make sense to have a common currency without "economic governance", it doesn't make sense to have a Foreign Minister without a military. In both cases, the EU is conscious of the discrepancy, but hopes to achieve the latter by first introducing the former.

UPDATE:

Incidentally, I hadn't realised that Catherine Ashton ("the VP/HR") was a Vice-President of the European Commission as well the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Apparently there are several of the former, and the HR is chosen from among them as "First-Vice-President".

2 comments:

  1. This is already something that is de facto in place. Post Lisbon treaty, both France and UK's seats on the Security Council are expected to vote in the manner dictated by the High Representative.

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  2. Interesting. Is this actually mentioned in the Lisbon Treaty, or just an informal arrangement? Can you provide some links with more info?

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