Europe Old and new
Two issues dominated European politics in 2003: the United States-led war against Iraq and the further integration and expansion of the European Union. Though apparently unrelated, these two issues turned out to be connected both in terms of the European states' relations amongst themselves and their different visions of Europe's place in the world and in terms of their relations with their powerful trans-Atlantic ally the US.
In January and February 2003, popular protest against a US-led war against Iraq dominated headlines across Europe, with some states supporting US policies on Iraq and others opposing them. Mass demonstrations in almost every European capital, as well as in major cities across the world, against the United States showed the strength of popular feeling against a US-led war, even in the United Kingdom, a member of the US- led coalition.
France and Germany led opposition in Europe and at the United Nations against a US-led war, provoking US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to dub the two countries "old Europe" and causing what was perceived as a cooling of relations between the US and its European allies. British Prime Minister Tony Blair did his best to mediate, setting out his vision of a Europe closely tied to the US. However, it was never clear how a coalition of Britain, Spain, Italy and a collection of small post- Soviet Central and Eastern European states could genuinely constitute "new Europe", even in the eyes of Blair and the US.
The question of the future path of the EU, and of the place of France and Germany within it, exercised Europeans in April when leaders gathered in Athens to witness the accession, planned for 2004, of ten new members to the European Union. Some of these ten countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, had previously been described as "ill-bred" by French President Jacques Chirac for what he perceived as their overly enthusiastic support for US foreign policy.
The work of drawing up a new constitution for an enlarged EU of 25 member states continued under the chairmanship of former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The draft constitution was duly delivered late in the year, but European leaders failed to agree on key provisions in December, including voting rights and the number of EU commissioners, with Spain and Poland proving especially reluctant to see themselves potentially outvoted at future EU meetings.
While the possibility of a common foreign or defence policy for the EU was severely tested in 2003, the pattern of European domestic policy showed greater signs of convergence. Popular protest in France, Italy and Germany against pensions and social security reforms in May and June and during the summer months ended in failure with legislation announced to cut generous social security payments in these countries and increase the number of years workers must contribute in order to qualify for a full pension.
In what was considered to be a blow to the Eurozone's growth and stability pact, which commits member states to keeping budget deficits to within three per cent of GDP or face sanctions, France and Germany were excused persistent deficits in excess of three per cent at a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in November.
Both countries had claimed that running such deficits despite Eurozone rules was necessary if they were to respond to their chronic lack of growth and high unemployment, major challenges across Europe in 2004, despite the danger that deficits of this sort could fuel inflation throughout the Eurozone.
Reviewed by David Tresilian
