[14/March/2010]

By Nawab Khan

BRUSSELS, March 14 (Saba) -- Observes in Europe and the Middle East will be vigilantly watching the first visit to the Middle East by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton since she was selected for the top diplomatic post of the 27-member bloc last November, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Ashton embarks Sunday on a five-day tour of the region that will take her to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories and probably Gaza to meet with political leaders and civil society representatives.

"The Middle East is a major foreign policy priority for the EU and I am pleased that I can visit the region so early on in my tenure," Ashton said on the eve of her visit.
Analysts here opine that her trip will be a yardstick to measure the success or failure of the EU's new foreign policy structure formed under the Lisbon Treaty which went into force last December.

Previously, the EU had three diplomats responsible for foreign affairs: Javier Solana, who was called the EU High Representative for a Common Foreign and Security Policy representing the EU governments; Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for external relations; and the foreign minister of the country which held the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

This confusing set-up posed a major hurdle for the EU to develop a common foreign policy and to speak with one voice on the global sage curtailing seriously the European bloc's international role.

One of the major aims of the Lisbon Treaty is to boost the EU's global role. Under the treaty there is only one post of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who is also the Vice-President of the European Commission.
Ashton's Middle East visit will also be a test to prove her own diplomatic skills and to belie her critics that she lacks the confidence of a trained diplomat and experience in international affairs.

The tour of the EU's foreign policy chief comes at a very crucial juncture and sensitive period for the Middle East region.

Israel's intransigent and obstinate policies have halted the Middle East Peace Process and the chances for indirect talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians have all but evaporated after Israel gave the green light for plans to build a further 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

Both the EU and the US have criticised the new Jewish settlements, thus increasing pressure on Tel Aviv to stop the construction of the new settlements.

Following Israel's brutal military onslaught on Gaza with the killing of hundreds of women and children, the public and political mood in Europe began shifting.

This change in Europe's previously unquestioned support to Israel to a more balanced and reasonable approach is reflected in the first joint statement issued by EU foreign ministers in December calling for "a two-state solution with the state of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine." Brussels also put on halt moves to upgrade ties with Tel Aviv.

In another sign of deteriorating EU-Israeli ties, the EU foreign ministers indirectly pointed an accusing finger at Israel for the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

In a statement in February, EU's Foreign Affairs Council "strongly condemned the fact that those involved in this action have used fraudulent EU Member States' passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens' identities." After an informal meeting of seven EU foreign ministers in Finland on Saturday, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, said Israel's decision on the new Jewish settlements has opened the question of whether it is really committed to peace talks.

"There have been distinctly mixed signals recently. The government says that they are interested in re-starting the peace negotiations, but I think the signal that was sent the other day, sent of course a decidedly bad signal, " he said.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, called on Israel to return to talks quickly if there was to be any chance of a peace accord.

"If we wait for more than two years, it will be too late, because ... there will be no object to negotiate because there will be no land, and there will be no subject with whom to negotiate," he was quoted saying.

Pointing to the recent developments, analysts comment that the time when Israel used to play Europe's spoilt child is over.

The results of Catherine Ashton's visit to the Middle East will show whether the Lisbon Treaty would remedy the ills of EU's foreign policy and if the European bloc's aspirations to be more than a mere economic bloc would be realised.


Saba