IF there is one thing the European Union is clear about, it is the need for stronger ties with powerful emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil. Its problem is working out how to get there. At gatherings of EU foreign ministers and heads of state in recent weeks, “strengthening strategic partnerships” has been at the top of the agenda, but the meetings have largely failed to put flesh on the bones of the policy idea. Almost a year after the passage of the Lisbon treaty, which was supposed to improve EU decision-making and give the Union more influence in the world, little progress is being made despite all the talk. Foreign policy experts and some EU foreign ministers have begun calling for an overhaul of how the EU conducts diplomacy, saying it risks irrelevance if it does not rapidly improve how it shapes and pursues its goals. The issue is all the more pressing as the EU prepares for a a summit with Asian states and separate summits with China and South Korea next week. “The economies of China, India and others are racing ahead at 10 percent a year. Economic weight is translating into political clout and self-confidence,” Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said shortly after she took office last December. “If we pull together, we can safeguard our interests. If not, others will make the decisions for us. It's that simple.” Poor coordination While the aims as Ashton presents them are clear, pursuing them is being hampered by a lack of coordination among the EU's 27 member states and a tendency among leaders to let immediate or pressing issues cloud out the bigger picture. At a foreign ministers' meeting this month, Ashton spoke at length about a recent trip she made to China and how the relationship needed to be developed, but the ministers sitting around the table added little, sources at the meeting said. “Everyone agreed that the EU needs to come up with a new strategy, but no one had very much to say about how we do that,” said one source who attended the meeting. The issue was no more successfully handled at an EU leaders' summit on Sept. 16, when a row between France and the European Commission over Paris's expulsion of Roma migrants overshadowed the event, cutting debate short on strategic partnerships. As a result, the summit's closing statement was short on specifics even though the issue is central to how the EU, home to 500 million people, transforms its economic weight into geopolitical influence. “The European Union and its member states will act more strategically so as to bring Europe's true weight to bear internationally,” the statement said. “This requires a clear identification of its strategic interests and objectives at a given moment and a focused reflection on the means to pursue them more assertively.” Selling EU to the world Discussion of “strategic partnerships” can seem wishy-washy from the outside, particularly when it involves 27 countries that in many cases – such as Britain and France – have their own long-established foreign policies that they manage closely and would rather not subsume under the EU banner. But when it comes to trade it is critical for the EU, the world's largest trading bloc, to have a unified strategy for building ties with new powers, especially if it wants to retain influence at a time of slow growth and shifting power balances. The risks surrounding a lack of unity were clear this month when the EU was in the final stage of clinching a free-trade deal with South Korea, the world's 12th largest economy and an important EU partner in the G20. At the last minute, worried about the impact the deal could have on its car industry, Italy refused to back the accord, threatening the agreement because EU trade deals must be unanimous. That could have allowed the United States to jump in and sign its own free-trade agreement with South Korea first. Rome was finally cajoled into signing after Brussels and Seoul agreed to delay the start of the pact by six months, saving an accord that is pivotal for European manufacturers. Next time, the EU may not be so lucky, particularly if more than one member state gets cold feet over an agreement. On Monday and Tuesday, Brussels hosts a Europe-Asia summit, an opportunity to strengthen ties with the likes of Malaysia, India, South Korea and China. Russia is also invited. Trade and finance will be central to the discussions, with the EU and Malaysia expected to set a date for the start of talks on a free-trade pact, the EU-South Korea deal to be formally signed, and the EU and China to discuss exchange rates and monetary policy in the context of the global recovery. “(The meeting) is a pivotal test for the future of the EU's uninspiring and often haphazard relationship with Asia,” the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think tank, wrote this week. “EU leaders can either use the meeting to inject new dynamism into Asia-Europe relations or reinforce an impression in Asia ... of Europe's decline into global ‘irrelevance'.”
