Nepal: The European Union and Its Diplomacy

An organization of political, cultural and economy of 27 independent member states of Europe is European Union. It is committed to regional integration, was established upon the foundation of the European communities by the Treaty of Maastricht, Netherlands, on 1 November 1993. The European communities were three international organizations: the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community.

The European Union of today is formed through the creative ideas of ex-French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, to create a new form of organization of states in Europe with multinational political community after the Second World War. He is a statesman of France, became prime Minister twice and died on 4 September 1973, at the age of 77,   today honored as the founder of EU, the council of Europe and NATO.

There are six founding member states of European communities who responded to the Schuman Declaration and signed the Treaty of Paris on 18 April 1951. The six founding member states are Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands. Since its formation, it is being  expanded  with 27 member states in Europe.

Through a standard system of laws, the EU has developed a single market. The EU applies these laws in all member states ensuring the free movement of people, goods, services and capital inside member states.  The EU preserves common policies on trade, agriculture, fishing and regional development. The former Commissioner of Development & Humanitarian Aids of the EU and Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht is performing as the EU Commissioner of Trade, since 9 February 2010.

Sixteen member states out of twenty-seven have adopted a common currency the Euro, constituting as Eurozone alphabetically: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

To take the decision on each issue, as an international organization, the EU performs through a hybrid system of supranationalism and inter-governmentalism. The supra-nationalism is a decision making method through multinational political communities for power transfer to an authority by the governments of the member states. The decisions are taken through negotiation between member states, in such areas.

There are six important institutions included in European Union, the European Council, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the European Parliament. The European Parliament election is held every five years by member states’ citizens. For the functioning and responsibility of the Council of the European Union, the Presidency of the council of the Ministers which is rotated between its member states every Six months. The EU has three political centers: Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, wherein stated its important institutions. The de facto capital city of the EU is Brussels, Belgium.

After the adoption of Lisbon Treaty on 13 December 2007,  on 19 November 2009 under the Lisbon Treaty the European Council has elected its first permanent President to the Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, an economist and a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic & Flemish party. He was elected to chair the council for the period starting from 1 December 2009 for two and half year time, although he took up his position officially from 1 January 2010.

Diplomacy of the EU

The European Council has also elected its High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to the European Commissioner for Trade Catherine Ashton, a British politician under the Lisbon Treaty on 19 November 2009. She has been elected to chair her position starting from 1 December 2009, wherein Spanish politician Javier Solana  had actively performed the position since 18 October 1999 to 1 December 2009, including the appointed for second term.

Javier Solana was Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 5 December 1995. He took up the role in the European Union after leaving the NATO. On 4 July 1999, he was appointed as Secretary General of the Council of the European Union. As a Secretary General he was also appointed for High representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The European Union diplomacy is playing significant role in this globe on different topics as for development, humanitarian aid, trade and partnership, mediating and enhancement for peace keeping missions and security policy to combat terrorism. The EU spends over 7 billion euro a year on aid for developing countries. Trade and partnership agreements of the EU covers most countries and the regions of the world.

As foreign policy chief Javier Solana has negotiated many Treaties of Association between the European Union and diffirent Middle Eastern, the Balkans and South American countries, including Colimbia and Bolivia. He played a very important role in unifying the remainder of the former Yugoslavian federation. Solana has proposed to forge an union between Serbia and Montenegro instead of having full independence.

In January 2002, Solana has raised the voice to treat the detainees of Guantanamo Bay as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. Indeed, it was courageous attempt of him against the ill-treating manner of US upon the detainees. In the context of Iraqi invasion, later on, the EU has expressed smooth dissatisfaction on the Iraqi invasion as its stance. It has stated that it hopes to avoid another war like the Iraq war again in future. Solana has faced extreme troublesome time during his job when the two permanent EU Security Council member states France and United Kingdom were in disagreement on the issue of Iraq invasion. The France has took up strong position against US led Iraq invasion on the name of weapons of mass destruction wherein the United Kingdom joined with the US. The US led invasion on Iraq is criticised from UN and international community through various activities. Finally, as the US claimed that the Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which were not found.

Solana has played a vital role also towards working for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was an architect to make the Road Map for Peace, along with the UN, the US and Russia. In November 2004, Solana has assisted the France, Germany and United Kingdom to negotiate with Iran to freeze its nuclear material enrichment programme. In the same month, Solana played a key role for mediating between the two presidential candidates in the post-election development in Ukraine.

Foreign relation with Nepal

The EU is intensifying the relations with the regional groups, especially in Asia and Latin America. It wants to enhance a better balance between the economic, political, social and cultural elements of their relations. On 16 May 2003, the EU had welcomed with satisfaction the peace negotiation which have been started between His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The EU has reaffirmed its support for an inclusive democratic political process and successful negotiation.

According to the press release of the EU delegation to Nepal on 13 December 2009, the EU has appointed its first fully-fledged Ambassador for Nepal to Dr Alexander Spachis during the historical political juncture of peace process and constitution drafting process in Nepal. We may believe that the EU has taken the issues with seriousness to take the peace process towards a logical end and drafting a new constitution for resolve the imbalanced multiple issues of  the people of all classes and holding a fresh elections.

The EU could play a significant role further to enhance the bilateral partnership, the peace process and drafting the constitution during this condition of irritating confrontation within the political parties in several issues. It has been focusing to the areas of development assistance for peace building, education, trade facilitation, food security, energy and environment, support for democratization, enhancing human rights and health conditions through NGOs where yearly grants 35 million Euros have been allocated from EU budget. When it has provided the development assistance on various areas, if these areas will be routinely supervise through the EU then expect for better outcomes.

In the essence of peace process, drafting the constitution and transformation process of the country towards new Nepal, we should not forget to expose the decade long “Peoples War”. Since 1996 the “Peoples War” in Nepal by Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) against the 240 years long feudal monarchy of Nepal, which has undermined the fundamental rights of the people and suppressed on the issue of political, economical, social and religion fields. The US has declared to the CPN (Maoist) as a terrorist organization. But, it is notable that the EU has not declared the CPN (Maoist) as a terrorist organization. It seems that the EU believe the CPN (Maoist) as a strong and progressive political force as the UN recognized when it became largest political party after the  historical Constituent Assembly election.

After the election of the Constituent Assembly, there have been made unification between the CPN(Maoist) and the CPN ( Unity Center). After their unification, it has named UCPN (Maoist) and it believes that only through the drastic change could deliver better future of Nepal which is on the verge of extinction.

In this context of peace negotiation and constitution drafting process in Nepal, the parliamentary parties who are in coalition government and including the government, are criticizing the United Nation Mission in Nepal, an independent and highly regarded  institute that is monitoring the peace process to bring it towards a logical end.

Recently, the Under-General-Secretary for political affairs of UN B. Lynn Pascoe had visited Nepal and met the top leaders of the main parties, the Prime Minister, including the chief of the Nepal Army, while the criticizing by the government and leaders of the parties who are blaming the UN that it is supporting and favoring the UCPN(Maoist). Pascoe responded to the parties and government that they are blaming and criticizing the UN for their failures and weakness in the peace process. He added that the UN is sad by their blame and the Security Council could halt the prolongation of UNMIN.  At this very sensitive time, the diplomacy of EU could perform an important role to support the UNMIN and create a favorable environment for political consensus within the political parties to bring the peace process successful, desired by all.

Posted on : 2010-03-17 19:00:40

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