HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
New California Media January 12, 2002 Rome-Washington Axis Undermining Europe NCM Online, Paolo Pontoniere, Jan 11, 2002 Europe's march toward federal unity suffered a serious set back last week with the firing of Italy's Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero from the Berlusconi government. With Ruggiero's departure from the Italian political scene, Europe looses not only a friendly referent inside the Italian government, but risks also to see its efforts for military independence from the US to came to an abrupt halt. Ruggiero's dismissal was due to a spat that he had with his colleagues of the executive, and with Berlusconi on Italy's center-right government tepid welcoming of the Euro. While commercial transactions in Euro skeptic countries--like Holland--are conducted in 80 per cent of the cases in Euro, in Italy, where popular support for the new currency runs as high as 90 per cent, the number of Euro transactions are still floating below the 50 per cent threshold. Ruggiero, a former director of the World Bank and a career diplomat, is a proven paladin of European union and a supporter of globalization. In light of Berlusconi's hostility toward the new currency he felt compelled to denounce Italy's tardiness. In the opinion of the Foreign minister, the Italian central bank and its government, were not doing enough to infuse a greater amount of the new tender in the Italian market. Ruggiero's position did not fail to attract the wrath of the Northern Alliance. A junior partner of the Berlusconi's center-right coalition, the Alliance is one of Europe's most controversial political parties, it is extremely xenophobic and aims to turn Italy into a loose federation of independent regions. The Alliance had not wamly welcome Ruggiero's appointment to be Italy's front man in foreign policy since the very beginning of his mandate, and the ministers in the alliance had never missed the opportunity to spar with him. Rugiero's tenure at the Farnesina, Italy's foreign department, has consequently been contentious. His six months in office have been marked by an almost constant arguing with his colleagues on all the initiatives to strengthen Europe's self reliance in military affairs, highlight its foreign policy independence from the US, and favor the implementation of international treaties. The first meaningful rift between the Foreign Minister and his colleagues took place last August over Italy's decision to abandon the Airbus A400M project. Dubbed the Euroforce Transport Plane, the project mires to produce an exquisitely European-built military transport aircraft. The project, which enjoys the participation of Europe's other major powers, is essential to the creation of the European Rapid Deployment Force. Without this vehicle, to be deployed, the Euroforce needs to rely on NATO's cargo airplanes, and essentially to depend on the US logistic support to be fully functional--NATO's cargo airplanes are mostly American. Under the former center-left government Italy had promised that it would contribute technology to the project as well as buy 16 of the airplanes. Now Italy's retreat from the contract puts the project in a limbo indefinitely. Another problem arose when Italy declared its commitment to the military peace contingent for Afghanistan. Ruggiero, believing it to be his prerogative, announced the departure of the Italian troops to the media only to provoke the ire of Italy's Department of Defense. Antonio Martino, Italy's Defense Secretary and a member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, denounced Ruggiero's intrusion in the DOD affairs, and declared that the Italian troops would leave for Afghanistan only when he and the Defense department would say so. He also added that military matters were none of the foreign minister's concern. Perhaps the gravest squabble between Ruggiero and his colleagues may have taken place on a matter that has been reported little by the Italian and the International media: Europe's stated intention to build a GPS network to parallel and compete with that of the US. Opposed by the Pentagon, which would loose its ability to control GPS communication worldwide, should Europe's intention come to a fruition, the project would put Europe in a position to rival with the US for the control satellite communications. As it stands now the Pentagon has the final say on the access to the GPS satellite network. Europe feels that should the American system fail, or be restricted because of technical or military problems, this would leave Europe-and the world--to the mercy of the fate and to the whims of the America's top military brass. To remedy the situation European space agencies have proposed to introduce what they have called Galileo, an independent network of orbiting satellites that would work more or less like the American GPS. This one however would be controlled by civilian agencies. As it had happened before on other issues of European relevance, Ruggiero had taken a pro-Europe position also on the Galileo issue. This however is unacceptable to Berlusconi who, since the beginning of the war on terrorism, has been striving to assert himself as the principal ally of the United States in continental Europe. Singularly while weakening Europe cohesion, the Berlusconi government firing of Ruggiero, besides satisfying Italy's far right politicians, sits well also with the hawks at the White House. It is not a mystery that the Bush administration, when dealing with Europe, prefers to overlook completely the fact that the continent is attempting to reach a political unity and to find a new military configuration. Sadly in the long run the US attitude toward the EU will not only damage Europe's cohesion but also undermine anti terrorism efforts in Europe and worldwide. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
