Foreign and security policy: ‘EU-NATO partnership not going smoothly’

French scholar says European Union is an ‘economic giant’ but a ‘political dwarf’.

A French scholar has described the European Union (EU) an “economic giant” but a “political dwarf”.

Giving a talk on “Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union” at the Institute of Strategic Studies under its “distinguished lecture series”, Dr Alexis Vahlas gave an insightful and comprehensive overview of the European Union’s complex machinery, how it works, and has evolved over the years, said a press release issued by the institute on Wednesday.

Dr Vahlas explained that the EU’s partnership with NATO is not going smoothly as many tend to believe. While explaining the dynamics of EU’s foreign policy, he said the EU’s goal is not to have a common foreign policy. He underlined the fact that there is more integration in the United Nations Security Council as compared to the European Union.

He said many global issues can only be resolved by means of international cooperation. It is therefore clearly in the European Union’s best interests to promote development and improvement of means of global governance action.

On the issue of Russia’s aggression against Georgia, he said that it was the EU’s top responsibility to prevent the resumption of hostilities between Russia and Georgia.

On Iran, the professor said that the EU wants the issue to be resolved peacefully and that the use of force is not a viable solution.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2011.