EU asks US for greater role on world stage - by PHILIPPA RUNNER
The EU has in a letter to the next US president appealed for a greater European role on the world stage, more engagement with a resurgent Russia and more emphasis on peacemaking in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The six-page text was agreed at an informal EU foreign ministers meeting in Marseilles on Monday (3 November) and will remain under wraps until after the US election on Tuesday. But its contents were outlined by French EU presidency officials on the margins of the Mediterranean Union gathering in the southern French city, Le Figaro reports.Based around four priorities, the text calls for a better interplay between security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, with a view to making Afghan elections in late 2009 determinant for peace in the country. It says the US and EU should take note of Russia's economic revival and intensify diplomatic contacts to avoid the risk of confrontation. The EU as Russia's permanent neighbour should have a major role in future negotiations.
The letter urges the new US administration to put the Middle East peace process at the top of its agenda and foresees a "useful role" for the EU as co-guarantors of a future Israeli-Palestinian accord.
Note EU-Digest: The EU should not ask to play a greater role. It should take the initiative, play a greater role and lay out a plan to the US saying where it stands on these issues and how it will act. Europe must not be subservient to any country in the world.
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