EU eyes UN upgrade
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As part of a drive to boost its foreign policy influence, the EU has unveiled plans to have more of a say at the UN. If the planned resolution is passed the bloc could soon enjoy many of the same privileges as UN member states, a move that may ruffle a few feathers.
A letter to UK MPs leaked to the press yesterday has revealed EU countries' plans to table a UN resolution to boost the bloc's role in the General Assembly.
Currently the EU has observer status, like many other international organisations. The proposed resolution would give EU president Herman van Rompuy and foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton the right to address the assembly, along with some but not all of the rights granted to member states. These include the right to make proposals, to submit amendments, and the right to circulate documents.
With all the bloc's 27 member states are already represented in the UN General Assembly, some nations are questioning if it is fair for Brussels to push for more influence.
Euranet's Brussels correspondent Vanessa Mock says the move is intended to clear up the inconsistencies of the current system, where the EU member holding the six-month rotating presidency also represents the bloc in New York.
But, she predicts the plan is likely to stir up existing resentments about the balance of power in the UN, possibly triggering a debate on how power is distributed between the "old European powers" and the emerging economies.
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Actually, to every nation on earth, it smacks of priveledge. Collectively, the EU will have 28 yacking mouths and votes. With half the population of either China or India, the relative degree of European overrepresntation to them is a factor of 52.
Moreover, this is a rather desperate measure to be 'declared' a geo-political big-wheel in throroughly unearned, unmerited fashion. Europes relevance is wildly outpaced by the self-image of its' relevance.
She has to earn her chops first. The brain surgeons who came up with this idea don't seem to realize that an entity's soft power is derived almost entirely by the plausibility and potentiality of it's hard power, and that soft power only works when it is consistent. Part of the room trying to undermine an embargo to score sales does nothing for the EU's plausibility as a soft power or partner.
In fact it makes them incredibly untrustworthy. They are luck that anyone plays along with their notion of themselves at all.
What effect this has is simple: an autocrat knows that they can act unfettered against the innocent. The EU, right after it issues a press release "showing deep concern", will never manage to get around to doing anything about an ongoing violation of human rights, conflict, or even threat to their own presumtive allies.
Be a nation, or a cartel, or be a equivalent of the Rotary Club, but make up your minds. The vacuum it's leaving will likely be filled by people who don't have the European population's best interest at heart.
