ࡱ> ?A> %bjbj A(DD$  .$N R-F j,v]Gs0 B!GdB!B!dV4wd B!D M: the big softie Baron Frankal The ten richest people on earth are worth just under 200 billion, it says here  60% of the income of sub-Saharan Africa, about 700 million people. Though 76.9% of statistics are made up, this one isn t, and it illustrates the infinite black hole that is the gap between the rich and poor of the world. Although some Liverpudlians may not always feel it, the EU lies very much with the rich, and, by many measures, has the largest economy in the world. When it comes to wielding power however, the EU has inherited Germanys post-war mantle of economic giant and political pygmy. To explain why, another statistic: the US spends more on defence than the next twenty countries of the world put together. Utterly incapable in its wildest dreams of putting 150,000 boots on the ground anywhere, the EU is instead responding to Clintons challenge (to NATO) to go out of area or out of business by developing a strategy of soft power. This - already rather clichd - phrase, is actually a very powerful doctrine representing far more than a cut-price way to win friends and influence people. The EU is seeking to become the worlds largest deployer of trade, aid, culture, ideas and international law. On some fronts, it has already succeeded: although only about 20% of the USs population, the UK and France each outspend it in public diplomacy. As to cultural spending abroad, France has the highest (per capita) in the world: more than four times Canadas, which is second; with the UK and Sweden ranking third and fourth respectively. The EU is the worlds largest provider of aid and pays 40% of the UN budget. Its trade policy is combative, offering access and reward where EU priorities, such as on the environment, are adhered to. In convincing Iran to engage and not confront the rest of the world, the EUs trade promises may just have done what no other power on earth has achieved. As to ideas, European policies on, for example, capital punishment, gun control, climate change and homosexual rights have a freshness about them that a rather tired American dream cannot match. Oddly enough it has taken an American, Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Washington Foundation on Economic Trends, to notice this. Europe, he says emphasises community relations over individual autonomy, cultural diversity over assimilation, quality of life over the accumulation of wealth, sustainable development over unlimited material growth, deep play over unrelenting toil, and universal human rights. Another idea is the EU itself as the nations of the world slowly find themselves economically forced to evolve into voluntary blocs, Asia, Africa and South America all follow closely and mimic the brand leader. More directly, the EU influences its own backyard reinforcing prosperity and stability in the countries that have joined by rolling over problems and absorbing them, and by skillfully using the prospect of joining. Turkey is being transformed, and in the recent Ukrainian crisis, the straining to listen to the EU was palpable. Bosnia was a calamity, and Kosovo irresolvable without American muscle, but just as France and Germanys bitter enmity of just sixty years ago has become possibly the closest national relationship in the world, so a Hungarian-Slovakian war is already unimaginable. The Balkans is the first outing for the EUs new all-singing, all-dancing Common Foreign and Security Policy, and if anything can bring real peace and prosperity to the Balkans in our lifetime, new europe would put a lot of money on it being the EU. As to international law, the EU generally stands in stark contrast to the US by its firm support for and work with global concepts, rights and obligations. With at least two seats on the UN Security Council, multiple membership of the G7, G10 and, G whizz, the largest part of the IMF and World Bank (and hundreds of other important international organisations), the EU is a presence, and its force for good persona $ ( : ^ h ~ r {   ")*,Yezh8vhJ/CJaJh~kCJaJh1CJaJh|eCJaJh8vh2CCJaJh8vCJaJh;6CJaJh+CJaJh8vhU+CJaJ hU+5CJh 'h;66CJaJh 'h;65CJaJ h;65CJ h8v5CJ h+5CJ.& (  STI%J%%%$a$gd+ $a$gd;6$a$ ACDvwx)17FIZgi<60?ļꖋh8vh1CJaJh8vhCJaJh8vh'FkCJaJh+CJaJh]4CJaJh|eCJaJh8vhU+CJaJh6dDCJaJh~kCJaJh8vh2CCJaJh8vhJ/CJaJh8vhDCJaJ6?GkwPRTMNFHy$$$'$<$A$O$$$$$$$$$H%I%J%~%%%%ĹϹϹϹϬϤϤϤϤϤ׉||jh;6h+6Uh;6h+6hU+CJaJh]4hZ\CJaJh1CJaJUh8vhJCJaJh8vhXaCJaJh8vh'FkCJaJh]4CJaJh+CJaJh8vhJ/CJaJh8vhCJaJh8vh1CJaJ0goes down well with the world gallery. Increasingly, the EU sees international rules, stronger institutions and more consistent enforcement procedures as its protection in the future rather than the American nuclear umbrella. While the US is at war, Europe is at peace, at least with itself; and maybe the effects are spreading. First published in the budapest sun, 10 march 2005,  HYPERLINK "http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=13339" http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=13339 %%%%%h]4h+CJaJh;6h+6jh;6h+6Uh;6h+0J6? 0P1:p;6. 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