It's entirely possible that in 20 years, maybe less, people will look back at this time and say that the most important development for freedom and democracy in the world was not the military dominance of the United States or the fight against Islamic extremism, but the development of the European Union.
German Schancellor Gerhard Schröder just met with Spanish President José María Aznar to discuss a range of European issues including easing tensions arising from Spain's support of the US and Britain on the Iraq War.
Schröder is the most prominent social-democratic leader in Europe right now, with many EU countries under conservative governance and Britain's Tony Blair badly damaged in Europe by the Iraq War. Aznar is one of the most respected conservatives in Europe, because he's credited with transforming his Partido Popular (PP), which is the historical successor to Franicsco Franco's party, into a fully democratic force.
The tone of the meeting was friendly, which was important in itself. As the EU Observer notes, "Mr Schröder teased the Spanish conservative that he [Aznar] could not greet him with his bandaged right arm, jokingly noting 'of course it is the right that is broken'." Although in reality, the PP has stronger voter support at home than Schröder's "red-green" coalition right now.
Aznar's support of the Iraq War did not alienate Spain from its EU allies to the extent that Blair's did with Britain. But both Aznar and Schröder are committed to strenthening the EU, though they have differences on the new European Constitution now being debated. Aznar has also been critical of the exceptions given to Germany (and France) allowing them to exceed EU targets on budget deficits.
They also discussed the development of common European armed forces. Aznar made a point of publicly emphasizing that the EU common force was not meant to compete with NATO or to rival the US. That's the position of Germany, as well. But what no EU country wants to say publicly is that the Bush Administation's unilateralism, especially in Iraq, has drastically undermined Europe'sconfidence in the NATO arrangement.
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