SPAIN COMES OF AGE AS A CORE PLAYER IN EUROPE

 

  Artículo de John Vinocur en “The International Herald Tribune” del 23.10.2003

 

 

MADRID Long before Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came to grief for his supposed crassness in saying so, Spain was talking about the existence of a New Europe, a place where it played a pervading leadership role and the French-German power locus no longer served as the single reference for European decision making.

 

Spain slapped the name as early as 2001 on an altered continent of 25 European Union member countries and on the new circumstances it felt brought a Spanish role into the EU's forefront. Steering clear of offense, unlike Rumsfeld, the phrase Old Europe and its subtext of opprobrium never passed Spanish officials' lips.

 

All the same, until the Iraq war, Spain's notion of a New Europe - defined in cooperation rather than rivalry with the United States and reflecting loyalties, interests and instincts different from those of decades of postwar European habit - was largely talk.

 

But in blocking, with the British and others, what it regarded as an attempt to turn the war into a European confrontation with America under a French and German banner, Spain achieved a new visibility in its effort to be seen be as a singular - even global - player.

 

Its role as host Thursday and Friday for the international Donors Conference on Iraq underscores that goal. With it, Spain is continuing to talk openly and forcefully about its part in the changes in Europe. And very much by intent, reflecting a Spanish assertiveness unique after centuries of inwardness and caution, Madrid's voice now tracks a world away from the sound of Paris and Berlin.

 

The tone is unmistakable. To understand Europe after Iraq, said Ramón Gil-Casares, the Spanish secretary of state for foreign affairs, requires recognizing that the French-German relationship remains very important in the European Union's approach to economic affairs.

 

At the same time, he said in an interview, "as far as foreign policy goes, the French-German axis is just not indispensable anymore. They cannot pretend it is, and they cannot speak for Europe."

 

The fact is, Gil-Casares said, that the European Union is made up of many countries that adapted better to the changing global economic situation than either France or Germany, which largely ignored the admonitions of the EU's Lisbon economic declaration of 2000 urging more competition and innovation. "And that undermined their leading role," he said.

 

It was in this context, he said, that France and Germany tried to reassert their pre-eminence, and sought in January to speak for all of Europe on Iraq. Spain became one of the initiators of the so-called "letter of eight" rejecting the attempt and establishing the notion that the New Europe, including most of the former Soviet bloc, would not allow itself to be instrumentalized in a confrontation with the Americans.

 

Before the first term of Prime Minister José María Aznar, who will leave power after national elections in March, Spain lived with the overhang of the Franco dictatorship, finding democratic legitimacy in speaking with the chorus in the EU and automatically following any French-German lead.

 

But in the view of Gil-Casares, who previously served as Aznar's defense and security adviser, Spain's entry into the euro, its rapid economic expansion, and its rise toward becoming the world's leading investor in Latin America meant it had to refuse second-line status. "Aznar said, 'It's not just being a part of Europe anymore, it's saying where we want Europe to go.'"

 

For another close adviser to the prime minister, this signifies for Spain that making Europe great and successful does not include having problems with the United States. Rather, in a apparent reference to French policy, he said it was a vast mistake to predicate building Europe on a rivalry with the Americans.

 

Indeed, Aznar has described Europe as hobbled by complacency. Along this line, the adviser to the prime minister said, "Some Europeans want that someone, but not us, should take care of the world's problems." This was, he insisted, the antithesis of Spanish government's position, but "a constant in the history of contemporary Europe."

 

Now, Gil-Casares said, the Spanish message to the new EU members from Central and Eastern Europe is particularly well received because "they look at us an example to follow. We're the last big-sized success story in Europe." That message, he said, includes urging: "You've got to undertake the reforms to get there."

 

These days, the approach also involves adamant resistance by Aznar to any change in a new European Constitution that would water down the decision of the EU at its Nice summit in 2000 to give Spain 26 votes on the European Council, alongside the 28 each held by Germany, France and Britain.

 

The catch in the new Spanish role is that its durability beyond Aznar's departure from office is uncertain even if he is succeeded, as expected, by his former deputy, Mariano Rajoy.

 

The reality, uncontested by the prime minister's advisers, is that the foreign policy reorientation was hardly the work of the ruling Party Popular, but rather of Aznar himself.

 

Rajoy is totally inexperienced in foreign affairs. His loyalty to Aznar is a gauge of his intentions, but popular sentiment in Spain was strongly against the Iraq war, and international policy could be the easiest ballast to go overboard in establishing the autonomy of a new government.

 

"Sustainability is a big question," said Charles Powell, a Spanish-English historian. "The party, for all its professionalism, doesn't have a foreign policy view. But foreign policy is clearly not a vote-getter - if anything, it's a vote loser."

 

The Socialist standard-bearer, José Luis Zapatero, directly opposes the Aznar line, so much so that he was accused of refusing to stand when the American flag, among others, went past a reviewing stand during a recent military parade in Madrid. The Foreign Ministry bureaucracy itself is described as widely skeptical about the wisdom of Aznar's course.

 

Beyond this, there has been no obvious link between Aznar's stance independent of France and Germany and an updraft in public sentiment supporting a role for Spain unburdened of its previous, and willing, subordination to French-German policy leads.

 

Powell, who is senior analyst of the Real Instituto Elcano, an independent research foundation, brings nuances to this view.

 

"Standing up to France and Germany is working its way through the system," he said. "It will be going more deeply into the national consciousness. It is increasingly understood that French policy on international issues is essentially about advancing French national interests. Standing up for Spain, being aware of Spanish interests, as inconceivable as it was in the 80's and 90's, is becoming increasingly credible."

 

Speaking for the likelihood of a consistent Spanish policy, Powell said, is the obvious need for strong relations with the United States to complement Spain's now vast involvement in Latin America regardless of who is in charge here.

 

"Europe is not the be-all and end-all to Spain," he said. "We're not Belgium or Austria. We have other interests, real ones. And foreign policy, inevitably, must reflect them."