Straw fuels fear of rift between EU and US

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/30/wnato30.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/11/30/ixportal.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=18751

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, fuelled fears of a transatlantic rift over the European Union's defence policy yesterday when he refused to reveal how Washington had reacted to news of a controversial deal struck by Britain, France and Germany.

It is believed that Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, telephoned two European foreign ministers on Friday seeking urgent clarification of the deal, which will allow the EU to conduct its own military operations independently of Nato.

The plan will also be discussed by Nato defence and foreign ministers at meetings in Brussels this week, where critics are expected to include Donald Rumsfeld, the hawkish US defence secretary.

Mr Straw spoke to Mr Powell on Thursday, the day after the deal was struck in Berlin, but said his response would have to remain one of the "secrets of the confessional".

The European GPS equivalent: the US won the right to veto the deployment and to distort (even deactivate) the service in talks yesterday. This is ignored by the English speaking media, but was heavily criticised by the continental press.

I'd like to read more if you have a url handy.

Thanks

http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID2734592,00.html

German, but Babelfish produces an understandable translation.


http://babelfish.altavista.com

The Iraq Crisis presented the world with a stark choice: they either stood with America or with much of Europe. There is, or could be, an even more basic choice: where, literally, you stand.

The Global Positioning Satellites which can help answer that question are a matter of life and death, and the key to an array of multi-billion dollar industries.

America dominates the world of GPS. But it faces a European challenger - the Galileo project, and the Americans are worried. They're even claiming that Galileo is a threat to global security.

Our Science Editor, Susan Watts, investigated whether America's real interest is its military dominance of space.

more...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3092858.stm

peace

. . "WHETHER" ????

. . is there any doubt ??

. . "America's real interest is its military dominance of space."

. . There

. . THAT looks more like the truth

. . no doubt in MY mind

up total control of their system though--the genie is out of the bottle and their pretty organized in Europe too.

Why should the EU give way on that now? Won't happen. The failed US policies seem to be precipitating precisely what they don't want.

->Real EU military independent of NATO. The US in time will have to deal with them as more like equals.

->Rise in global support for the Euro currency. Plenty of oil producing nations are attracted to the idea of selling oil in Euros. That's a real possibility, and when it happens they'll all move together. Then it's goodbye US dollar - that could be a real killer.

That doesn't have to be a bad thing - the EU and the USA have the same goals in most issues.
I would like to know what the EU got in return.

the europeans have known for 30 years they need to become more like one country to compete with encroaching u.s. hegemony around the world.
it's england who may get left between -- france, gemany, belgium -- will commit a lot of resources to convincing europe to their point of view. i think they will succeed -- many eastern european countries want to see a more centralized ''western europe'' that finally takes them out of the sphere of russia. and in turn russia wants it because they are more comfortable with europe -- it is a real viable road to russian modernization through trade. and to small differing degrees they are all socialists.
the eu will get their own gps system -- because and rightly so -- it's a matter of independence from the u.s..

England is nothing more than an agent for BUSHCO.

Europe should dump England NOW and then they can move forward!