The three musketeers ride again
Suddenly, Poland is Britain's best chum, along with the Czech Republic and Hungary.
There was poor old Tony Blair, stuck for European allies in supporting America's race to unleash military mayhem on Saddam Hussein's regime, when over the hill galloped the three musketeers, Leszek Miller, Vaclav Havel and Peter Medgyessy.
"We'll ride with you Tone!" they hollered and, pausing only to pick up Spain, Portugal, Italy and Denmark along the way, they sided with the hawks in putting two fingers up to the antiwar French and Germans.
Suddenly, the geopolitical benefits of EU enlargement have been thrown into stark relief for Mr. Blair.
It's fair to say that the British prime minister was not the only EU leader beginning to wonder if enlargement was all worth it, thanks to the rather uppity demands from some people, (no names, of course, but what begins with P and rhymes with lowland?) for a new membership contract with the EU.
The crisis over Iraq has rather overshadowed internal EU politics, but Mr. Miller's card was and is on the point of receiving a black mark denoting him, not for the first time in this new European partnership, as a bit of an awkward bugger.
Meanwhile, Mr. Blair had other things to worry about, and while EU support for the Americans over Iraq is not something the United Nations is troubled about, there is plenty of moral authority in a solid display of European unity.
But what is "European" now?
When discussing the breakdown of support and opposition to war against Iraq, everyone understandably still thinks in 15 segments. And, from that perspective, Mr. Blair could and can still only muster a miserable four EU countries behind him in following the American line. They are Spain, Italy, Denmark and, until now, the Netherlands.
Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece and Austria are solidly behind the French and the Germans opposing military intervention. And somewhere in the middle, sitting on the fence, are Ireland, Finland, Sweden and, until now, Portugal.
That makes five of 15 EU member states supporting America - just one-third and not a tally to brag about.
But then someone had a bright idea: why not canvass support from the "new" Europe? After all, the 10 applicants will be full members soon, and if they want to take part in EU events early, as they do, they can jolly well hoist their flags and choose their sides in this most serious posturing on foreign policy.
And that's how Mr. Blair's "score" was suddenly boosted from five "European" countries to eight in favour of the American strategy. (Somewhere along the way the Netherlands and Portugal changed tactics, but the math is unchanged.)
Certainly President George W. Bush didn't care about the distinction between existing members and accession states when the increase in backing from across the pond was relayed to him.
But there was some initial surprise in Brussels when the new figure was bandied about by the British, until someone explained that he was counting his new friends in the growing EU family.
Oh yes, everyone said, of course, why has no one asked them before?
Well, now they have been asked, in what amounts to a rite of EU passage of much more symbolic importance than twiddling here and there with a passage in the accession text.
By siding with the UK, Messers Miller, Havel and Medgyessy will no doubt expect political payback from Britain some time in the future when the negotiating chips are down on some key issue like tractor imports or widget quotas.
Meanwhile, Mr. Blair has bolstered his side - and everyone is too polite to point out that eight of the 25 in the EU in support of America is proportionately less than five of 15.
It's amazing what you can do with figures.
Geoff Meade is the European Union editor of the Press Association.
There was poor old Tony Blair, stuck for European allies in supporting America's race to unleash military mayhem on Saddam Hussein's regime, when over the hill galloped the three musketeers, Leszek Miller, Vaclav Havel and Peter Medgyessy.
"We'll ride with you Tone!" they hollered and, pausing only to pick up Spain, Portugal, Italy and Denmark along the way, they sided with the hawks in putting two fingers up to the antiwar French and Germans.
Suddenly, the geopolitical benefits of EU enlargement have been thrown into stark relief for Mr. Blair.
It's fair to say that the British prime minister was not the only EU leader beginning to wonder if enlargement was all worth it, thanks to the rather uppity demands from some people, (no names, of course, but what begins with P and rhymes with lowland?) for a new membership contract with the EU.
The crisis over Iraq has rather overshadowed internal EU politics, but Mr. Miller's card was and is on the point of receiving a black mark denoting him, not for the first time in this new European partnership, as a bit of an awkward bugger.
Meanwhile, Mr. Blair had other things to worry about, and while EU support for the Americans over Iraq is not something the United Nations is troubled about, there is plenty of moral authority in a solid display of European unity.
But what is "European" now?
When discussing the breakdown of support and opposition to war against Iraq, everyone understandably still thinks in 15 segments. And, from that perspective, Mr. Blair could and can still only muster a miserable four EU countries behind him in following the American line. They are Spain, Italy, Denmark and, until now, the Netherlands.
Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece and Austria are solidly behind the French and the Germans opposing military intervention. And somewhere in the middle, sitting on the fence, are Ireland, Finland, Sweden and, until now, Portugal.
That makes five of 15 EU member states supporting America - just one-third and not a tally to brag about.
But then someone had a bright idea: why not canvass support from the "new" Europe? After all, the 10 applicants will be full members soon, and if they want to take part in EU events early, as they do, they can jolly well hoist their flags and choose their sides in this most serious posturing on foreign policy.
And that's how Mr. Blair's "score" was suddenly boosted from five "European" countries to eight in favour of the American strategy. (Somewhere along the way the Netherlands and Portugal changed tactics, but the math is unchanged.)
Certainly President George W. Bush didn't care about the distinction between existing members and accession states when the increase in backing from across the pond was relayed to him.
But there was some initial surprise in Brussels when the new figure was bandied about by the British, until someone explained that he was counting his new friends in the growing EU family.
Oh yes, everyone said, of course, why has no one asked them before?
Well, now they have been asked, in what amounts to a rite of EU passage of much more symbolic importance than twiddling here and there with a passage in the accession text.
By siding with the UK, Messers Miller, Havel and Medgyessy will no doubt expect political payback from Britain some time in the future when the negotiating chips are down on some key issue like tractor imports or widget quotas.
Meanwhile, Mr. Blair has bolstered his side - and everyone is too polite to point out that eight of the 25 in the EU in support of America is proportionately less than five of 15.
It's amazing what you can do with figures.
Geoff Meade is the European Union editor of the Press Association.
