EU/GREECE: Greece has warned that the EU could be plunged into a deep crisis if it fails to forge a common stance on Iraq at an emergency summit next week.
Greece, which holds the EU presidency, had hoped the meeting of EU heads of state and government in Brussels next Monday would help to bridge divisions over whether to take swift military action against Iraq. It said the summit was a last chance to achieve unity.
"The aim of the summit is to promote and use every means to have a peaceful settlement in Iraq," the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, said yesterday. "We want Europe to be heard with a common voice."
His spokesman said the summit's failure would deal a heavy blow to the EU on the eve of its biggest enlargement.
"If \ is not achievable,then the Greek presidency will have exhausted all the institutional and political possibilities a presidency has in its hands. The European Union will enter a deep crisis," spokesman Mr Panos Beglitis said.
The Iraq crisis has complicated EU aspirations to forge a common foreign and security policy and has also caused major problems for NATO, to which 11 of the 15 EU members belong.
Some member-states fear the summit, which will follow immediately after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, would only expose the depth of disunity in the EU. Greece said it felt it had to take the risk.
France and Germany meanwhile yesterday joined forces to stop the 13 candidate countries,many with pro-US sympathies, from attending the summit.
The incident brought into relief tensions between what the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, dubbed "old" Europe and the "new" Europe of former communist bloc countries.
The invitation to the candidate countries to attend parallel talks at the summit in Brussels was extended yesterday morning by Greece, but by the afternoon, the invitation had been withdrawn, with France, Germany and Belgium among those arguing it would be inappropriate for them to attend.
The same three countries have been blocking the extension of NATO protection to Turkey against possible attack by Iraq.
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, three of eight countries which signed a controversial letter last month expressing solidarity with Washington, were among those hoping to attend.
The meeting will seek to build a common position following Dr Hans Blix's second report to the UN Security Council.
Last month, EU foreign ministers managed to forge a common position on Iraq, urging Baghdad to come clean on its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
However, just a day later, eight European countries including Britain, Italy and Spain sent a letter vowing support for the US stance, infuriating Greece, which had been kept in the dark, as well as France, Germany and others. -