WHERE THE COMMON FOREIGN POLICY FALLS FLAT.

George W. Bush's lucky star clearly doesn't shine over the East. In Iraq, four months after the announcement of the end of hostilities, coalition forces are more bogged down than ever in a country escaping their control, dominated by violence and disorder, facing an increasingly hostile population. In the Middle East, where the American President hesitated at length before throwing his hat in the ring, the promise of peace raised by the Roadmap appears to have been dashed by the collapse of the Hamas cease-fire, the resumption of assassinations of Palestinian representatives by Israel, the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and the renewed threat of the expulsion of Yasser Arafat.

Two human dramas, two stinging failures for the White House incumbent, but the political, security and economic implications do not only concern the United States. Because it is naturally, historically and profoundly committed in this neighbouring region, because it has considerable interests there, and because it has a large Muslim population, highly sensitive to these dramas, Europe is also intimately concerned.

The European Union cannot resolve these problems alone. If it must combine its forces with others in an attempt to achieve its ends, with whom and how should it do so? The Member States succeeded at the end of the week in Riva del Garda (Italy) in avoiding exposing their differences on this question, but these differences nevertheless exist. Whilst all the Foreign Ministers attending the meeting regretted the...