EU Unity Still A Challenge

EU Trade Commissioner Mandelson's job next week will be difficult enough without having to worry about internal unity.

It seems that differences remain after yesterday's meeting of EU Ministers

EU ministers struggled on Friday to show a united front ahead of vital WTO trade negotiations next week with Ireland and France deeply concerned Europe may have conceded too much on agriculture.
French Trade Minister Anne-Marie Idrac said after a meeting with EU counterparts that they agreed that the WTO talks needed a "new balance" to take better account of concessions Europe had already put on the table.
We have "a common goal, which is to obtain a new balance in the concessions that the Union has already made" to the World Trade Organisation, she told journalists after chairing the meeting in Brussels.
Idrac, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said the new balance must be "effective" and "not cosmetic".
She said: "The general sentiment is that Europe has exhausted its room for manoeuvre in the agricultural sector and can go no further."
EU ministers met in Brussels to prepare Europe's stance ahead of talks in Geneva starting on Monday, where 30 leading WTO nations will try to salvage long-floundering trade liberalisation negotiations.
France has long railed against Europe making big concessions on agriculture, but as holder of the EU presidency was careful to tone down its rhetoric on agriculture.
The European Union has struggled in recent weeks to show unity with France in open conflict with EU trade chief Peter Mandelson, accusing the former British cabinet minister of offering too much on agriculture in the negotiations.
While France avoided controversy on agriculture, Ireland -- Paris' long-time ally on agriculture -- accused the European Commission of offering too much as Europe's negotiator within the WTO while getting little in return.
"I think they have gone way too far on agriculture," Irish Trade Minister John McGuinness told journalists. "We are keenly interested in a deal... however that deal has to be balanced."
He also refused to rule out the possibility of Ireland vetoing any trade deal that did not suit Dublin, describing it as an "option."
"It's a fact that it is there. I think that it would be ... foolish of Mr. Mandelson to ignore the positions taken around the table this morning," McGuiness said.
Accounting for 20 percent of global trade, the EU is a heavy hitter in the WTO, where it has long been under pressure from emerging agriculture powers and the United States to ease its farm support.
Clashes between Brussels and Paris have become commonplace over the years at each important phase of the WTO talks, with both current President Nicolas Sarkozy and his predecessor Jacques Chirac adamantly against making big concessions on farm products.
Sarkozy has accused Mandelson in recent weeks of forcing a WTO deal on Europe which would threaten 100,000 jobs in the agriculture while also cutting farm output.
Mandelson, who has counter-attacked by accusing Paris of undermining him as Europe's top trade negotiator, stressed on Thursday that he had not overstepped his remit in the negotiations.
Although Mandelson has long insisted that Europe can offer no more on agriculture unless others make painful concessions too, he made a gesture earlier this week to Latin America by offering to accept a compromise on a decades-old banana dispute.
Mandelson warned on Thursday that failure to resolve the banana dispute, which Brussels hopes to do over the weekend before the Geneva meeting, would weigh on broader negotiations at the WTO.
"If they are not accepting, we will not be able to agree on a wider agreement for the tropical products, and then we will have no Doha deal," he said.