Applicant countries blocked from EU summit on Iraq

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday February 14, 2003 00:00 by observer

The invitations to attend the summit were sent out to the enlargement countries on Wednesday morning by the Greek EU presidency, but by the afternoon the invitations had been withdrawn.

Germany, France and Belgium have blocked candidate countries from attending Monday's EU summit on Iraq. Britain and Spain argued that accession countries should attend the meeting, hoping for their support in a possible war with Iraq, reports the Financial Times.

The invitations to attend the summit were sent out to the enlargement countries on Wednesday morning by the Greek EU presidency, but by the afternoon the invitations had been withdrawn. Germany, France and Belgium were among the countries arguing that it would be inappropriate for the candidate countries to attend the meeting.

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have expressed their solidarity with Washington and were also hoping to attend the meeting. However, now they will only be debriefed on the outcome on Tuesday.

Britain looking for support
According to the Financial Times, France thinks that Britain was pushing for the candidate countries to be invited in the hope that they would support the British stance on Iraq. Greece, which holds the current presidency of the EU, is hoping that EU member states will be able to agree on a common strategy on Monday.

"I am still convinced war is not inevitable and I continue to hope it can be avoided by applying strict controls to the Iraqi dictatorship and maintaining and strengthening the international alliance against terrorism, " said Romano Prodi, European Commission president said in a speech yesterday.

"Unless Europe speaks with a single voice, it will be impossible to continue working closely with the US on a longstanding basis while retaining our dignity," he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.