It’s Tatters Beneath the Glitz as European Union Opens Summit

CANNES, France — The scene couldn’t have been more deceptive: a confident-appearing new French president Monday welcoming leaders from much of Europe to a summit amid the glitter of this Riviera resort.

But behind this facade of success and affluence was an agenda whose content reflected a very different Europe--one dogged by ethnic conflict, high unemployment, scandal and at odds with itself about the way forward.

“Europe is in bad shape,” said Karel van Miert, a Belgian member of the European Union’s executive commission.

More than three years after the start of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and after an especially bloody 10-day period in Sarajevo, European Union leaders heard a report from former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, their newly appointed mediator to the former Yugoslav federation.

At a late-night news conference, Bildt and Jacques Chirac, the French president and summit host, announced a five-point initiative. It seemed to contain little more than repackaged failed ideas.

Chirac said Bildt would return to the region immediately to try to negotiate a lifting of the siege of Sarajevo and a four-month cease-fire. He also hopes to relaunch peace talks based on a plan already rejected by the Bosnian Serbs.

While Chirac said the presence of a new European rapid-reaction force now being deployed in Bosnia had changed the military situation there, he quickly added that the new Balkans initiative would be restricted to diplomatic measures only.

Bildt said in answer to skeptical questions from reporters, “There is no guarantee on any of this, but we still have a duty to try.”

On the important issue of reducing Western Europe’s crippling unemployment, a major initiative launched 1 1/2 years ago to create 15 million new jobs by the end of the century has also brought little progress. More than a year into the current economic upswing, only a fraction of the target figure has been achieved. Noting that the jobless rate among those 25 and younger in the community is a staggering 22%, EU Commission President Jacques Santer warned the heads of government that growth was simply not producing enough jobs. “We will have to work hard to avoid a social explosion,” he told them.

Aside from pressing ahead with existing programs, the leaders had few new ideas.

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The inability to move forward on these two crucial fronts is seen by many as symptomatic of a larger loss of momentum suffered by the union since the fall of communism changed the Continent’s political map five years ago. As in many other Western organizations, the lack of a common enemy has generated internal divisions and contradictions.

For example, questions about the EU’s priorities have placed strains on the all-important Franco-German partnership, with Germany urging more aid for Central and Eastern European states to prepare them for eventual membership, while France wants more assistance to help stabilize the volatile Mediterranean region.