EU Looks to Close Ranks with US after Bush, to Keep Global Influence

The European Union must close ranks with the United States if the two powers are to keep their global influence during the rise of states like China, India and Russia, EU foreign policy chiefs said at informal talks.

"The new American administration will, as we all of course also, have to cope with the new emerging countries: apart from Russia, which is an old power with a new assertiveness, India, Brazil and China," EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Friday, Sept. 5.

"We want to be more equal partners with the US, but how can we do that? We have to raise our own game, we have to be more clear and united in the positions we are taking, we have to be more effective and forthcoming in using our policy and our instruments," she said.

At an informal meeting in the French city of Avignon, the foreign ministers of the EU's 27 member states discussed how to cooperate with the next US president on questions of global security such as climate change and energy security, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who chaired the meeting, said.