Timothy Garton Ash on stab in the back for EU foreign policy

Germany caused the lack of consensus within the EU regarding Libya by abstaining from the vote on a no-fly zone in the UN Security Council, writes British historian Timothy Garton Ash in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica, adding that such a stance makes a common European foreign policy impossible: "While French and British pilots risk their lives in action, the German foreign minister is virtually encouraging the Arab League to make further criticism. A word that springs unbidden to my mind is Dolchstoss (stab in the back). There are several reasons for this German attitude. Westerwelle is one of the weakest foreign ministers Germany has had for a long time. As the leader of the Free Democrats (Germany's Lib Dems), he is running scared of some important provincial elections - as is Angela Merkel. Having gingerly advanced in the 1990s towards taking broader international responsibilities, including military ones, German opinion seems to have sunk back into an attitude of 'leave us alone'. ... Even if you think the German approach to the specific question of the no-fly zone was right, and France's wrong, you must acknowledge that these divisions make a mockery of Europe's pretensions to have a foreign policy."

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