Translated material
Passionary of United Europe
Javier Solana has no intention of leaving diplomacy
In Brussels yesterday, Spaniard Javier Solana (pictured), the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, gave his farewell reception. In a festive, informal atmosphere, he said goodbye to familiar politicians and journalists working in the Belgian capital. The famous diplomat handed over his powers to British Baroness Catherine Ashton on December 1. The title of her position in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty on the Reform of the European Union, which also entered into force on December 1, sounds different - High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. But the difference is not only in the name.Javier Solana, who, according to rumors, will either work in an important position in a large international corporation or become the EU mediator in negotiations with Iran (he supervised this topic before), will be remembered as the author of the quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy of the United Europe. There was a feeling in the European Parliament and non-governmental organizations that he did not pay enough attention to the protection of human rights. In any case, outwardly this theme was not very evident in his activities. Of the traditional EU leadership troika (presiding country, European Commission, High Representative), the topic of human rights was usually touched upon by the first two. Solana, on the other hand, embodied “realpolitik”, although in life he was a passionary.
Over the ten years of the existence of this post (and Solana was the first and, it turns out, the last to hold it), the EU’s common foreign and security policy has transformed from a slogan into a reality, although not as much as he himself would probably like. From scratch, the service has grown to include about 800 military experts and diplomats. They coordinate 23 missions to resolve crises in hot spots such as the Gulf of Aden and Kosovo.
Solana was the voice of the European Union on the international stage, its chief negotiator, led or was part of almost 600 delegations and in this capacity accumulated 2.6 million air miles. More precisely, I would have saved up by flying only on scheduled planes. But he flew on both special flights and military aircraft.
The development of the European Union always means overcoming the resistance of the 27 member countries, which, having shared part of their sovereignty with the organization, are reluctant to give it up in practice, especially in such areas as foreign policy and defense. Foreign ministers of major countries are jealous of the growing influence of Brussels, where the EU is headquartered.
There were moments when Solana, in an open manner unusual for him (apparently, when they were really getting fed up), confronted the capitals, without calling them by name, and called on them to refrain from excessive initiative. This also happened in the energy field, when Berlin, Rome and some others tried to provide their companies with privileged relations with the Russian Gazprom. He very often acted against the interests of individual EU countries.
Solana's achievements were most often learned in retrospect. In 2001, after the terrorist attack in the Tel Aviv nightclub Dolphinarium, he managed to convince then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to refrain from a forceful response to the Palestinians. This pause was enough to agree on a new truce with the now deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Or, for example, Solana’s call to Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin in 2003. It turns out that it was Solana who dissuaded Chisinau from signing the “Kozak memorandum” developed by Moscow on the Transnistrian settlement. As Russia’s permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said in a conversation with journalists, “Putin’s plane was already steaming on the runway (to fly to the Moldovan capital to sign the agreement - Ed.) when this news came.”
Solana began working in the EU structure when the European Commission played a major role in it. She managed the Union budget and had a European Commissioner for External Relations and a European Commissioner for Development. They oversaw the EU's relations with the USA, Russia, China and other countries. He had to find his niche, often competing with commissioners. Moreover, they had a clear head start: the European Commission controlled the EU budget and could finance some kind of cooperation program and provide humanitarian aid. Solana only had a budget for the apparatus, salary and travel expenses.
To finance peacekeeping operations and observation missions, which were subordinate to Solana, it was necessary to request money on a case-by-case basis from the Council of the EU and the European Parliament. According to the former European commissioner, and now the rector of the University of Oxford, Christopher Patten, it is unlikely that anyone else could have worked better in the given circumstances. Solana’s successor, Baroness 53-year-old Catherine Ashton, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, will immediately receive much more powers and, as deputy chairman of the European Commission, will manage the Union budget. It is already known that, as the second person in the European Union, she is entitled to a salary of about 200 thousand euros per year. And a solid budget of over 7 million euros has been approved for the maintenance of her office. Both of these figures exceed both the former budget and Solana's salary.
Javier Solana has charisma, resourcefulness, and a focus on winning the trust of difficult interlocutors in the Balkans, the post-Soviet space and the Near and Middle East. At 67, he is accustomed to sleeping five hours a night and, when circumstances permit, going for morning runs in Brussels' 50th Anniversary of Belgium park, three hundred meters from the Council of the EU. By the way, he held his “walk” yesterday in this park, or rather, under the arches of the automobile museum, inviting politicians, officials, diplomats, and journalists there. Everyone he personally encountered at work in the European Union, including the author of Vremya Novostei.
After leaving the post of High Representative, Javier Solana will still “participate in international mediation efforts” and “travel a lot around the world,” this was confirmed to VN in his office. His entourage refuses to comment on rumors about lucrative positions offered to him in transnational corporations. And he himself, in a conversation with VN, said that he does not yet want to disclose the details of his future employment: “But you can be sure that I will continue to actively participate in all the affairs that I have been involved in so far. I'm not ready to retire yet!”
The author of these lines met Solana when in 1995, after becoming NATO Secretary General, he invited a dozen accredited journalists to lunch. Like his predecessors Manfred Werner and Willi Claes, he was eager to “give a new start” to the Alliance’s relations with Russia. After that lunch, we talked for a long time in his office more than once. He talked with admiration about his vacation in Russia, where he went with his wife and two children. He also talked about “his” places in his native Madrid, although, by the way, he never fulfilled his promise to show them.
A dandy who changed fashionable ties every day... A gourmand who ordered the best serrano jamon for a reception and selected the wines himself, not only Spanish Rioja, but also French Saint-Emilion from Bordeaux. The very arrival of this man to NATO was unexpected. Back in the 1980s, as an activist of the Socialist Workers' Party, he led demonstrations in Spain against the country's entry into NATO (it did join NATO in 1982). He was the author of the sensational text “50 Reasons to Say No to NATO” and even ended up on the American list of “subversive elements.”
Probably the biggest test for him was to announce in 1999, already as the secretary general of the alliance, the decision to bomb Yugoslavia. You should have seen him at that moment. But he was the Secretary General of NATO, where decisions are made unanimously by all members of the alliance. And they decided that they had already given the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic every chance to politically resolve the Kosovo problem, but he does not understand any other language other than force. Maybe that stress caused the illness...
Those who do not know Javier Solana were shocked or amused by his habits and temperamental traits. The world press saw a photo from behind, in which Solana lightly hugs the then American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, around the waist. The author of these lines is accustomed to the fact that Solana pats him on the shoulders when they meet. He patted the correspondent of the Russian NTV channel Dima Khavin (our colleague, unfortunately, died in 2007) on the cheeks, admiring the “roundness of Dimitri.” In October of this year, when signing a historic agreement on normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia, he also patted Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on the cheeks, which almost caused a diplomatic scandal. In Armenia they did not understand this.
In recent years, Solana has become haggard, noticeably bald, and began to remain silent at joint press conferences with colleagues. His flushed face and unsteady gait gave rise to offensive comments from journalists who were strangers to the European kitchen, suspecting him of being overly addicted to wine.
European human rights activists are ready to forgive him for the bombing of Yugoslavia. And even supporting the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a mistake related to his personal friendship with then US Secretary of State Colin Powell. But both the human rights organization Amnesty International and many members of the European Parliament reproach him for the fact that, while immersed in the Middle East settlement and the Iranian nuclear program, he did not pay due attention to human rights problems in Russia and China. They see this as “excessive pragmatism.” However, to most of those who have interacted with Solana, he appears to be a "worthy man" with a "strong moral position." He could, for example, give an empty complimentary speech before a decisive diplomatic meeting. But he became unyielding and tough as soon as the doors of the meeting room closed behind the journalists.