President Bush's "Greater Middle East" proposal is an EU plan, with a US label. Here's why I say this: Last October I wrote a commentary I believe may be relevant enough to post in its entirety.
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They're calling it their "wider Middle East" policy. And what it means is what I've been expecting. The European Union will help the United States in Iraq, but they have their price. The EU wants a bigger piece of the Middle East pie. 

On Saturday the EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss their new wider Middle East Common Foreign and Security Policy with their High Representative, Javier Solana. It seems Solana and his "core" group of EU heads want to combine the conflicts in the region into one single foreign policy strategy. In other words, if the US wants the EU to scratch its back, the US will have to scratched the EU's back too. 

Here's how the deal is being presented: The US is asking the EU to provide both financial and military support for Iraq. The person who holds the purse strings in the EU is external affairs commissioner Chris Patten. So Patten, apparently working closely with Solana and his 10 core nations, made it clear at this meeting the EU's support will be tied directly to Washington's willingness to meet certain EU demands. 

Patten put it this way: 

The main thing we've been discussing isn't a conditionally, it's the means which we think would be most likely to maximize contributions not just from Europe but international donors as a whole. We've been discussing with others for some time, in what is called the "core group," the establishment of a multilateral independent trust fund, working separately from the development fund for Iraq [run by coalition authority], but obviously closely coordinated with it. 

But Chris Patten's voice isn't the only one we're hearing coming from this meeting. According to the report, Javier Solana also spoke his mind. And, guess what? Solana's mind was on the Middle East peace process. 

This appears to be the bottom line -- and, it's as I thought: The EU will help the US in Iraq, but for a price. And, an important part of that price will be to allow Javier Solana to have a greater role in the Middle East peace process Read it here.

Well, President Bush just gave his State of the Union speech. And, guess what? He's proposing a massive effort to bring peace and democracy to the Middle East. But instead of calling it Solana's "Wider Middle East," he's calling it his "Greater Middle East." Here is some of what Bush said:

As long as the Middle East remains a place of tyranny, despair and anger, it will continue to produce men and movements that threaten the safety of America and our friends. So America is pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the greater Middle East. We will challenge the enemies of reform, confront the allies of terror, and expect a higher standard from our friends. To cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian - and soon, a new television service will begin providing reliable news and information across the region. I will send you a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of free elections, free markets, free press and free labor unions in the Middle East. And above all, we will finish the historic work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light the way for others, and help transform a troubled part of the world Read about it here.

Do we need more proof this is really Solana's "Wider Middle East" plan? Let's look once again at that report I posted yesterday. Speaking about an American official in Brussels, Reuters reported: 

He said Washington wanted to build on the EU's existing Euro- Mediterranean dialogue -- known as the Barcelona process -- which offers North African and East Mediterranean partner states trade and aid benefits in return for economic and political cooperation and reform Read about it here.

There we have it. Bush's "Greater Middle East" is really Solana's "Wider Middle East." As you may know, Solana negotiated the Barcelona agreement back in 1995. Now it looks like Solana's plan will become the framework for the new Middle East the Western powers want to create. And speaking of Solana, the same Reuters report said:

We have had the Barcelona process for a long time. We have to find ways of broadening the Barcelona process and finding mechanisms for including other countries," a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Reuters.

The fact is, Solana's Barcelona proccess has always been potentially a global process. And, as you know, part of the new Solana Doctrine the EU recently adopted is to create a new international order.

Like I said, I think a deal may have been cut between the EU and the US. And although Bush's "Greater Middle East" proposal has a made in USA label, it's an EU plan.

It's Solana's plan.