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 (Read about it here). 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 conditionality, 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.

Stay tuned!