EU President Mr Goran Persson has called for a strong Europe to balance USworld domination ahead of today’s arrival of Mr George W. Bush at the EU leaders’ summit.
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Mr Goran Persson
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The statement by the Swedish prime minister may temper the optimism of US officials who felt President Bush had safely negotiated his position on arms at his meeting with NATO leaders yesterday.
Mr Bush said he had allayed the concern of some NATO leaders about his controversial missile defence plans and was pleased with responses to his calls for a radical rethink of global security strategy.
While Mr Bush was talking in Brussels, Mr Persson was quoting communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin to environmental and anti-globalisation protesters and urging them not to disrupt the meetings in Gothenburg over anger at Bush's policies.
"It's [the EU] one of the few institutions we can develop as a balance to US world domination," MrPersson told protest leaders.
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"I'm not a fanatical supporter of the EU. I never have been. But that's what we have got and we have to make use of."
Addressing their worries that the 15-member EU is serving international business rather than the needs of ordinary people, Persson said the EU should also be developed to help balance the power of world capital .
Police expect between 10,000 and 25,000 protesters from anti-EU, anti-US and anti-globalisation organisations to converge on Gothenburg. Some protesters have threatened to storm the conference centre.
A Swedish newspaper reported police in Gothenburg had seized an improvised grenade launcher and arrested five Danes, including a woman with press accreditation for the summit.
TheEU leaders willmeet Mr Bush this eveningand hold their own summit tomorrow and Saturday. They willdiscuss issues including membership for the12 applicant states and Ireland’s rejection of the Nice Treaty.