European unity is particularly hard to maintain in the face of external pressure. The latest example: French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who is currently in the EU Presidency as well, proposed a moratorium on the installation of the U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. His proposal, unsurprisingly, emerged during a press conference with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev following an EU-Russia summit meeting.
Presumably Medvedev was pleased; the Czechs and Poles were not. They reminded Sarkozy that (1) the agreement is between them and the United States; neither France nor the EU is a signatory; and (2) as recently as last spring, France had joined a NATO consensus in favor of the system.
In August the Russians threatened to use nuclear weapons against Poland if it deployed the system; later they announced they were installing missiles aimed at Poland in Kaliningrad. The Russian pressure at the Russia-EU summit seems to be aimed at Europe, but it is also directed at President-elect Obama, who in the past has expressed doubts about the technical capabilities of the new missile defense system.
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