Suddeutsche Zeitung

THE GERMAN regional health ministers are right: The EU export ban on British beef was lifted too early. He has good relations with Germany, but these will be tested as our cautious plans to reform our forces do not match his.uLe MondeFranceWASHINGTON CHOSE George Robertson for three reasons: the force of the special relationship; the prominent role played by Tony Blair in the Balkans and the lack of credibility of the other candidates.(Marc Roche). We wish George good luck – because he’s a good guy.uFrankfurterRundschauGermanyTHE BRITISH were amazed that Germany turned down the highest civilian post in Nato Blair did not hesitate. Robertson will have to allay smaller members’ fears that his appointment will give the US too much influence.

The EU’s push for a common defence policy, with Nato’s blessing, is also seen by some as a possible attempt to weaken the ties between the US and Europe.uThe SunUKIT’S A tough job being the guardian of the free world in times of crisis But George Robertson is just the man to do it He won the respect of everyone during the Kosovo conflict From the top brass to the squaddies, they all admired him The world knows Robertson’s not to be messed with. The Kosovo conflict exposed a growing gap between European and American defence capabilities. Wall Street Journal

US
MR ROBERTSON’s main task at Nato will be to push European members to beef up their militaries. It is using it to take power, backed eventually by a police and national guard it alone will control … each day it is becoming dangerous to think and speak independently.”. Baton Haxhiu, editor of the Albanian-language newspaper Koha Ditore sums up the mood: “The only political group that has any structure is the KLA.

Parliamentary elections are due to be held sometime in the future, but Mr Kouchner cannot say when. They also control the petrol stations thus giving themselves enormous leverage in a land with acute fuel shortage.The KLA’s political opponents complain of mounting intimidation. Ministries have been formed, orders given out and carried out. Efficiently and ruthlessly, the KLA goes about its business of taking over towns and cities, collecting taxes, appointing officials to state enterprises and allocating seized Serbian (and sometimes Albanian) homes and businesses to their supporters. US officials have been increasingly vociferous about his slowness and, most worrying for Mr Kouchner, some of the most biting criticism comes from his own UN staff.While the UN and Western governments bicker and dither, the KLA has set up its own government under its leader Hashim Thaci Unlike the UN, their offices hum with activity. But there are others, and a growing number of doubters, beside the former Liberal Democrat leader. At the end it boiled down to a two-horse contest between Mr Ashdown and Mr Koushner, and Mr Ashdown lost out because there was already a Briton, Lt Gen Sir Mike Jackson, as the Nato commander in Kosovo.The French accused London of being too greedy.

Mr Ashdown, on a recent trip to Kosovo, declared some parts of the UN structure there to be “disastrously weak”, to which Mr Kouchner could say “he would say that wouldn’t he”. Tony Blair lobbied hard for Paddy Ashdown, a man who knows the Balkans and has visited the region regularly. There was also strong pressure to give the job to the Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari who had brokered the Kosovo peace deal, and there were also pitches for Italy’s acting European Commissioner Emma Bonino and Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister. One senior UN official described M Kouchner’s office as like being present at a perpetual royal audience, with the courtiers, a varied bunch of European visitors, among them a large French contingent, trooping in and out.