Europe Blames U.S. MD & Environmental Policy

George W. Bush launched out his first official visit to Europe yesterday.

This visit is expected to be a verifying period of the new foreign policies of the U.S. and the diplomatic capability of the new U.S. President, who will have summit talks with the leaders of NATO and EU, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. His visit is expected to encounter with the newspapers covered with the blames and the streets covered with the demonstrators against him, who had stood for the death penalty and had driven to the MD system but had stood against the Kyoto Protocol to control the gas emission.

In Madrid, Spain, which is the Bush`s first stop, thousands of the NGO members gathered yesterday in front of the U.S. embassy in Spain to protest against the death execution of McVeigh, who had bombed a federal building in Oklahoma 5 years ago.

EU members has opposed the death execution of McVeigh, accusing it as a revenge by the government but Bush supported the execution, saying ``The death execution is the realization of the justice.``

Bush has been blamed that he approved 152 executions of the death sentence while he was a Texas governor. German government has officially expressed its opposition to the death penalty. The Council of EU and the Amnesty International have also blamed Bush for his support for the death penalty system.

The members of NGOs including Greenpeace continued their demonstrations against Bush, hanging banners which read `Stop Bush, Preserve the Earth` in front of the U.S. embassy in Brussels, Belgium. They criticized that the Bush administration is reversing the armament reduction and has been forcing the U.S. centered globalization.

In particular, Jacques Chirac yesterday urged the solidarity of the European leaders to support the Kyoto Protocol, which Bush had opposed to.

The German and French newspapers published the criticisms against the Bush`s conservative policies and the Zeitung in particular called Bush as a bully.

Meanwhile, Bush addressed at a press meeting before his departure to Madrid that he will perform a `leading role` in the establishment of the countermeasure for the green house effect of the Earth with the friendly nations. He said that the U.S. government would support 25 million dollars for the development of the new technology of gas reduction.

However, Bush re-affirmed that he refused the Kyoto Protocol, which seems to him unrealistic to regulate the amount of CO2 emission.

Bush also emphasized at an interview with the Le Figaro on June 11 that he visits the European countries to explain the cause of the MD system to the leaders of Russia and the Europe.

Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, stated that EU will honestly discuss with Bush the problems of the green house effect of the Earth. And EU hopes, Prodi said, that Bush would not fall into the excessive protectionism and the self-complacency.

Kwon Ki-Tae kkt@donga.com