WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- At its heart the European Union is a shifting pattern of ad hoc pacts and alliances between different countries based on the common interests and objectives of the moment. The combinations can be both complex and unlikely -- Poland and Spain holding up ratification of the European constitution over the new voting procedures which they feel favor the bigger countries.
The arrival of 10 new member states makes the game more complex, with hundreds more combinations possible. Will the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania -- operate instinctively as a bloc?
More intriguing is the case of Cyprus and Malta, two former British colonies. The Daily Telegraph observed recently that their admission means two votes in support of Britain in EU decisions, two voices in support of London's initiatives.
Or does it?
"Certainly Cyprus and Malta will be carefully watched for any trend in that direction," one European diplomat in Washington said Thursday. "But I'm sure that it will only happen when it is in their interest."
Both islands remain members of the British Commonwealth, and both combine a Mediterranean culture with a generous residue of British institutions and traditions. Malta, which became independent in 1964, remains officially bi-lingual. Laws can be drafted in either English or Maltese. The local television stations carries programs in both languages. The main currency denomination is the lira, but everyone calls it "pound." The island is a haven for British-made vintage cars, notably Morris Minors and Ford Anglias from the 1950s, which, lovingly cared for, manage to stay on the road.
Cyprus gained its independence in 1960 and was partitioned in 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the island to halt an attempted coup -- which some historians now say may not have been happening -- by Greek Cypriots wanting to annex the island to mainland Greece.
But its legal system is based on Britain's, including Cypriot company law. In addition, Cyprus, with its long and varied coastline and temperate climate, has long been a holiday destination for Brits. King Richard the Lionheart spent his honeymoon there in 1192.
Britain's other continued vested interest in Cyprus is more serious. Britain retains two large, fully manned British sovereign bases (juridically British territory) covering 250 square kilometers of land on the island's south coast as its forward strategic position on the edge of the Middle East. For the past year and more, the RAF Akrotiri air base has played a key role in British operations in Iraq.
At any given time, some 3,500 British servicemen and women are stationed in Cyprus. The bases make the British government an important employer in Greek Cyprus and a contributor to its economy.
When Cyprus and Malta began their first approaches to the EU in the late 1980s, Margaret Thatcher at first saw little value in adding the two Mediterranean islands to the union. She was not enthusiastic. Analysts saw this as her reluctance to accept two small ex-colonies as equals, and from all accounts it was partly that. Unlike the male politicians of her generation who had been in the military, Thatcher had never been posted to either Malta or Cyprus and knew little of them at first hand.
In Malta's case, her well-known coolness toward Catholicism was also a factor. She made no secret of the fact that she was not keen to add another southern Papist member to the European Union that would gang up with Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg against the northern Protestant bloc.
As far as Cyprus was concerned, a Greek Cypriot source said the British prime minister was reflecting the Reagan administration's concern that (1) Turkey should receive first consideration for EU membership, and (2) Cyprus should first be reunited. Her opposition relaxed somewhat after both governments lobbied her strongly. Queen Elizabeth II, said to be a strong Europeanist, argued Malta's case with the prime minister. President George Vassiliou of Cyprus went to see Thatcher, the Greek Cypriot source said, "and he worked on her a lot."
The source said it was Labor Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who advanced the cause of Cyprus and Malta in Brussels. "Cook was very supportive of Cypriot accession to the European Union," he recalled. The two islands were included in the 2004 enlargement along with eight eastern European and Baltic states.
Cook's successor, Jack Straw, maintained Britain's support. "The EU will be joined by two nations -- Cyprus and Malta -- which have long, historical links with the UK and are members of the (British) Commonwealth," Straw told the House of Commons recently. Their admission was supported, he said, "on a pragmatic assessment of our own national interest."
As British support continued, French reservations built up. Paris questioned the wisdom of admitting two small islands, particularly Malta, and for a while the French floated the idea of a form of secondary membership for aspiring smaller countries that could not -- in the EU's judgment -- meet the EU's economic and political criteria. In Germany, the support of Christian Democrat Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government became less so once Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder took over.
But Italy continued to back its neighbor Malta's application --and promptly recruited the island's support for a proposal from Pope John Paul II to include a reference to Christianity in the preamble of the new European draft constitution. Greece supported Greek Cyprus, no doubt also hoping for a potential ally in Brussels.
The skeptics feel the affinity with Britain can be overstated. They argue that Cyprus and Malta are as likely to refuse to support Britain in the European Union to emphasize their independence. But the result of nearly two centuries of influence sometimes emerges in strange, instinctive ways.
A Finnish diplomat recalls that when he was acting as mediator during one of the many rounds of talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, he asked a British colleague what he thought it would take to get the negotiators for the two sides to agree on anything at all. "Oh they won't agree," replied the British diplomat. "They're both British-trained lawyers."
