The External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, has warned that the EU could refuse to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq if the United States launches a war without explicit United Nations approval.
Mr Patten told the European Parliament that although the EU had set aside funds for humanitarian assistance in Iraq, further help could be in doubt if the US takes unilateral action.
"It will be very difficult in any circumstances to launch massive new programmes in Iraq and in the neighbourhood of Iraq. But it will be that much more difficult for the EU to co-operate fully and on a large scale also in the longer-term reconstruction process if events unfold without proper UN cover and if the member-states remain divided," he said.
Mr Patten said that divisions over Iraq within the EU represented a "severe setback" for the effort to create a common foreign and security policy. But he suggested that the crisis should encourage EU leaders to work harder at forging a common approach to foreign policy.
"As we return to the work, we shall find, perhaps, a little more humility even among the large member-states who can surely see how much they have damaged their common enterprise and how much they have reduced their common influence as a result of public squabbling," he said. Mr Patten said that even if a war in Iraq was brief, it was essential that in its aftermath, the international community should turn immediately to the task of reviving the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. A further year of violence in Palestine and Israel would inflame opinion in the Islamic world and fuel terrorism.
"To defeat terrorism, it is said by some to be necessary to defeat Saddam Hussein. That may or may not be true; some of us are at the very least agnostic on that point. But what I am absolutely sure about is that to invade Iraq while failing to bring peace to the Middle East would create exactly the sort of conditions in which terrorism would be likely to thrive," he said.
Mr Patten was speaking during a European Parliament debate which saw sharp criticism of US policy towards Iraq.
The leader of the Socialist group, Mr Enrique Baron Crespo, was among a number of speakers who stressed that no war should proceed without a new UN Security Council resolution.
"Unilateral action would be a violation of the charter of the United Nations. An attack under these conditions would create fertile ground for international terrorism," he said.
The debate came as Greece, which holds the EU presidency, suggested that next week's meeting of EU leaders in Brussels could be dominated by Iraq rather than by the economic issues which dominate the official agenda.
Earlier, the president of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, said that although the Government's decision to allow US troops to use Shannon Airport was valid, a review of the policy might be appropriate if the US attacked Iraq without UN approval. "If the US decides to take unilateral action against Iraq, as a member of the United Nations Ireland should have the option of looking at the question again," he said.
