By Shang Xuqian     

    BRUSSELS, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- It is not a surprise that Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union (EU), has been named the winner of the 2007 Charlemagne Prize.

    EU's diplomacy in the past year became the focus of global attention at certain points. Solana has become the face of the 25-nation bloc -- at least in Asia, according to a study funded bythe Asia-Europe Foundation.

    The Charlemagne Prize organizers were not exaggerating when they said Solana was one of the hardest-working EU officials: he had to fight on two major fronts at the same time this year -- the Middle East and Iran's nuclear program.

    The biggest challenge to EU's Middle East policy came at the beginning of the year when the Islamic Resistant Movement (Hamas) won parliamentary elections in Palestinian territories in January.

    Hamas' surprising victory, indeed, sent shockwaves to Tel Aviv and Washington as well. But Brussels found itself in a more difficult situation, although all the three parties have Hamas on their lists of terrorist organizations.

    Both Israel and the United States were able to react with hardline and quickly cut their financial links -- if there were any.

    But the EU had to walk the tightrope as it was the biggest international donor to the Palestines and in a sense a lifeline of the Palestinian government.

    The EU, therefore, had to continue to provide money. But the difficulty was, how.

    In the past few years, the EU and its individual member states had provided about 500 million euros (650 million U.S. dollars) per year, with a significant part of the aid through Palestinian governments at different levels.

    With a Hamas-led government installed in March, the EU had to stop channelling money through the government.

    With enormous efforts, the EU came up with a so-called Temporary International Mechanism in June, giving leeway to itself for the time being.

    The EU encouraged talks between Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas over the establishment of a government of national unity. But the situation remains complicated partly because of Israeli violence in the Palestinian territories.

    For the EU, the ordeal is far from being over.

    The EU's negotiations with Iran over Tehran's nuclear program in the past year were an even bigger challenge to Europe's diplomacy.

    Like in the Middle East, the crisis started at the beginning of the year, with Tehran announcing the resumption of research on nuclear material.

    The EU angrily suspended negotiations with Iran and sought to punish Tehran by bringing the issue to the UN Security Council, which has the right to impose sanctions.

    But the hardline approach of the EU and threats of the United States failed to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear know-how. On the contrary, Tehran speeded up uranium enrichment by installing more centrifuges in its nuclear facility, said a report of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in March.

    Uranium enrichment is an advanced step in the nuclear fuel cycle, which may lead to the production of atomic bombs.

    The United States and the EU believe that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons. Iran denies that.

    The EU backed off from its hardline position in May when its foreign ministers said the EU would draw up a new package of incentives for Iran.

    The EU's reconciliatory approach was boosted by Washington's announcement on May 31 that it agreed to participate in direct talks with Iran if the latter suspends uranium enrichment.

    The EU3 -- Britain, France, Germany -- which have been talking to Iran on behalf of the bloc since 2003, together with China, Russia and the United States, proposed a comprehensive package to Iran in June.

    The United States and the EU pushed for a prompt response from Iran. At the same time, the UN Security Council ordered Iran to suspend uranium enrichment by Aug. 31. Iran did not respond to thesix-nation proposal until late August and ignored the Security Council deadline.

    The United States and EU, disappointed at Tehran, sought another UN Security Council resolution that would impose sanctionson Iran, but met strong opposition from Russia, a permanent memberof the Security Council with veto power.

    The Europeans have just distributed a revised draft of the resolution, which toned down rhetoric over sanctions. The fate of the draft resolution remains uncertain.

    Despite the lack of progress, EU diplomacy in the past year has at least prevented a showdown between Iran and the international community. This, itself, is commendable.

    With Solana at the helm, EU's diplomacy is making the bloc, which had been seen as an economic community, increasingly political, according to the study sponsored by the Asia-Europe Foundation.