Old Europe? Very new Europe soon
Nov. 24th, 2003 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sombrefanCourse the big story thats not really being reported is the rumours about the proposed Franco-German political union. It'll be a whole new ball game if there's a new superstate in Europe. The Brits don't want it and I'm damn sure Bush won't like it either.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-904653,00.html
Franco-German union spreads alarm
Matthew Campbell, Paris
BRITAIN will tomorrow challenge France over evidence that it has been contemplating a federal union with Germany to continue holding sway over Europe after the European Union's expansion to 25 members next year.
Reports of a Franco-German union being planned in Paris and Berlin to bolster their power in the EU have baffled and irritated the rest of Europe. Tony Blair will take Jacques Chirac, the French president, to task over the issue at their annual summit in London tomorrow.
The notion of a political marriage between France and Germany has fuelled anxiety in Britain and other EU countries about being left behind in a "two-speed" Europe. The concerns were compounded this weekend by a Belgian plan for an integrationist pact among "hard-core" euro-enthusiasts. Plans being discussed by Paris officials for joint defence and foreign policy-making with Berlin — and even for Germany to share France's permanent seat on the United Nations security council — left British officials incredulous. "It is not a vision we believe could become a reality," said one. "President Chirac will have some explaining to do."
The Elysée Palace has tried to distance itself from what some commentators interpreted as an attempt by Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, to pressurise European neighbours into being more conciliatory over the text of a European constitution. France hopes the text will be adopted without changes at a summit in Brussels next month.
It seems a forlorn hope. A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Naples this Friday is expected to end in deadlock, with various countries pressing for fundamental changes to the text drafted by ValŽry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, and hailed by France and Germany as a blueprint for greater European integration.
However, Europe has changed since the early planning of the expansion, which will culminate in May with the swearing-in of 10 new members. In recent months Iraq has driven a wedge between what Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, dismissed as the "old Europe" of Germany and France, which opposed the war to topple Saddam Hussein, and new members such as Poland which, after decades of Soviet domination, are wary of centralised authority.
They resent efforts by the Franco-German club to bully them into submission — Gerhard Schršder, the German chancellor, has threatened countries blocking the constitution with "undesired" financial effects — and the "Atlanticist" European wing is mobilising for battle.
Poland and Spain, whose governments supported the war in Iraq, are opposing a draft constitutional provision that would limit their voting powers. Britain has weighed in on their side in the hope that they will help to dilute any commitment to a European military planning capability independent of Nato, a proposal that is frowned upon by the White House.
To federalist-minded countries, the prospect of the constitution being torpedoed by tiny new members such as Slovenia and Malta makes a mockery of the European ideal. Taking his cue, perhaps, from the French debate about union with Germany, Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, is proposing a separate pact among "hard-core believers".
The agreement, covering issues such as the harmonisation of taxes, would be independent of any deal on the constitution and would be open to any EU members. "Those who want to go faster than the others must be allowed to, as they were with the euro, without being held back by the rest," said a spokesman for Verhofstadt.
Whether or not Chirac embraces the dream of a FrancoGerman superstate as a counterweight to American power, he will urge Blair tomorrow not to hold up approval of the constitution. He is expected to argue that it is in Britain's interests to be at the heart of Europe instead of "clinging to America's coat-tails", as one French diplomat put it.
"The British must choose," the official added. "Either they are with us, united in Europe where they should be, or they are destined to become united with America, something like an American state."
The French, whose relations with America have been damaged over their efforts to block the invasion of Iraq, have said repeatedly that an integrated European defence structure, one of the cornerstones of federalist thinking, would be weak without Britain. They have not abandoned the hope of winning over Blair.
At the same time, the Franco-German love affair has been intensifying all year. Although the ElysŽe last week insisted that "the concept of Franco-German union is not part of our discussions", the topic was raised by de Villepin in a speech in which he called union with Germany as "the one historic challenge we cannot lose".
Then up sprang Pascal Lamy, one of France's EU commissioners, who enthused that "a Franco-German parliament could focus on whatever the EU and the German regional parliaments do not cover".
He even suggested a merging of armies, at which point Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, chimed in. "If the Europe of 25 fails," he said, "what is left for France? Just the Franco-German rapprochement."
The notion of unity overcoming the wounds of war is derived from the Elysée treaty of 1963 in which the two countries formalised their friendship.
Chirac and Schršder celebrated the 40th anniversary of the treaty earlier this year by proposing common cabinet meetings, joint embassies abroad and even joint citizenship for French and Germans with a common passport. A joint session of the German and French parliaments was held at the Palace of Versailles.
Last month Schršder made the symbolic gesture of asking Chirac to represent him at a Brussels summit after he had to leave for Berlin: personal relations between the two leaders have warmed considerably and scarcely a day passes when they do not talk on the telephone. When Chirac arrived at a Berlin summit in September he stretched out his arms to
Schršder, exclaiming in German, "I'm back."
Things are far less relaxed with Blair and the last annual summit had to be postponed after a tiff over agricultural policy between the two leaders in which Chirac complained: "I have never before been spoken to like that."
Disagreement over Iraq has deepened the frost and Britain is not expecting any help in Baghdad from Chirac, who feels that his opposition to the war was vindicated by America's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In which case this latest exercise in cross-Channel diplomacy may leave Blair feeling lonelier than ever in Europe.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-904653,00.html
Franco-German union spreads alarm
Matthew Campbell, Paris
BRITAIN will tomorrow challenge France over evidence that it has been contemplating a federal union with Germany to continue holding sway over Europe after the European Union's expansion to 25 members next year.
Reports of a Franco-German union being planned in Paris and Berlin to bolster their power in the EU have baffled and irritated the rest of Europe. Tony Blair will take Jacques Chirac, the French president, to task over the issue at their annual summit in London tomorrow.
The notion of a political marriage between France and Germany has fuelled anxiety in Britain and other EU countries about being left behind in a "two-speed" Europe. The concerns were compounded this weekend by a Belgian plan for an integrationist pact among "hard-core" euro-enthusiasts. Plans being discussed by Paris officials for joint defence and foreign policy-making with Berlin — and even for Germany to share France's permanent seat on the United Nations security council — left British officials incredulous. "It is not a vision we believe could become a reality," said one. "President Chirac will have some explaining to do."
The Elysée Palace has tried to distance itself from what some commentators interpreted as an attempt by Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, to pressurise European neighbours into being more conciliatory over the text of a European constitution. France hopes the text will be adopted without changes at a summit in Brussels next month.
It seems a forlorn hope. A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Naples this Friday is expected to end in deadlock, with various countries pressing for fundamental changes to the text drafted by ValŽry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, and hailed by France and Germany as a blueprint for greater European integration.
However, Europe has changed since the early planning of the expansion, which will culminate in May with the swearing-in of 10 new members. In recent months Iraq has driven a wedge between what Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, dismissed as the "old Europe" of Germany and France, which opposed the war to topple Saddam Hussein, and new members such as Poland which, after decades of Soviet domination, are wary of centralised authority.
They resent efforts by the Franco-German club to bully them into submission — Gerhard Schršder, the German chancellor, has threatened countries blocking the constitution with "undesired" financial effects — and the "Atlanticist" European wing is mobilising for battle.
Poland and Spain, whose governments supported the war in Iraq, are opposing a draft constitutional provision that would limit their voting powers. Britain has weighed in on their side in the hope that they will help to dilute any commitment to a European military planning capability independent of Nato, a proposal that is frowned upon by the White House.
To federalist-minded countries, the prospect of the constitution being torpedoed by tiny new members such as Slovenia and Malta makes a mockery of the European ideal. Taking his cue, perhaps, from the French debate about union with Germany, Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, is proposing a separate pact among "hard-core believers".
The agreement, covering issues such as the harmonisation of taxes, would be independent of any deal on the constitution and would be open to any EU members. "Those who want to go faster than the others must be allowed to, as they were with the euro, without being held back by the rest," said a spokesman for Verhofstadt.
Whether or not Chirac embraces the dream of a FrancoGerman superstate as a counterweight to American power, he will urge Blair tomorrow not to hold up approval of the constitution. He is expected to argue that it is in Britain's interests to be at the heart of Europe instead of "clinging to America's coat-tails", as one French diplomat put it.
"The British must choose," the official added. "Either they are with us, united in Europe where they should be, or they are destined to become united with America, something like an American state."
The French, whose relations with America have been damaged over their efforts to block the invasion of Iraq, have said repeatedly that an integrated European defence structure, one of the cornerstones of federalist thinking, would be weak without Britain. They have not abandoned the hope of winning over Blair.
At the same time, the Franco-German love affair has been intensifying all year. Although the ElysŽe last week insisted that "the concept of Franco-German union is not part of our discussions", the topic was raised by de Villepin in a speech in which he called union with Germany as "the one historic challenge we cannot lose".
Then up sprang Pascal Lamy, one of France's EU commissioners, who enthused that "a Franco-German parliament could focus on whatever the EU and the German regional parliaments do not cover".
He even suggested a merging of armies, at which point Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, chimed in. "If the Europe of 25 fails," he said, "what is left for France? Just the Franco-German rapprochement."
The notion of unity overcoming the wounds of war is derived from the Elysée treaty of 1963 in which the two countries formalised their friendship.
Chirac and Schršder celebrated the 40th anniversary of the treaty earlier this year by proposing common cabinet meetings, joint embassies abroad and even joint citizenship for French and Germans with a common passport. A joint session of the German and French parliaments was held at the Palace of Versailles.
Last month Schršder made the symbolic gesture of asking Chirac to represent him at a Brussels summit after he had to leave for Berlin: personal relations between the two leaders have warmed considerably and scarcely a day passes when they do not talk on the telephone. When Chirac arrived at a Berlin summit in September he stretched out his arms to
Schršder, exclaiming in German, "I'm back."
Things are far less relaxed with Blair and the last annual summit had to be postponed after a tiff over agricultural policy between the two leaders in which Chirac complained: "I have never before been spoken to like that."
Disagreement over Iraq has deepened the frost and Britain is not expecting any help in Baghdad from Chirac, who feels that his opposition to the war was vindicated by America's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In which case this latest exercise in cross-Channel diplomacy may leave Blair feeling lonelier than ever in Europe.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Hm.
Date: 2003-11-24 01:21 pm (UTC)Whatever the case, I hope that it does not come to pass...It gives me odd tidings of a new conglomerate state like the USSR only moved a few longitude lines west. It probably wouldn't be as bad as the USSR, but if it does happen, what if other countries in Europe want to join up?