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Chirac on the lose again
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| trancaholic |
From the Financial Times
| quote: | Blair at odds with EU states on rebate
France and Germany stepped up demands on Friday for Britain to review its European Union rebate but Tony Blair, UK prime minister, indicated that this would only happen as part of a root and branch reform of the EU�s finances.
Jacques Chirac, French president, said he and Gerhard Schr�der, the German chancellor, had agreed a joint position during talks in Paris on Friday, and reiterated that Paris was not prepared to give up farm subsidies which it receives from Brussels.
�Our British friends must be aware of how things are changing and therefore of the necessity of a greater fairness in the burden carried by each (member),� Mr Chirac told a news conference with Mr Schr�der.
Mr Schr�der echoed the appeal, saying that reviewing one�s position had to be �a part of working together for Europe,�� and that he had the hope and expectation that �our friends in the UK share this view.��
Mr Blair said in London earlier, however, that �If you have a fundamental review of how Europe spends its money, then of course everything then is open to debate. What is not open to debate is a situation where you go back to Britain being penalised.��
The rebate was there for a reason, he said, to correct �what would otherwise be a quite unfair distribution of European money�.
�That unfairness arises because of the concentration of what is now still 40 per cent of the European budget on the agriculture policy of Europe, when that is 5 per cent of the population, less than 2 per cent of the output.�
Tony Blair had clashed openly with Mr Chirac on Thursday after he flatly rejected a public plea from the French president to compromise. Mr urged Mr Blair to back a deal under which the �4.6bn (�3.1bn) �British cheque� would be frozen, �as a gesture of solidarity for Europe�.
Mr Blair reacted coolly, saying: �Britain has been making a gesture, because over the past 10 years, even with the British rebate, we have been making a contribution into Europe two-and-a-half times that of France.
�Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France. That is our gesture.�
Mr Chirac has refused to accept a reduction of direct aid to French farmers, an important British demand.
The rebate, won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, moved centre stage on Thursday as EU leaders prepared for a summit next week where they are due to discuss Luxembourg's proposals for future funding.
With pressure mounting on Britain to give ground, senior ministers have begun preparing for a showdown as Mr Blair faces isolation at the summit.
Italy, a close ally in the EU, also called for �a radical revision� of the rebate.
At a private meeting in Downing Street, Mr Blair, Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Douglas Alexander, Europe minister, agreed to make what one Whitehall official predicted would be �a more bullish and less defensive� case for the rebate.
The prime minister will have been stung by Thursday�s attack by Silvio Berlusconi, Italian premier, one of his closest allies and personal friends in Europe. |
Seriously, can anybody who's not French nor Gerhard Schroeder have anything but contempt for Chirac? Not two weeks (11 days ffs!) after having caused troubles for the EU due to his obnoxious pride, he's doing it again. It appears to me that he has no concept of shame, but then again it seems as if the remaining EU members are backing Chirac on this.:conf: |
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| St_Andrew |
I really hope Blair is not giving up on this one. Personally im not a fan of britains rebate, nor CAP, but if the UK is willing to give it up for reforms in CAP, then this might be a really good thing, get rid of two really bad (actually only one really bad) things about the EU :)
anyway about chirac, he is a shame!
I also think this is higly ironic:
| quote: | | �Our British friends must be aware of how things are changing and therefore of the necessity of a greater fairness in the burden carried by each (member),� |
Who is not moving with the change?! |
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| TheNobleEu |
| quote: | Treat the other side's arguments with contempt.
You present your own, of course, as gospel. Thus, the French see nothing but good in the common agriculture policy and the British see nothing but bad. The same is true with the rebate. You must never concede that the other fellow might have a point. Not in public anyway. |
lol
Now, here's the really good part:
| quote: | 1066 and all that
Until we get to the common ancestor, William the Conqueror.
And there one pauses, because then it becomes clear that all these arguments are a bit silly, really.
All you have to do is to look at the inscription on the British memorial near Caen, put up after World War II.
The original is in Latin but it translates as: "We the sons of William have returned to free his native land."
That lends all this stuff about the EU a bit of perspective. |
The irony of that...
Cheers,
-Noble |
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| trancaholic |
...and the great diplomat strikes again:
| quote: | Chirac mocks Britain for mad cow, bad food
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac cracked jokes to Russian and German leaders about bad British food and mad cow disease, Liberation said on Monday, revealing comments that could further strain Anglo-French relations.
The French daily said Chirac was overheard making a series of jokes at Britain's expense to Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on the sidelines of a meeting on Sunday in Kaliningrad, Russia.
"The only thing they (the English) have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow," Chirac quipped, according to the paper, prompting laughter from Schroeder and Putin.
When asked about Chirac's reported comments on Monday, French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told reporters: "I have nothing particular to say".
Relations between France and Britain were already at a low point, with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chirac blaming each other for the failure of June talks on the European Union's long-term budget talks.
Blair, who took over the EU presidency last week, has particularly irked Paris with his drive to cut EU farm subsidies that mainly benefit France.
Chirac took the opportunity of a receptive audience to snipe at British food. "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that," he joked, the paper said.
"After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."
He then told Putin and Schroeder how former NATO Secretary General George Robertson, a Scot, had made him try an unappetizing Scottish dish.
"That's where our problems with NATO come from," he said.
The race between Paris and London to host the 2012 Olympic games is further testing relations. Blair wrote in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune newspaper on Monday that London was the "perfect venue" for the games.
In Singapore, where the choice of venue will be announced on Wednesday, Anglo-French tensions threatened to boil over on Monday after a delegate linked to London's bid said the Stade de France was not ideal for athletics.
IOC guidelines caution against candidate cities commenting on rivals facilities or bids but the Paris delegation decided against making a formal complaint.
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from Reuters
I'm speechless. |
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| sector.30 |
| quote: | Originally posted by trancaholic
...and the great diplomat strikes again:
from Reuters
I'm speechless. |
Two days before the IOC members vote on the location for the 2012 Olympics for which Paris and London are the front-runners, smooth Jacques, smooth. |
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