French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has told Britain that it must choose between either Europe or the United States.
Personally, I would prefer Britain to choose the United States. Britain has more in common with that country than our "allies" across the Channel.......
Ségolène urges Britain to choose between Europe and America
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, wants Britain to choose between being a "vassal" of the United States, and embracing a French-led drive for European integration (LOL!), her adviser on Europe has revealed.
Ségolène Royal had kept her EU policy under wraps
Throughout Miss Royal's spectacularly successful campaign to sew up the Socialist nomination, she kept the details of her EU policy under wraps for fear of reopening deep splits within her party.
However, in the hours after her victory on Thursday, Gilles Savary, a French MEP and her spokesman and foreign affairs adviser, spoke exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, revealing her EU policies in detail.
He set out a vision of an ambitious new EU treaty, replacing the EU constitution which has been in limbo since French and Dutch voters voted against it last summer.
Britain would be asked to sign up to the new treaty, but if it rejected calls for increased protectionism (a bad economic policy that Britain would never agree to), an EU foreign minister, convergence on tax rates and moves to create a European army, then France and her allies would agree a treaty among themselves, he said.
Tony Blair's successor as prime minister, whether Gordon Brown or David Cameron, now faces an inevitable crisis over Europe after France chooses its next leader in April.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-Right favourite for the presidency, recently set out his own plans for reviving Europe after the failed constitution, involving a "mini-treaty", extracting elements from the defunct text. Miss Royal, who has no foreign policy experience and has only ever held junior ministerial posts, will seek the immediate support of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for her plans, and believes Spain and Italy can also be signed up.
Although Miss Royal "does not want a two-speed Europe," Mr Savary said, he admitted her plans could lead to a "quartet" of nations leading the way, with others scrambling to catch up. He complained that Britain currently led an "ultra-Atlanticist" bloc within the EU.
"Great Britain is absolutely indispensable to the European Union. It is great nation, a global power. But the question the English have to answer is – do the English consider the English Channel to be wider than the Atlantic? We on the continent have the right to deplore the fact that Great Britain appears to consider the Channel is wider," he said.
Miss Royal was confident that "Europe can be relaunched with Germany, Italy and Spain. It is perfectly possible to have treaties within the treaty, among four nations," he said. "If other nations want to sign up, that's good. But we cannot have a Europe where one part goes to war in Iraq, another part does not, and we all end up paying the bill."
He demanded efforts to integrate foreign policy and cast that struggle in searingly anti-American tones. Mr Savary said: "The question that needs to be asked is – do we want to be vassals of the United States, do we want to be a 51st state?"
Miss Royal's vision was for a new treaty that would address citizens' demands for more protectionism in the face of competition from globalisation. "She believes, like all the French, that Europe should be more protective and should defend itself better," Mr Savary said.
Miss Royal saw the difficulty of achieving unanimous agreement among 25 EU nations, soon to rise to 27 next year, which was why she would first seek support from a hard core of countries. Mr Savary said the goals should include convergence of tax and social security systems and talks on a "European army" that would not replace national armies.
He said: "The discussion needs to be about what we can do together. What do we want to do? If Great Britain says no, it does not wish to do more together, then we will be obliged to open a dialogue with a group of countries."
david.rennie@telegraph.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
***********************************
We wonder, has M. Savary considered the cause of this width?
Is it perhaps that Britain and Britons see France as a shameless self-dealer, unreliable and obnoxious and corrupt? That France as a multipolar poseur is reckless and dangerous, ****less and incompetent? That France as a counterweight poseur is, well, a pantywaist? That French exceptionalism is seen as French privilege and French excuse-ism? That one quickly tires of French whining and whinging and pettiness? That a French-led anything quickly becomes a French-led disaster? And that in all of this, the French are always quick to blame someone else .
That Mlle. Royal in the person of M. Savary feels compelled to put an obnoxious French ultimatum to Britain -- in M. Savary's colorful B&W rhetoric -- speaks to the weakness of the French position and the historical predilections of Britain. Even were Britain disinclined to America, it would not be inclined to threats to be so disinclined -- most especially big airy threats from the most discombobulated nation on the continent.
Spain and Italy will not a greater France make. (Belgium will be heartbroken without so much as a mention here.) Mlle. Royal's big scheme is nothing without a German piggy bank and the credibility that Britain brings to French doings. Mlle. Royal takes for granted a center-right Germany will sign on.
pavefrance.com
Personally, I would prefer Britain to choose the United States. Britain has more in common with that country than our "allies" across the Channel.......
Ségolène urges Britain to choose between Europe and America
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, wants Britain to choose between being a "vassal" of the United States, and embracing a French-led drive for European integration (LOL!), her adviser on Europe has revealed.
Throughout Miss Royal's spectacularly successful campaign to sew up the Socialist nomination, she kept the details of her EU policy under wraps for fear of reopening deep splits within her party.
However, in the hours after her victory on Thursday, Gilles Savary, a French MEP and her spokesman and foreign affairs adviser, spoke exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, revealing her EU policies in detail.
He set out a vision of an ambitious new EU treaty, replacing the EU constitution which has been in limbo since French and Dutch voters voted against it last summer.
Britain would be asked to sign up to the new treaty, but if it rejected calls for increased protectionism (a bad economic policy that Britain would never agree to), an EU foreign minister, convergence on tax rates and moves to create a European army, then France and her allies would agree a treaty among themselves, he said.
Tony Blair's successor as prime minister, whether Gordon Brown or David Cameron, now faces an inevitable crisis over Europe after France chooses its next leader in April.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-Right favourite for the presidency, recently set out his own plans for reviving Europe after the failed constitution, involving a "mini-treaty", extracting elements from the defunct text. Miss Royal, who has no foreign policy experience and has only ever held junior ministerial posts, will seek the immediate support of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for her plans, and believes Spain and Italy can also be signed up.
Although Miss Royal "does not want a two-speed Europe," Mr Savary said, he admitted her plans could lead to a "quartet" of nations leading the way, with others scrambling to catch up. He complained that Britain currently led an "ultra-Atlanticist" bloc within the EU.
"Great Britain is absolutely indispensable to the European Union. It is great nation, a global power. But the question the English have to answer is – do the English consider the English Channel to be wider than the Atlantic? We on the continent have the right to deplore the fact that Great Britain appears to consider the Channel is wider," he said.
Miss Royal was confident that "Europe can be relaunched with Germany, Italy and Spain. It is perfectly possible to have treaties within the treaty, among four nations," he said. "If other nations want to sign up, that's good. But we cannot have a Europe where one part goes to war in Iraq, another part does not, and we all end up paying the bill."
He demanded efforts to integrate foreign policy and cast that struggle in searingly anti-American tones. Mr Savary said: "The question that needs to be asked is – do we want to be vassals of the United States, do we want to be a 51st state?"
Miss Royal's vision was for a new treaty that would address citizens' demands for more protectionism in the face of competition from globalisation. "She believes, like all the French, that Europe should be more protective and should defend itself better," Mr Savary said.
Miss Royal saw the difficulty of achieving unanimous agreement among 25 EU nations, soon to rise to 27 next year, which was why she would first seek support from a hard core of countries. Mr Savary said the goals should include convergence of tax and social security systems and talks on a "European army" that would not replace national armies.
He said: "The discussion needs to be about what we can do together. What do we want to do? If Great Britain says no, it does not wish to do more together, then we will be obliged to open a dialogue with a group of countries."
david.rennie@telegraph.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
***********************************
We wonder, has M. Savary considered the cause of this width?
Is it perhaps that Britain and Britons see France as a shameless self-dealer, unreliable and obnoxious and corrupt? That France as a multipolar poseur is reckless and dangerous, ****less and incompetent? That France as a counterweight poseur is, well, a pantywaist? That French exceptionalism is seen as French privilege and French excuse-ism? That one quickly tires of French whining and whinging and pettiness? That a French-led anything quickly becomes a French-led disaster? And that in all of this, the French are always quick to blame someone else .
That Mlle. Royal in the person of M. Savary feels compelled to put an obnoxious French ultimatum to Britain -- in M. Savary's colorful B&W rhetoric -- speaks to the weakness of the French position and the historical predilections of Britain. Even were Britain disinclined to America, it would not be inclined to threats to be so disinclined -- most especially big airy threats from the most discombobulated nation on the continent.
Spain and Italy will not a greater France make. (Belgium will be heartbroken without so much as a mention here.) Mlle. Royal's big scheme is nothing without a German piggy bank and the credibility that Britain brings to French doings. Mlle. Royal takes for granted a center-right Germany will sign on.
pavefrance.com
