Anglo-French relations: Bilateral Summit postponed until 2003, October 2002

The annual meeting of the British and French governments has been postponed until 2003 because the French government, who are hosting the summit, claim that they need 'more preparation time' although many believe that the decision to delay the meeting follows the widely publicised disagreement between Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, over the future of the Common Agricultural Policy at the Brussels European Council on 25 October 2002.

The summit had been due to take place on 3 December 2002 in Le Touquet in northern France, although Tony Blair's Spokesman said that this had only ever been a provisional date and had never been finalised. However, the French ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on 29 October 2002 that a considerable deal of preparation was necessary ahead of such a meeting and confirmed the following day that the summit would be put off until next year, although no date has been agreed.

Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair's 'falling out' at the European Council meeting concerned the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, which was on the agenda in the context of payments to the candidate countries once they become members of the EU. Prior to the summit Chirac met with Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, in an effort to resolve differences between the two countries over a proposal from the European Commission regarding limits to the CAP. The disagreement had threatened to hold up the European Council meeting on Friday and also the whole enlargement process so the two countries had agreed to tried to find a compromise ahead of discussions between all 15 Member States. The resulting compromise included a deal between Chirac and Schröder to limit rather than scrap farm subsidies. However countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were not happy with the deal since they had been calling for a thorough reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. According to Tony Blair's spokesman, the Prime Minister is believed to have been angered by the manner in which the 'pre-cooked deal' was presented to the other EU countries a 'fait accompli'. Mr Blair has consistently argued for a reform of the EU's most costly policy in order to better serve EU consumers, protect the environment and more importantly prevent surplus production being dumped on the third world market, which results in a suppression of the commodity prices in those countries as well as preventing them from accessing EU markets. Chirac, who vehemently opposes reform of the CAP because French farmers benefit greatly from the subsidies, has tried to counter Blair's arguments by questioning the UK's right to an EU farm rebate worth £2 billion. This was negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s to make up the shortfall between what the UK paid into the EU and what it got back since its farming industry is relatively small compared to other European countries and so much of EU spending was on farm subsidies.

The Prime Minister's office has been trying to play down the seriousness of the disagreement since the postponement of the summit meeting became known. At a government press briefing on 29 October 2002, the prime ministers Spokesperson said that:

'These things happen at European Councils. As he [Blair] said this morning, people simply have to get used to the idea that, in the same way the French would fight for whatever they believed was in their interests, so too would the United Kingdom. However, just because they had disagreed on one thing did not mean that they disagreed on everything'.

However there is growing disagreement between the French and UK government, most notably over issues such as the EU's planned rapid reaction force and Iraq - the latter was due to be on the agenda at the Le Touquet Summit along with asylum, the Sangatte refugee centre and beef. The French newspaper, Le Monde, has suggested that the UK's position over several other European issues could once again leave them feeling 'outside of the members' club'. Not only does Blair's position on CAP differ greatly from France and now Germany but there is also mounting speculation that even if the UK does pass the five economic tests it has set as criteria for joining the euro, Blair would not hold a referendum on the single currency until after the next election which can be no later than 2006. On the issue of the future of Europe, there is also strong UK opposition to any renaming of the EU, the introduction of dual citizenship and even the question of a European constitution is difficult when the national constitution of its own.

Meanwhile, increasingly good relations between France and Germany mean the UK could be sidelined even further. Both German and French officials have hailed the deal on farm subsidies as a renaissance in Franco-German ties that traditionally drive EU integration with France's European Affairs Minister Noelle Lenoir calling the deal an 'historic watershed'. Although there have been tensions in recent months over military strikes on Iraq and Chriac's support of right wing conservative Edmund Stoiber in September's German elections, there are also a number of indications that Franco-German relations could be set to return to the good relations enjoyed in the Kohl-Mitterand era. In January the two countries will issue a bilateral initiative on the EU's future to the European Convention as well as a joint communiqué in the same month to mark 40 years of Franco-German relations.

Links:
Office of the UK Prime Minister: 10 Downing Street
	Homepage
	29.10.02:	Afternoon Government Press Briefing
	28.10.02:	Prime Minister's Statement on EU Summit in Brussels
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
	Homepage
	30.10.02:	Daily Press Statement[in French]
	29.10.02:	Daily Press Statement[in French]
BBC News Online
	30.10.02:	Blair unrepentant over French row
	29.10.02:	France puts summit on ice
	29.10.02:	Blair 'marginalised' over farm reform
	29.10.02:	The truth about 'Le row'
	25.10.02:	Q&A: the UK's rebate
European Sources Online: Financial Times
	31.10.02:	Bilateral agreement breathes life into Franco-German ties
	30.10.02:	Anglo-French relations deteriorate further as summit is postponed
	29.10.02:	Anglo-French row deepens as Chirac cancels summit

Helen Bower
Compiled: Thursday, 31 October 2002

The annual meeting of the British and French governments has been postponed until 2003 because the French government, who are hosting the summit, claim that they need 'more preparation time' although many believe that the decision to delay the meeting follows the widely publicised disagreement between Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister at the Brussels European Council on 25 October 2002.