Smaller states round on France and Germany over ‘bullying tactics’

By Dana Spinant

Date: 16/10/03

THE leaders of France and Germany have come under attack from smaller EU countries for using "bullying tactics" during negotiations between governments on the future European constitution.

On the eve of a make-or-break summit in Brussels on the future of Europe, Paris and Berlin are accused of "aggressively putting pressure" on their smaller partners to accept the draft constitution as it stands.

And Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's decision to ask French President Jacques Chirac to represent Germany at the summit on Friday has been dubbed "a provocation to small EU states" by Hans-Gert Pöttering, the most powerful politician in the European Parliament.

"The most worrying developments at the IGC [intergovernmental conference] are France and Germany's threats against everybody else," a Spanish official told European Voice.

"They warned Poland and Spain that if they do not drop opposition to the new system of voting in the Council [of Ministers] proposed by the Convention, their EU handouts could be affected. They threatened small countries wanting to keep their commissioner that if each member state is to have one commissioner the large states should have two, and so on," he added.

"It is frustrating to see their bullying, and threats. Their attitude does not help."

One Finnish official, who has followed the Union's past three IGCs, acknowledged that "the use of language on the budget and structural funds is harder than before. We never heard such strong words in a negotiation before", he said.

There are two reasons for the IGC's "hard talk", he continued: "You have more member states and consequently more national interests - that makes the negotiations more difficult. But we are also starting to touch issues close to core national sovereignty," he added, in a reference to the issue of defence policy.

The Finn expressed surprise that Germany had been even more aggressive and blunt than France. Traditionally, Berlin used to be more moderate, and Paris more assertive of its national interest, he said.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the leader of the European Parliament's largest political group, the European People's Party, told this paper that he was "aware of this problem".

"I urge France and Germany to understand what the others' reaction is when they act together this way, especially the small states' reaction," he said.

Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, one of the Parliament's two representatives on the IGC, said "you can feel this tension".

"I feel sometimes in the IGC that we are still caught up with the divisions over the Iraq crisis and the Elysée Declaration," he said, referring to the cooperation pact agreed between France and Germany in January.

"Many believe that France and Germany want to create an axis," said Méndez de Vigo, adding that this makes some - in particular small or new member states - even more anxious to defend their national position and hence more inflexible in negotiations.

A German diplomat retorted that Paris and Berlin "launch no threats" and the link made by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer between negotiations on the constitution and forthcoming talks on the EU budget had been misinterpreted.

"On the contrary, other countries are launching threats. We hear calls like "Nice or death". Now, how aggressive is that?" he said, referring to the warning by Jan Rokita, leader of Poland's centre-right Civic Platform that if the Nice Treaty provisions on the voting system in the Council are changed, Warsaw would veto the constitution.

• Commission President Romano Prodi said he welcomed the move by Gerhard Schröder to ask Jacques Chirac to represent Germany's interests at the summit. "It is another step towards overcoming narrow nationalism. I am totally in favour of it," said Prodi.

On the eve of the European Council meeting in Brussels on 16-17 October 2003, Germany and France were accused of pressurising smaller Member States into accepting the draft European Union Constitutional Treaty as it stands.