Blair looks for Chirac's help

By Stephen Mulvey
BBC News website

The UK and France still differ on the big issues facing Europe

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair meets France's President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Friday for talks that could have a big impact on the success or failure of the rest of the UK's EU presidency.

The UK has been criticised in Brussels and elsewhere for doing too little to help plot a new course for Europe, after the death of the European constitution, or to resolve a row over the budget for 2007-2013.

Now that Turkey's EU membership talks have been successfully launched, calls for the UK to focus on these big issues will only get louder - and to make progress by the end of the year, Mr Blair needs Mr Chirac's co-operation.

Last time the EU's future financing was on the agenda, at a summit in Brussels in June, sparks flew between the two men.

Not for us the malaise of France or the angst of Germany Tony Blair

BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell wrote that he had never seen Mr Blair so fired up.

And shortly afterwards, on the eve of the G8 summit in Scotland, Mr Chirac made his famous attack on British cooking, saying one could not trust people whose cuisine was so bad.

Continuing clashes

Downing Street sources say all this has been long-forgotten, amid the regular contact between the two men on issues ranging from Africa to Iran.

It is true that the two men rapidly put behind them an even more serious bust-up in 2002.

FLASHBACK TO 2002 Blair to Chirac: How can you defend the Common Agricultural Policy and then claim to support aid to Africa? Failing to reform the CAP means being responsible for the starvation of the world's poor. Chirac to Blair: You have been very rude and I have never been spoken to like this before. You have been very badly brought up. Blair: Do you mind, Mr President, if I just explain our position? Chirac: Yes. Chirac to Blair: How will you be able to look Leo in the face in 20 years' time if you start this war (in Iraq)? Source: BBC and newspaper reports Another 100-years war?

But the clash between French and British views of the best social and economic model for Europe - and the details of the budget - continues as before.

"This is a country today that increasingly sets the standard. Not for us the malaise of France or the angst of Germany," Mr Blair said at the Labour Party conference last week.

"France thinks it is not right that a country, the United Kingdom, does not shoulder its burden in financing enlargement," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told Le Monde on Wednesday.

Mr Chirac himself criticised the European Commission this week for doing nothing to stop a US firm cutting jobs in France - provoking responses from Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and Vice-President Guenter Verheugen that could have been drafted in London.

Mr Barroso attacked anti-market "populism" in the EU, while Mr Verheugen defended an EU policy based on "global competition and open markets".

No German help

The Blair-Chirac meeting will be focusing on preparations for a debate about the future of Europe and its place in the world at an informal summit in Hampton Court at the end of the month.

Throw together a flag-waving Blair, an ailing Chirac and a farewell appearance by Schroeder, and the scene is set for a bloody Shakespearian tragedy Financial Times "Observer" column

The 25 EU leaders will be gathering in the ancient palace in a London suburb to discuss how Europe can maintain "social justice and competitiveness in the context of globalisation".

Mr Blair is also expected to give a progress report on the budget negotiations, and to emphasise how serious the UK is about getting agreement by the end of the year.

The summit is not intended to take any decisions, but it will have to create a sense of forward movement on both issues if the UK is to answer its critics.

It has not helped that last month's German election will not install the reform-minded Angela Merkel as German chancellor in time.

One British newspaper has commented that, with "a flag-waving Blair, an ailing Chirac and a farewell appearance by [German Chancellor] Schroeder, the scene is set for a bloody Shakespearian tragedy by the Thames".

Concession

But if Mr Blair can find a common language with Mr Chirac on Friday, this scenario may be avoided.

The most obvious concession London can offer is the softening of its demand for early changes to farm subsidies - something Agriculture Minister Margaret Beckett has already dropped hints about.

One sign that the atmosphere has improved will be the holding of a joint news conference.

In the strained atmosphere when Mr Blair last visited Paris, in June, even this appeared to be too much.