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Wednesday, February 19, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:15 AM:
French news is below; I wanted to hit a few more things from Libé, though. First, highlights from this article, also linked below:[Sidebar quote]"The Union is not the Warsaw Pact. These countries have their opinions and must express them." Chris Patten, charged with Foreign Relations.
The Fifteen had barely succeeded in settling their differences over Iraq when Jacques Chirac opened a new fault, this time between the EU and the former communist countries called to join the club soon...
Despite the insistence of London, these countries were not invited to sit with the Fifteen, Germany and France having refused them. The Thirteen therefore had no right, yesterday, to "a single bit of information" about the compromise reached overnight by the heart of the Union.
The threats of Chirac against these "traitors" against Europe were plainly badly received. What the President said "is not democratic." "I hope he'll regret them. We are all Europeans and, in one family, everyone has the right to express his views," declared Romanian president, Ion Iliescu.
Quickly seizing the chance to sock it to Chirac, Tony Blair yesterday sent a letter to his opposite numbers to offer "infinite regret" that they were so treated at the end of the summit. On Iraq, "perhaps the candidates are merely guilty of following the 'French method'?" joked the Irish Pat Cox, president of the European Parliament. A pique surely felt with respect to that "arrogance" that often jostles "little" countries.
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