EuroSavant

France vs. US: The German View

Friday, April 25th, 2003

In the run-up to the War in Iraq Germany joined Russia and France in what the Economist has termed the salon des refusés in opposition to the US hard line. Now, as yesterday’s entry showed, a deep split between the US and France has arisen on lifting economic sanctions and the legal basis for proceeding with Iraq’s reconstruction generally, while Germany has downplayed its differences with the Bush administration. What is the German judgment on the Franco-American tiff? (more…)

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“France Must Pay!”: The Current Franco-American Rift

Thursday, April 24th, 2003

It came on US publicly-funded television – on PBS’ Charlie Rose show – and from the highest-level Bush administration official charged with diplomacy generally and with keeping relations civil with our allies in particular. When asked whether it was intended that France suffer consequences for its obstructionist stance in the run-up to the War in Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell bluntly replied “Yes,” and then “We’ll have to look at all aspects of our relations with France in the light of that.” (more…)

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French UN Move Analysis Yet Lacking

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2003

Yesterday, in a surprise move, the French ambassador to the UN proposed a suspension of most UN sanctions in place against Iraq. It would be nice to survey the French daily papers on the Net to get their take on what was behind this démarche, but as it occurred late in the afternoon, French local time, that was apparently too late for inclusion in the editions of the following day, today. I’ll look at this tomorrow – but it’s strange that these same newspapers are perfectly able to report on the results of last night’s Champions League quarter-finals, which were known much later than the French UN ambassador’s announcement.

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German views on the EU Enlargement Summit in Athens

Thursday, April 17th, 2003

Today I’m on enforced exile from my reporting and commentary upon parochial Netherlands concerns. Still, not all the important things that are happening have to do with Iraq. An important case in point is the EU Athens summit, at which the fifteen current EU member-states and all ten candidate states yesterday signed the Accession Treaty. (Recall that only three of those states – Malta, Slovenia, and Hungary, in that order – have yet held the national referenda authorizing actually joining the EU in a year’s time. And Cyprus, due to its special circumstances, will hold no referendum at all.) (more…)