Post by buccaneer on Mar 17, 2023 6:57:14 GMT
As ever, professor Robert Tombs is on the money
Read on: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/16/eus-moral-claim-exist-has-collapsed/
As Tombs infers, it's not the first time Macron has embarrassed himself, his nation and the EU on the world stage is it.
Politicians are prone to think that a “reset” of relations can be achieved by a warm handshake and a hug for the cameras. But sometimes, the mask slips, and then they would do well to recall the dictum of that old bruiser Palmerston: no permanent allies, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Our French friends have never forgotten this, and indeed they often quote Palmerston, thinking it reflects British attitudes. If only!
The latest slipping of the mask is the report that France is holding up the procurement of ammunition for Ukraine because it wants only EU firms to be considered. Does this ring a bell? For me, it is exactly what happened over the Covid vaccine. Then, the French were determined to have a “European” (read French) vaccine, and an EU system was set up to produce one. But the famous Institut Pasteur and Sanofi failed to create one in time.
Oxford University and AstraZeneca, backed by British taxpayers’ money, succeeded. President Macron claimed that the AstraZeneca vaccine was dangerous and ineffective, and the EU (rather illogically) tried to intimidate AstraZeneca into diverting supplies of its jab to Europe. More important than hastening mass vaccinations were the prestige of France and the interests of EU drug companies.
Not dissimilar was Macron’s reaction to the Aukus pact, in which Australia chose to buy Anglo-American nuclear submarines rather than French diesel-powered boats. Again, less important than the security of the Pacific were the prestige and interests of France. Macron recalled ambassadors from Canberra and Washington in an astonishing fit of pique; but deliberately did not recall his London ambassador in a feline slight to Britain, proclaimed not important enough to be threatened.
Now we have possible limitations on ammunition supply for Ukraine. All these things have a common thread. The EU has no effective will apart from that of its leading members. They – France and Germany – have been pushed into grudging support for Ukraine by British and American action in supplying arms and encouraging Ukrainian resistance. This breaks with the earlier Franco-German policy, enshrined in the Minsk Accords they brokered in 2014 to appease Putin. Neither Germany nor France have been more than half-hearted in their backing for Ukraine. As for the EU as an organisation, it has no presence at all.
The latest slipping of the mask is the report that France is holding up the procurement of ammunition for Ukraine because it wants only EU firms to be considered. Does this ring a bell? For me, it is exactly what happened over the Covid vaccine. Then, the French were determined to have a “European” (read French) vaccine, and an EU system was set up to produce one. But the famous Institut Pasteur and Sanofi failed to create one in time.
Oxford University and AstraZeneca, backed by British taxpayers’ money, succeeded. President Macron claimed that the AstraZeneca vaccine was dangerous and ineffective, and the EU (rather illogically) tried to intimidate AstraZeneca into diverting supplies of its jab to Europe. More important than hastening mass vaccinations were the prestige of France and the interests of EU drug companies.
Not dissimilar was Macron’s reaction to the Aukus pact, in which Australia chose to buy Anglo-American nuclear submarines rather than French diesel-powered boats. Again, less important than the security of the Pacific were the prestige and interests of France. Macron recalled ambassadors from Canberra and Washington in an astonishing fit of pique; but deliberately did not recall his London ambassador in a feline slight to Britain, proclaimed not important enough to be threatened.
Now we have possible limitations on ammunition supply for Ukraine. All these things have a common thread. The EU has no effective will apart from that of its leading members. They – France and Germany – have been pushed into grudging support for Ukraine by British and American action in supplying arms and encouraging Ukrainian resistance. This breaks with the earlier Franco-German policy, enshrined in the Minsk Accords they brokered in 2014 to appease Putin. Neither Germany nor France have been more than half-hearted in their backing for Ukraine. As for the EU as an organisation, it has no presence at all.
As Tombs infers, it's not the first time Macron has embarrassed himself, his nation and the EU on the world stage is it.
