The Continuing Collapse of "Europe"

Remember all those articles during the election season in the MSM about how Bush's foreign policy was isolating the US in the modern world and how the wise and sophisticated French were outmaneuvering us on every front, well -- it just wasn't so. Under Chirac's leadership the French have proven to be incredibly insensitive and inept at international diplomacy, and their mad dream of a new Frankenreich has gone a'glimmering.

The confrontation with the US over Iraq was just the first in a series of incredible blunders by the French. The US simply enlisted allies from Eastern and Southern Europe and in the process laid bare the false assumptions underlying Chirac and Schroeder's claims to speak for "Europe." Chirac did not take this well and admonished the new members of the EU to shut up. They didn't.

Then came the humiliating rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters, and the incredible stupidity of French leaders who in the aftermath vowed to continue regardless of the will of the voters and blamed the whole debacle on Anglo-Saxon influences. Bad move!

Stung by the rejection, Chirac decided to take his anger out on Tony Blair. Back in the eighties Margaret Thatcher had negotiated a substantial rebate on UK contributions to the EU budget. Now Chirac and his German toadies decided to do away with that. They gleefully looked forward to this weeks EU summit as an opportunity to rally European opinion, under French leadership of course, against Blair and the hated Anglo-Saxons.

Well, it didn't work out. Blair simply pointed out the massive agricultural subsidies enjoyed by the French and demanded that they be eliminated as part of a general restructuring of the EU budget. Once again Chirac was outmaneuvered.

CNN reports:

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- The two-day European Union summit has ended in failure, with its president stating, "Europe is not in a state of crisis -- it's in a state of profound crisis."

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who holds the rotating EU presidency and tried to broker a budget compromise, said on Friday, "I have to say my enthusiasm for Europe has suffered a severe setback today."

British officials rejected a budget plan for the years 2007-2013 because they said it did not contain sufficient guarantees that the EU's system of agricultural subsidies would be overhauled, in return for Britain agreeing to freeze a rebate it receives in compensation for its outsized net contribution to the EU.

The budget requires approval of all 25 EU member states, so it cannot go into force with Britain's approval.

Read it here.

What is more, Blair's defiance has proven popular with other European states who also resent French subsidies.

BBC reports that the states of Eastern Europe, Sweden and Holland are all supporting Blair's demands for budgetary reform as are opposition politicians in France and Germany. All are also supporting a pro-US position on other matters.

Read it here.

Once again the staggering ineptitude of the Chirac regime was on display for all to see. I wonder if the NYT and the US MSM have noticed?

Probably not.