Dutch blame France for EU budget breakdown: report

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot accused France of scuppering EU budget talks by refusing to countenance a cut in agricultural subsidies, according to remarks published Tuesday.

Bot said it was "unfair" for the Netherlands and Britain to be singled out for blame over the collapse of a European Union summit at the weekend. The Netherlands, which wants to shave its financial contributions to the bloc, was one of five countries along with Britain, Sweden, Spain and Finland that rejected a compromise EU budget plan for 2007-2013.

Britain has taken the brunt of the blame because it refused to discuss a reduction in its annual rebate from the EU coffers, demanding instead an overhaul of the entire budget including EU farm subsidies, which heavily favour France. "Despite the rebate, the United Kingdom has contributed an enormous sum to the EU and especially to France. The same goes for the Netherlands," the Dutch minister was quoted as saying by the Volkskrant daily.

Bot said France should shoulder some blame for the summit failure because it would not discuss EU agricultural subsidies. During the summit talks, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had accused the Netherlands of being selfish, the paper said. But Bot said French President Jacques Chirac had been harsher.

"He spoke of fat, overfed countries that aren't willing to do something for poor countries and looked at us," the Dutch foreign minister said. "This is not the way to get other countries to make concessions."

The Dutch felt they were being asked to pay too much in the latest EU budget proposal, Bot told the paper. "We are prepared to remain the biggest net contributors but the difference between our contributions and those of the other rich EU members has got to be reduced," Bot said.

On June 1 Dutch voters, like the French before them, overwhelmingly rejected a planned EU constitution in a referendum.

The Dutch are trying to back Blair on this (rightly) because although the Dutch and others agree with Blair on the issue the French have blamed Blair 100% for the EU budget failure.

What the French are really blaming Blair for is the fact that he did not behave as the French do and simply force the smaller nations that agree with Blair - like the Dutch - to go along with a compromise they would not all, jointly, agree to.

The French have never believed in or practiced "collegiality" in the entire history of EU negotiations. Just as they were with the U.S. and Britain for 13 years over Iraq, with France it is always my way or the highway. They have always been the premier unilateralists among the "western" alliance.

France is also home to the Socialist Internationale, which is why it is so easy for them to sell the lie about U.S. unilateralism among our allies. To the left, using force "as a last resort" simply means when, and only when the left agrees and never unless the left agrees.

European history could again get nasty if the hard-left gains in the next French elections (it will be a Communist-Socialist-and-others coalition and not one party) and if Germany's Schroeder (social-democrats) manages to pull his party to slim win in the next election's there.

If that happens, look for the Franco-German axis to try to find some way to implement the rules and concepts contained in the draft EU constitution, simply by EU excutive and regulatory fiat in the present EU structure, without anymore "votes" about a "constitution". If they do it will be paraded in the European media as a "victory", but slowy it will become a "victory" more reminiscent of the Hitler-Stalin pact - a prelude to disaster.

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