Posted on 11/09/2005 5:30:33 PM PST by blam
France is snubbed in EU jobs shake-up
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 10/11/2005)
France was licking its wounds last night after losing control of several key posts at the European Commission in Brussels.
Worse still for Paris, it lost them in a reshuffle that gave officials from Britain and Ireland, both seen as bastions of the "Anglo-Saxon free market", some of the most important jobs.
Jose Manuel Barroso: five senior posts for Britain
The reshuffle was masterminded by the commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, a moderate reformer and friend of Tony Blair.
Mr Barroso has chafed under public rebukes from President Jacques Chirac of France for supposedly failing to protect French and European interests from global competition.
Leading jobs in Brussels are keenly contested, with advocates of free trade at war with those favouring the protectionist, state-controlled economic model.
Britain and its allies were unable to conceal their relief at the ejection of one Frenchman in particular, François Lamoureux, a veteran aide to the former head of the commission, Jacques Delors.
Mr Lamoureux, the federalist director general of transport and energy, was hailed by Eurocrats for trying to thwart reforms of Europe's power and transport sectors.
Britain now holds five director generalships out of 25, posts equivalent to being the permanent secretary of a Whitehall ministry.
The Irish celebrated an even more astonishing rise to power, with an Irishwoman, Catherine Day, becoming secretary general, the commission's top official.
The current secretary general, the Irishman David O'Sullivan, was parachuted in to lead the trade directorate general at the urging of Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner.
That didn't take long.
They're in no position to be telling others what to do.
Yeah, the French are going to be speaking a different language soon, and it won't be French or English, and they won't be practicing anything resembling capitalism. Might as well kick them to the curb.
The best advice I can give the French is to hide the small boys and goats.
I mean, it is not like it is the end of civilization or anything, just the end of old Europe. And who knows, maybe these N. Afrikaners will be easier to work with.
I suppose this announcement was in the works long before the riots, but the current demonstration by the French of their weakness and ineptitude will make it harder for them to mount any objections.
You're probably right. We can send them goats and raisins, they can send us oil.
Great timing. Get the french worrying about having any cars left in any cities, (or having cities at all) and then smack them with this.
Since France has always seen itself as the leader of the EU, almost as a birthright, this has got to leave a mark.
Chirac may be gone sooner than he planned if this keeps up.
This is the catch-phrase that the socialists and Marxists trot out when their state-controlled economies are failing. Mark this, there is soon to be a major economic upheaval in France. It will take 2-3 quarters before it becomes appearant that the Euro currency is a major drag on Italy, Germany, and the rest of the Eurozone because of France's malfeasance. And France will b!tch about the Brits not converting the venerable Pound Sterling into futile Euros. D@mn those Anglo-Saxons for preserving capital.
Good ol' Chirac, you can always count on his big, fat mouth to antagonize his EU colleagues. Remember when several of the Eastern EU countries (while they were still applying for membership) signed a letter of support for President Bush in 2003? Chirac snarled that they'd missed a good opportunity to shut up! :)
And now his Gallic tact has payed off for Britain and Ireland. How sweet....
France isn't the player they have always wanted to be. The Euro basically replaced the DM, not the Franc. If the Germans ever brought back the DM, the EU experiment is over.
The Brits may like to hang on to tradition, but they are not stupid! Why risk your economy with someone who wants to see you fail?
Mon Deui!!
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