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From The Horse's Mouth
Former French Prime Minister tells it like it is
Here's a quote from former PM of France, Edouard Balladur, in an article castigating Tony Blair for imagining that he would make a good European President:
"The EU's president must fulfil two conditions in order to carry out the role properly and to be accepted by everyone: first, to come from a country that is completely in step with the EU's forward march and that participates in all its different forms of co-operation; and, secondly, to be determined to build the independence of Europe, notably in the diplomatic and military fields."
In step with the "EU's forward march" - what forward march? Where? British politicians insist we aren't marching towards a superstate, never mind that we ought to be marching in lockstep anywhere. Europe is depicted as a loose structure of mutually beneficial ties which need tidied up or organised now and again through treaties: Not as any kind of Great March towards an ideal future.
They're also opposed to the idea that nations who aren't "completely in step" should lose stature, as Balladur seems to be saying.
Balladur reveals somewhere of where we're headed: "the independence of Europe, notably in the diplomatic and military fields."
What future for NATO, then? And for France's, and Britain's seats at the UN? And our embassies, consulates and missions across the globe? Balladur is calling for a unified foreign policy, something almost unimaginable five years ago and difficult to conceive of today. British politicians say such a thing can never happen - but on those rare occasions when the mutterings of their continental counterparts make it into the British press, we see the real truth of where Europe's "forward march" is leading.
