Brussels, 04/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a column published in Le Monde of 4 February, the very day of the Franc-British Summit in the Touquet (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), European Commissioners Michel Barnier - French - and Chris Patten - British - state that France and the United Kingdom are "the other engine" of European unification, and that they have a "special responsibility" in the creation of a "common European external identity", "due to their historic engagement in world affairs". Both are permanent members of the Security Council, are nuclear powers and have professional and operational armed forces, they recall, while acknowledging that the two countries "often differ in their analysis of foreign policy", notably in their attitude to the United States, NATO, the Middle East and Iraq ("where, well before the current crisis, they disagreed over sanctions and bans on overflights"), without mentioning the "recent skirmish over Paris' invitation to the president of Zimbabwe (EUROPE of 26 January, p.6 and 30 January, p.6).
Regarding that the "Franco-German engine" was "itself paradoxically based more on differences between the two countries than similarities", Barnier and Patten consider that "it is not acceptable that the United Kingdom and France should wallow in their differences". On the contrary, if they manage to overcome them "systematically", they will provide a "decisive impetus to the creation of a genuine common foreign policy". In particular, they must "show the example", by encouraging other Member States to stand by undertakings made in terms of military capabilities so that the "EU's rapid reaction force can stick to its promises", and urging the "creation of a European armaments industry" (one of the outcomes expected of the Touquet Summit: Ed.), that would play in favour of the "European reflex when it comes to equipping European armed forces". According to the two Commissioners, if "France and the United Kingdom reach agreement on these issues, the European Convention will have to take account of that, and propose credible solutions for both foreign policy and issues of defence and security. That is to say, for us, European solutions, neither intergovernmental .. nor federal".