[A-List] Germany: repairing Franco-German axis

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

It's a bit easy to overplay the humble pie routine, and I think there is
more to Schröder's current activities than simply undoing whatever
damage he is supposed to have re his relations with other world leaders.
When people like Richard Perle speculate publicly about the benefits of
a Schröder resignation then it's clear to more than just Schröder
that a more coherent EU position on world affairs would be of service to
all leaders within the EU. This point is made by the Tory Timothy Garton
Ash concerning Blair in the article forwarded earlier.

http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/2002-October/020912.html


Schröder goes cap in hand to Paris

Jon Henley in Paris
Thursday October 3, 2002
The Guardian

Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, pursued his delicate
diplomatic bridge-building process with President Jacques Chirac
yesterday, seeking both to revive the ailing Franco-German partnership
and repair badly damaged ties with America over Iraq.

At the two leaders' first meeting since their respective re-elections,
Mr Schröder enlisted Mr Chirac's help over dinner in trying to reverse
a dramatic cooling in US-German relations triggered by the chancellor's
repeated refusal to involve Berlin in a war against Iraq.

But the chancellor was also keen to mend fences with Mr Chirac, whom he
offended last week by going to London rather than Paris for his first
visit since winning a narrow election victory, and with whom he will
have to work closely over the next four years to avoid clashes on a
number of crucial EU dossiers.

"Schröder has painted himself into a nasty corner on any number of
points and he's trying hard to extricate himself," one French diplomat
said. "Certainly, as far as America is concerned, Chirac has displayed a
lot more tact."

Berlin's coordinator of relations with the US, Karsten Voigt, hinted
that France could help Germany out of its hole. "Paris and Berlin should
be sufficiently close to be able to speak for each other when they cross
the Atlantic," she said. "That would be a good thing for France and
Germany and a good thing for Europe."

The French president, handsomely re-elected in June and backed for the
first time in five years by a government of the same centre-right hue,
has made concerted efforts to rebuild Franco-US relations, which were
strained under the previous Socialist-led administration. As a result
France, usually America's most critical partner, is in a position to
play a key mediating role between the hawks and doves on the UN security
council over Iraq.

Paris, which wants two UN resolutions before any military intervention
in Baghdad, is positioned midway between Germany and the more pro-attack
Britain, while among the five permanent security council members it
occupies the key middle ground between the Washington and London camp
and the far more sceptical Russia and China.

Berlin, by contrast, has aroused the fury of George Bush, who has yet to
send Mr Schröder the traditional message of congratulations on his
re-election or agree to a personal meeting. Mr Schröder's unequivocal
"Nein" on Iraq has revived a strong pacifist and anti-American current
on the German left, while his perceived anti-US campaign comments -
which included the phrase "I do not click my heels for President Bush" -
have placed the chancellor "very firmly in the camp of unreliable
allies", one diplomat said.

Remarks by Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Germany's justice minister, to the
effect that Mr Bush was using similar methods to Hitler, did not help.

But the French and German leaders also sought to paper over personal
differences revealed by Mr Chirac's public support of Mr Schröder's
election rival, Edmund Stoiber, in Paris last month.

Mr Chirac and Mr Schröder have clashed heavily in the past, notably at
the EU's disastrous Nice summit in December 2000, and are now condemned
to cooperating during one of the union's most testing periods.

"They now know who they have to deal with. It is high time both
countries find their way back to each other," said Henrik Uterwedder,
director of the German-French Institute in Ludwigsburg. "The past few
years were years of missed opportunities and that was not good for
Europe."

Despite informal talks to repair the damage done at Nice, apparently
irreconcilable differences remain on the common agricultural policy,
which Germany wants reformed to reduce its high EU contributions and
France will defend to the last because its farmers benefit most. Germany
also wants to cut military spending at a time when France has just
injected an extra 1bn euros into its military budget - yet another
source of potential conflict.