Big countries a little too arrogant

Berlusconi and Chirac are beginning to irritate their European colleagues with their undiplomatic comments, bordering on vulgarity.

(B2 archives) In the European concert, the big countries (France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom) do not hesitate regularly to make their superiority felt by other countries. The wound had been acute during the French presidency, last year, when the “big ones” had tried, by voice play, to keep the majority of decision in the Council of Ministers. The skirmishes continued under the Belgian presidency through undiplomatic means.

The man from the past

In September, France and the United Kingdom thus “grilled” the presidency of the European Union somewhat by rushing to the United States to meet Georges W. Bush, after the attack on the world trade center. In October, in Ghent, the same with Germany had played the provocation by holding a mini-summit, three, just before the official meeting. In November, London was not afraid to add fuel to the fire by forgetting to invite the Belgians to a five-party meeting (with Spain and Italy) devoted to Afghanistan. This weekend, in Laeken, the determination of the Great to defend Giscard provoked the revolt of the little ones who did not hide, as the former Portuguese Prime Minister, Jaime Gama calls it, the lack of enthusiasm that inspired them this " man from the past ».

Finns just good for frozen!

The debate to locate the ten new European agencies also made an impression. In the exchanges between Heads of State, which have just been revealed, what is striking is the lack of courtesy, even education of some. And in the hit parade of bad taste is Silvio Berlusconi, the President of the Italian Council. In defense of Parma's candidacy to host the Food Authority, he argued " the symbol of good food "that this city represented" and above all, he would have added " Finns don't even know prosciutto. They are only good for frozen "...

A model training agency in Sweden

Faced with this “provocation”, the Finnish Prime Minister remained very gentlemanly. " Even if they tried to provoke us, we won't let go of answering he commented to some journalists. " There is no reason to use a stronger word. Italy is a great country, founder, completely legitimate to fight for its candidacy. The second in this contest of arrogance and vulgarity will certainly have been the President of the French Republic. Jacques Chirac hasn't been much more gallant about Sweden's push for the information technology security agency. If we gave Sweden an agency for training models, with all the pretty girls he would then have asked.

Nicolas Gros Verheyde