Few cheers as Jacques Chirac leaves EU stage

BERLIN – When French President Jacques Chirac said goodbye to the European Union yesterday, many of his allies might have been forgiven for saying good riddance.

Chirac steps down as president in May after 12 years in power, and a weekend party to celebrate the EU’s 50th anniversary marked his farewell to European politics. The Berlin celebrations were muted not because of his imminent departure, but because the 27-nation bloc is still struggling to overcome the setback caused by French voters’ rejection of the EU’s first draft constitution in 2005.An EU constitution was Chirac’s idea, as was the referendum.The French president wanted the treaty to make Europe strong in a “multipolar” world, but when the time came to sell his big idea to the electorate, he failed spectacularly.”He has a pretty miserable balance sheet in the European Union,” said Francois Heisbourg, of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.”Many things went wrong, but the referendum was his biggest failing.”Ironically, the stalemate over the constitution has forced the Union to hobble along under the terms of the much derided 2000 Nice Treaty, which was agreed at a record-breaking five-day summit presided over by Chirac.That treaty produced the bloc’s most convoluted voting system chiefly because of Chirac’s refusal to allow an enlarged Germany more votes than France.Chirac hailed the summit as a triumph; others called it a farce, a fiasco and a failure.”Chirac’s European policy has been a disaster and unfortunately it was in a period when leadership was really needed,” said Richard Whitman, senior fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London.As in so many other areas of his 45-year political career, Chirac was inconsistent when it came to Europe, veering from fierce Euroscepticism to euro-militancy before settling into what he termed euro-pragmatism.Often pragmatism meant a staunch defence of French interests – a nationalistic approach that led to a rapid deterioration of the Franco-German partnership that had done so much to build the European Union during its first 40 years.Unlike his predecessor Francois Mitterrand, Chirac never built a lasting relationship with any German chancellor and analysts say European integration as a whole suffered.”It was different with Mitterrand,” then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said after a bruising 1998 summit at which Chirac used bulldozer negotiating tactics to ensure that a Frenchman would become the second head of the European Central Bank.Chirac and Kohl’s successor, Gerhard Schroeder, briefly managed to get the Franco-German motor purring again after a rough start when they united in opposition to the US-led war on Iraq in 2003 and to preserve generous farm subsidies.But the duo united mainly against liberal reforms of the EU economy, and Chirac’s tongue-lashing of east European countries that dared to support Washington over Iraq did lasting damage.”They missed a good opportunity to shut up,” Chirac said in 2003 in a remark that isolated him as the EU expanded east.Such bluntness was on show at Chirac’s first EU summit as president in Cannes in 1995.He picked fights with the Greek and Dutch prime ministers and was accused of riding roughshod over other partners, including Italy and new Nordic member states.The rows accumulated as summits passed, including a notable flare up in 2002 when British Prime Minister Tony Blair protested to him over generous EU subsidies for French farmers.”You have been very rude, and I have never been spoken to like this before,” said Chirac.Ironically, a 1998 agreement between Blair and Chirac laying down the foundations for a robust European defence strategy will perhaps be seen as the best thing either man did for Europe.Despite that rare moment of Franco-British co-operation, Chirac clearly felt threatened by the increasing influence of what he termed “Anglo-Saxon culture” across the world.Nampa-ReutersThe Berlin celebrations were muted not because of his imminent departure, but because the 27-nation bloc is still struggling to overcome the setback caused by French voters’ rejection of the EU’s first draft constitution in 2005.An EU constitution was Chirac’s idea, as was the referendum.The French president wanted the treaty to make Europe strong in a “multipolar” world, but when the time came to sell his big idea to the electorate, he failed spectacularly.”He has a pretty miserable balance sheet in the European Union,” said Francois Heisbourg, of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.”Many things went wrong, but the referendum was his biggest failing.”Ironically, the stalemate over the constitution has forced the Union to hobble along under the terms of the much derided 2000 Nice Treaty, which was agreed at a record-breaking five-day summit presided over by Chirac.That treaty produced the bloc’s most convoluted voting system chiefly because of Chirac’s refusal to allow an enlarged Germany more votes than France.Chirac hailed the summit as a triumph; others called it a farce, a fiasco and a failure.”Chirac’s European policy has been a disaster and unfortunately it was in a period when leadership was really needed,” said Richard Whitman, senior fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London.As in so many other areas of his 45-year political career, Chirac was inconsistent when it came to Europe, veering from fierce Euroscepticism to euro-militancy before settling into what he termed euro-pragmatism.Often pragmatism meant a staunch defence of French interests – a nationalistic approach that led to a rapid deterioration of the Franco-German partnership that had done so much to build the European Union during its first 40 years.Unlike his predecessor Francois Mitterrand, Chirac never built a lasting relationship with any German chancellor and analysts say European integration as a whole suffered.”It was different with Mitterrand,” then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said after a bruising 1998 summit at which Chirac used bulldozer negotiating tactics to ensure that a Frenchman would become the second head of the European Central Bank.Chirac and Kohl’s successor, Gerhard Schroeder, briefly managed to get the Franco-German motor purring again after a rough start when they united in opposition to the US-led war on Iraq in 2003 and to preserve generous farm subsidies.But the duo united mainly against liberal reforms of the EU economy, and Chirac’s tongue-lashing of east European countries that dared to support Washington over Iraq did lasting damage.”They missed a good opportunity to shut up,” Chirac said in 2003 in a remark that isolated him as the EU expanded east.Such bluntness was on show at Chirac’s first EU summit as president in Cannes in 1995.He picked fights with the Greek and Dutch prime ministers and was accused of riding roughshod over other partners, including Italy and new Nordic member states.The rows accumulated as summits passed, including a notable flare up in 2002 when British Prime Minister Tony Blair protested to him over generous EU subsidies for French farmers.”You have been very rude, and I have never been spoken to like this before,” said Chirac.Ironically, a 1998 agreement between Blair and Chirac laying down the foundations for a robust European defence strategy will perhaps be seen as the best thing either man did for Europe.Despite that rare moment of Franco-British co-operation, Chirac clearly felt threatened by the increasing influence of what he termed “Anglo-Saxon culture” across the world.Nampa-Reuters