HAHAAH fuck you Frogs! Fuck ya!

[MKSheppard]

British Stage Coup in EU

French despair as British take top posts in EU
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 27/08/2004)

British bureaucrats are racking up one success after another in securing coveted posts in the new European Commission to the chagrin of the French, who have traditionally dominated it.

Admired for a no-nonsense style, British fonctionnaires have secured a high profile as chiefs of staff in the team put together by José Barroso, the commission president.

The quiet summer coup by the British has set off a fresh bout of soul-searching in Paris, where angst over lost influence at the heart of the European Union has become a part of daily discourse.

Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the former interior minister, said this week that France had been brushed aside with the dud job of transport commissioner while the Anglo-Saxon camp had walked off with all the prizes. "It's undeniable that the free-marketeers and Atlanticists have taken the lion's share in this commission," he told Le Figaro.

With job selection barely beginning for the next five-year term, the British have netted the powerful cabinet jobs in the external relations, budget and trade directorates.

The French are trailing so far with only one senior appointment: competition policy. It is a poor showing for a country that has always regarded the commission as a branch of its own civil service.

The British-led "counter-revolution" in Brussels has been gathering pace with the arrival of the Austrians, Swedes and Finns over the past decade, but it has now shifted into a higher gear after the "Big Bang" enlargement of the former communist states in Eastern Europe.

Michel Barnier, the foreign minister, tacitly acknowledged yesterday that France had paid a price for its high-handed treatment of the new EU states and failure to grasp that Paris no longer had the clout to impose diktats on Brussels.

"France is not great when it is arrogant. It is not strong if it is alone," he told senior French ambassadors. "France certainly has to conduct its own diplomatic action without shrinking back, but it increasingly has need of others. And the first reflex, I say bluntly, must be European."

Mr Barnier, a former commissioner, insisted that France still pulled lots of the levers behind the scenes in the EU system. "The decline of France? Loss in influence? Let's stop running ourselves down," he said.

French officials hold the posts of president of the European Central Bank and the chief of the secretariat of the Council of Ministers, as well as retaining their stronghold over the powerful legal services across the EU apparatus.

The French had 42 director-level posts at the end of 2003, compared to 27 for the British, but this is a lagging indicator of influence.

The commission was set up as a replica of France's highly centralised civil service and was run by the same French official, Emile Noel, from 1958 to 1987.

Use of English was banned in the press room until 1995. Almost a decade later it already seems another world.

Heather Grabbe, from the European Reform Centre, said the British were now prized as top-notch administrators who got on with the job and resisted lobbying by national capitals.

Among key appointments so far, Stephen Quest, a former Whitehall civil servant, has been named chef de cabinet of the Lithuanian budget commissioner, Dalia Grybauskaite. Patrick Child, chef de cabinet for foreign policy under Chris Patten, will retain the job under Austria's Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Simon Fraser, head of the Foreign Office's Middle East division, will take charge of the cabinet in the trade directorate for Peter Mandelson.

[Admiral Valdemar]

How delicious.

[Dartzap]

"Dun Dun Dun, anouther one bites the dust"

repeat for every single post nabbed...

[Rogue 9]

*Insert mockery of the French here*

[SyntaxVorlon]

Poor Franks. Always getting the butt end of the rifle. It's odd since most french people aren't all that bad, it's just the Pariseans.

[Dark Primus]

I hope this line fits here:

"You have paid the prize for you're lack of vision."

[Master of Ossus]

I cannot emphasize enough how amused I am by France's unwillingness to admit that they're not a major world-power anymore. It's been HOW long since they lost almost all their colonies? And they're STILL going on about how everyone should bow down to them and their mighty language?

[SirNitram]

And Britain begins the steady process of assimilating the EU into it's own personal fiefdom. Time to start rummaging through the names in the hat for who gets to be prince of France when we're done...

[Dahak]

And Britain begins the steady process of assimilating the EU into it's own personal fiefdom. Time to start rummaging through the names in the hat for who gets to be prince of France when we're done...

Germany's still there

[SirNitram]

And Britain begins the steady process of assimilating the EU into it's own personal fiefdom. Time to start rummaging through the names in the hat for who gets to be prince of France when we're done...

Germany's still there

Yes, the eternal Darth Vader to our Palpatine. Ever ready to try and bump us off if they think they have the chance.

[TheDarkling]

This is hardly a surprise; Blair unlike his conservative predecessors actually realises that pretending the EU doesn't exist will not diminish its influence on us.

The infusion of the new 10 countries (2 of which used to be ruled by Britain in the not to distant past) has tilted things even further away from the French viewpoint especially given their arrogant display (thanks for the assist there Chirac, keep up the good work).

We also have the fact that the current members are beginning to move towards Britain’s more free market system (which is showing its clear benefits over the rigid Franco-German model), the Dutch appointee is an avid free marketer for example.

Still all is not lost for the French, the little Englanders may yet save their bacon by rejecting the constitution and sidelining us once again.

[Joe]

Awesome, it seemed like Britain was taking a somewhat lesser role in the EU when they should have been in the driver's seat. Not anymore!

[Illuminatus Primus]

"Britain should be in the driver's seat of Europe. Or the passenger seat, that's good, getta take a sleep for awhile...currently Britain isn't even in the European car; we're at the traffic stop going, 'We're gonna clean yo windows.'"

[CJvR]

As an EU citizen I can only point and say HA-HA!!!

[Mayabird]

Frogs? I don't think I've heard that term for the French before. Is it from frog leg eating?

I wonder how long they'll whine about not being big and bad at the EU before declaring moral victory because they decided afterwards that it's more civilized to not get their hands dirty with continental politics.

[Ma Deuce]

And Britain begins the steady process of assimilating the EU into it's own personal fiefdom. Time to start rummaging through the names in the hat for who gets to be prince of France when we're done...

The British Empire shall rise again: Different territory, same power. .

[Andrew J.]

Frogs? I don't think I've heard that term for the French before. Is it from frog leg eating?

That's the most obvious reason, but there are others. Centuries ago French people called Parisians frogs because Paris was swampy; Aleksandr Pushkin thought "Quoi? Quoi?" sounded like the croaking of frogs; Clovis I's emblem was a frog. It goes on and on.

[CaptainChewbacca]

This is hardly a surprise; Blair unlike his conservative predecessors actually realises that pretending the EU doesn't exist will not diminish its influence on us.

The infusion of the new 10 countries (2 of which used to be ruled by Britain in the not to distant past) has tilted things even further away from the French viewpoint especially given their arrogant display (thanks for the assist there Chirac, keep up the good work).

Which 2 countries?

[LordShaithis]

Good, good. A lot of us Yanks who fart in the general direction of the EU have been doing so because it's viewed as the French Club. Let the Brits take over and all shall be well.

[Joe]

Which 2 countries?

Malta and Cyprus, methinks.

[Gandalf]

Which 2 countries?

Malta and Cyprus, methinks.

I thought Cyprus was part of Greece?

[Rogue 9]

Which 2 countries?

Malta and Cyprus, methinks.

I would think Ireland would be one.

[Joe]

I would think Ireland would be one.

No, Ireland has been in the EU for several years, it's not a new entry.

I thought Cyprus was part of Greece?

There are strong cultural ties and there have been efforts to get Cyprus united with Greece in the past, but Cyprus has never been a part of the Greek nation-state.

[Rye]

I would think Ireland would be one.

Ireland has had Euros as it's currency for a while now.

[Crayz9000]

I'd be happy to see Cyprus as an independent country -- it would solve some problems -- but would probably raise more problems than it would solve. If it became an independent country and a part of the EU within a short time, things might work out, but currently Turkey is being a royal pain in the ass over it, and Greece will agree to a Turkish-dominated government of all of Cyprus around the same time Charlemagne takes power again in Germany.