FRANCE BURIES THE EU CONSTITUTION

LUXEMBOURG June 16, 2005 (Telegraph) - France performed a historic about-turn yesterday and abandoned the European Union constitution to its fate, dropping demands that other nations ratify the treaty.

Days before a crisis EU summit, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, simply waived Paris's insistence that the treaty still be put to the vote, country by country.

"Our humble and modest position says we simply respect the position of each member state," said Mr Douste-Blazy.

(Before joining M. Villepin's dynamic 100-day "new impulse" government as the jackleg foreign minister, you may remember M. Douste-Blazy as the minister of health in M. Raffarin's inertial 1,100-day "no impulse" government.)

He added that it was not up to France to "dictate" how others should proceed [M. Douste-Blazy appears to have been very poorly coached on the French order of the universe -- ed.], but then raised the stakes in the battle over the EU budget by accusing Britain of selfishly refusing to pay the bill for enlargement last year, when 10 nations joined the EU.

President Jacques Chirac had repeatedly called on other member states to carry on with referendums or parliamentary votes on the text. Desperate to avoid being isolated after a No vote, Mr Chirac allied himself with 10 nations that had already ratified the text.

His government endorsed a contentious argument that all nations were obliged to hold votes before a November 2006 deadline - a regulation that federalist leaders claimed to find buried deep in the text.

That position has now abruptly collapsed...

Now, many readers may find France's magnanimous recall of "demands" she had no standing to make confounding. But having single-handedly killed the constitution, how nice that France should think to bury it as well.

Being the first plebiscite to have voted down the largely French concoction is a distinction that France would prefer to share -- if not off-load entirely. We have already reported on French them-tooism. Of course, "them-toos" cannot be guilty of killing that which France has rendered wholly defunct. So France has ginned up a bold self-exculpation: Britain is to blame.

BRITAIN IS BRANDED BLACK SHEEP OF THE EU

LUXEMBOURG June 14, 2005 (Telegraph) - France yesterday launched a campaign to cast Britain as the black sheep of Europe, declaring that if Tony Blair did not abandon its £3 billion-a-year rebate he would block all hope of a deal on a new European Union budget.

France's focus on enlargement is part of a broader strategy to blame Britain for the No vote against the EU constitution in last month's French referendum.

Mr Douste-Blazy said it was clear that French and Dutch voters had in large measure been expressing concerns about the recent enlargement of the EU.

Firing a warning shot against future additions to the Union, Mr Douste-Blazy said that the draft EU constitution had been a vital legal basis for the further enlargement.

[Mr. Blair] accused Mr Chirac of ignoring the implications of the French vote against the new EU constitution and of being out of touch with 21st century reality.

The French President holds Mr Blair partly responsible for the results and has retaliated by attacking Britain stand on the rebate.

[All emphases added.]

We followed the OUI folk's campaign closely. How odd that we should have missed this damning central French complaint in the run-up to the plebiscite. Like us, we imagine a good many French plebs are hearing it for the first time too. Though now it is more excuse than position.

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