Blair frozen out as France and Germany lead the way
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Your support makes all the difference.Tony Blair's hopes of playing an influential role in shaping the direction of the EU suffered a setback at the Copenhagen summit yesterday.
Amid continuing froideur between the Prime Minister and Jacques Chirac, the French President, the recently revived Franco-German alliance was calling the shots.
The decision to delay a start date for Turkey's talks on joining the EU reflected France and Germany's caution. Mr Blair would have preferred a review before December 2004.
The row between Mr Chirac and Mr Blair over the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) at the EU summit in October has left a bitter taste in French mouths. "We still don't understand what Blair was up to," a French official said yesterday.
With a frustrated Mr Blair diverted by the controversy over his wife's links with the fraudster Peter Foster, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder facing economic and political woes at home, Mr Chirac was enjoying his position as the "strongman of Europe".
There were further signs of strain in the Anglo-French relationship yesterday. British officials insisted that CAP reform was still possible before the next review in 2006. But a French government source declared: "People can discuss whatever they want, but nothing will happen before 2006."
London and Paris have diverged sharply over EU defence co-operation, an initiative they launched together in 1998.
And Mr Blair's support for President George Bush over Iraq has raised hackles in Europe. There are growing fears in London that the Franco-German engine will now drive the convention, which is drawing up a blueprint for how an enlarged EU will work.
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