French President Nicolas Sarkozy was on Thursday forced to back down from an ambitious plan to launch a Paris-led "Mediterranean Union" linking the EU's southern states in a political club with Turkey and the Maghreb and Middle Eastern countries, including Israel.
Sarkozy had planned to launch the bold new union when France took over the presidency of the EU in July, but climbed down after fierce opposition from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
At an EU summit in Brussels last night, Sarkozy and Merkel jointly proposed a much looser grouping, to be initiated at a summit of EU and Mediterranean countries in Paris in July.
FOOTING THE BILL
Worried that Sarkozy's plan would split the EU, while leaving the wealthier countries of Germany and Scandinavia footing the bill for an exercise in French aggrandizement, Merkel was said to have threatened to boycott the Paris summit unless Sarkozy scaled back his plans.
"She was very firm," EU diplomats said. "They had quite a fight about this."
German sources described the compromise last night as a face saving deal for Sarkozy that gutted the scheme of much of its substance. The new organization would still be called a Mediterranean Union, but bore faint resemblance to the original French blueprint.
PERSONAL CHEMISTRY
The collision over Sarkozy's project was the latest in a series of clashes between Europe's two key leaders. Diplomats say the fundamental problem is one of personal chemistry, with Merkel's self-effacing sobriety jarring with Sarkozy's attention-seeking theatricality.
The Mediterranean Union was conceived by Sarkozy's adviser Henri Guaino, who hoped it would put Paris in a dominating position in the Mediterranean while restoring its leadership credentials. It would have linked the southern countries of the EU with 11 countries in north Africa and the Middle East.
Sarkozy called for "a political, economic, and cultural union of which our children would be proud" in a speech in Tangiers last year.
Britain also opposed the plan, suspecting it was designed to wreck any chance of Turkey joining the EU. Britain is Turkey's biggest supporter in the EU, while Sarkozy is outspokenly opposed to Ankara joining.
SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
Merkel warned Sarkozy that his idea would have divided the EU into traditional spheres of influence. Last night's deal was preceded by 10 days of difficult negotiations between Paris and Berlin.
The result is that all 27 EU countries will be "equally" involved in the new association and that Sarkozy has scrapped planning for a summit of Mediterranean countries in Paris in July.
While backtracking, however, Sarkozy has succeeded in pushing the Mediterranean issue up the EU agenda and establishing new structures and positions to bolster his ideas, diplomats said.
There are to be Mediterranean summits every two years and two co-presidents to head the new union.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS