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Sarkozy offers UK regular talks on Europe
Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, has proposed that France and Britain hold regular meetings to “harmonise” their positions ahead of important European Council summits, raising the suggestion on the eve of Gordon Brown’s first visit to Paris as UK prime minister.
Sarko will sing the lead and Brown will sing the 'harmony'.
The proposal echoes previous – and unsuccessful – initiatives to form a “troika” of the European Union’s three biggest members to shape the 27-member organisation’s agenda.

Mr Sarkozy’s spokesman said France and Germany had recently shown the fruits of their strong partnership by delivering a draft institutional treaty for the EU and resolving governance problems at EADS, the aerospace group in the way the French wanted.

German and French leaders hold summits every six to eight weeks and joint cabinet meetings every six months. But the spokesman said neither country considered this bilateral arrangement to be “exclusive”. He said the EU could benefit from Britain’s economic dynamism, adding that the country should be at the “heart of the European construction”.

Mr Sarkozy has long argued that the bigger EU countries should take the lead in steering the enlarged organisation. As French interior minister, Mr Sarkozy helped set up regular meetings with his counterparts in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland to co-ordinate immigration and anti-terrorism policies.

However, smaller EU members – and the European Commission – have resented any suggestion of being dictated to by the big powers.
Since it threatens their own rice bowls.
“We are all for harmonising positions. But our view would be that it should not be at the expense of the small [member countries],” said one British diplomat.

German diplomats said on Thursday that Berlin would be relaxed about any moves to formalise French-British relations, as Germany already has close ties with both capitals.
Posted by: lotp 2007-07-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=193987