Alphen, Netherlands. 2
July. It was as predictable, subtle and
French as a first tasting of a Chassagne
Montrachet Premier Cru – full of hidden complexity and fascinating ‘notes’. French President Hollande’s condemnation of Edward
Snowden-alleged American spying in Europe was dramatically shrill. “We cannot accept”, the President thundered,
“...this kind of behaviour between allies and partners”, before going onto
suggest that France might now scupper talks on the proposed EU-US Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
One could be forgiven for taking French ‘hauteur’ at face value were it
not for the fact that my well-informed sources tell me that DGSE, the French
external intelligence service, runs one of the most effective foreign
intelligence operations in North America.
So, why is France angry?
Many in the French
elite still believe that more Atlantic means less Europe and that the next five
years or so will be critical for the European Project. It is a zero sum game view of West-West
relations that could potentially cripple the TTIP and which is already doing
damage to NATO.
The first evidence that
France was seeking to block the TTIP came on the eve of the recent UK-hosted G8
Summit when Paris raised the thorny issue of French ‘l’exception culturelle’. Paris demanded, in that ‘take it or leave it’
way that France’s partners find so endearing, that French cinema and other
artistic endeavours be exempted from any transatlantic free trade
agreement. British Prime Minister David
‘Short-Term’ Cameron, desperate for a diplomatic success, failed to see (or chose
not to see) that this was the very French end of a very French wedge.
Chancellor Merkel is also
upset by alleged US spying. This is partly because the state abuse of information is a
sensitive issue given Germany’s past and she is in the midst of an
election campaign. However, German
‘irritation’ will soon pass. First because most US spying on and in Germany takes place in partnership with German
intelligence. Second, because Chancellor
Merkel believes the TTIP could help the Eurozone economies
to become more competitive by creating a single market big enough and safe
enough for export-driven growth. Third,
a transatlantic single market would potentially be big enough to make it in Britain’s
economic interest to stay in the EU. Fourth, the TTIP would provide a free market alibi for further German-led European integration.
The Paris elite buy none of that. Anti-Americanism still runs deep along the banks of the Seine. On the statist Left French political leaders
have long cut their teeth on an abiding loathing of what they see as the
rampant, inhumane and unfettered capitalism of the American model. On the Gaullist Right American power in
Europe has long been seen as an affront to French honour and a barrier to French
ambitions to craft Europe around France.
This anti-American reflex
comes to the fore at moments of political and economic stress such as today, often in
combination with a none-too-subtle ‘faux grandeur’. President Hollande’s recent assertion that France
would not be dictated to by the European Commission was at the very best
political irony and at worst hubris.
Paris seemed to be saying to the Commission – by all means tell all other 27
EU members what to do...but not France.
In fact it is the Germans who most concern Paris. France is only publicly going along with the
TTIP because that is what Angela wants.
And yet implicit in the Merkel Plan is a free-market world view much
closer to that of the dreaded and perfidious ‘anglosaxons’ than the statist traditions upon which France is built.
Sadly, the Paris elite
simply cannot face today’s revealed truth; France’s ‘social model’ view of
Europe is dead. ‘Europe’ will only have
a long-term future if the EU helps Europeans to earn their way in the world. The EU will fail if it remains as it is
today, a failing, ageing coffer dam creaking under the growing weight of a flood of change. This is precisely what many on the French Left want the EU to be - 1950s analogue political engineering in a digital age. The creation of the TTIP would be the first
step on the road to a Europe competitive in a hyper-competitive world.
The bottom-line is
this; if France continues to seek excuses to block TTIP talks Paris is aligning
itself with the forces of the past rather than the forces of the future. The irony is that it is forces from America's past that will probably in the end kill off the TTIP. An Unholy Alliance is forming between American and French farmers all of whom demand protectionism.
There is a final irony. France and the US
tried to agree a ‘no-spy’ deal similar to that which exists between the US and
UK but they could not agree what constitutes spying. That means the Americans could at any time reveal
the extent of French spying on them.
This whole episode reveals the Snowden story for what it is; a tragi-comic farce. Jacques Tati meets
Groucho Marx - now that would be fun!
Julian Lindley-French
