Brussels blog

The bad feeling between France and the Czech Republic is finally out there for everyone to see. For anyone who likes their European Union united, it is not a pretty sight.

Suspicion was in the air even before the Czechs took over the EU’s rotating presidency from France on January 1. The French doubted that the Czechs would be up to the job. The Czechs sensed that President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to stay in the spotlight even after the end of France’s six-month EU presidency. “Old Europe” was in the red corner, “new Europe” was in the blue, and Round One was about to start.

Since last week, things have gone from bad to worse. Sarkozy infuriated Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek by suggesting in a television interview that French car companies should move their production back to France from eastern Europe in return for receiving French government tax breaks.

Topolanek responded by telling the Czech newspaper Hospodarske Noviny, in an interview published on Monday, that Sarkozy’s remarks were “unbelievable” and capable of wrecking the Czech government’s efforts to secure parliamentary approval of the EU’s Lisbon treaty.

Later on Monday, France officially announced a €6bn aid plan for the French car industry. But the details had already been widely leaked. Topolanek got in first by announcing in Prague that he intended to summon EU leaders to Brussels in late February for an emergency summit on how to respond to the financial crisis and recession. He specifically cited what he called Sarkozy’s “protectionist steps and statements” as the reason why a summit was necessary.

The abyss of EU disunity was reached later still on Monday when the Elysée palace published a letter on its website from Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel. This letter proposed a summit of exactly the kind that Topolanek had just announced. Tellingly, it was addressed to Topolanek (and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso) but made no mention of the Czech leader’s initiative!

The truth is that the French are not alone in thinking that the Czech EU presidency isn’t going well. There is a widespread view in western European capitals that the Czechs are not giving a decisive lead on the financial crisis. Many think the Czechs are too prone to express their own opinions, rather than act as the impartial co-ordinator of 27 governments’ views.

But the Czechs think Sarkozy and the French government never gave them a fair chance in the first place. They think his remarks on the car industry were outrageously over the top and that his economic nationalism is dangerous for the EU.

Doubtless the row will be patched up eventually. But when you consider what’s at stake in terms of fighting the financial crisis and recession, this is not the EU’s finest hour.