Back to Gideon RachmanI had forgotten some of the little rituals of EU summits. So it was a pleasant surprise - on entering the Justus Lipsius building this morning - to see the video screens announcing “free gift for journalists”. Claiming my bounty from the Slovenians - who are currently presidents of the EU - was a bit like taking part in a treasure hunt. You had to walk through a maze of sub-terranean corridors, following the arrows labelled “Gift-Cadeau”. Eventually I was presented with a black t-shirt, bearing the baffling slogan - “I feel Slovenia”.
There are certainly no gifts for the Irish on offer here, after their own baffling rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. After the summit, it is even clearer that the game plan is to get all the other 26 countries to ratify - and then to pressurise the Irish to vote again. But there are still a couple of snags. First, the Czechs are dragging their feet and may have trouble with their constitutional court. Second, nobody really seems to have thought through what happens if the Irish say “No” a second time.
I think the Germans would be strongly tempted to try to sling them out of the EU. But others - the British; the Scandanavians; the Poles - would resist. And that really would be a crisis.
Gordon Brown must have rather liked this summit, since he found himself in the unusual position of being admired and praised for his decisiveness. It’s clear that the British government’s decision to ratify Lisbon on the eve of this summit was really important in allowing the EU to recover some of its poise after the Irish setback. The British decision gave the EU new confidence that the treaty will eventually come into force.
But while Brown got plenty of pats on the back, President Sarkozy has all the star quality. I literally couldn’t get into Sarko’s press conference because the room was so packed. By contrast, there were plenty of free seats at Brown’s post-summit briefing.
Apparently in the closed sessions for leaders, the French president is quite a spectacle. He speaks with force and conviction. But he cannot hide his boredom when other leaders are talking - particularly those from the small countries. Sarko yawns, fiddles; drums his fingers on the table and sends constant texts from his mobile phone. This is felt to be impolite.
From July, however, Sarko is the man in charge - as the French take over the presidency of the European Union for six months. He has promised that one of his first trips will be to Ireland, where he will attempt to woo the Irish back to the bosom of the Union. That will be worth watching. Meanwhile I am wondering what kind of free gift for journalists the French might come up with?
This blog covers a variety of topics from US foreign policy to European politics and the Middle East - and whatever else happens to be in the news or catch my attention. I joined the FT as chief foreign affairs commentator in 2006, after a 15-year career at The Economist which included stints as a correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok and Washington. I write a weekly column on foreign affairs, which appears in the paper on Tuesdays. Occasionally my FT colleagues contribute posts to this blog.
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