Cameron need only quote Sarkozy in Toulon!

One week before the night during which David Cameron withstood the combined assault of Sarkozy and Merkel in a pre-dinner session in Brussels, the French President had stood before a gigantic tricolour ( the larger the flag, the greater the humiliation it sought to hide I figured) and announced a set-back to French diplomacy on a scale unseen since Marshal Pétain revealed the formation of the Vichy government. The full report of the Toulon speech is already linked from this blog. For this comment I am quoting from extracts issued by the French Embassy in the UK, linked here.

In considering Cameron's actions, one week after this speech, imagine the following proposals if they referred to your own country:

There’s a reality everyone needs to understand, that everyone needs to accept: sovereignty can be exercised only with others.

Europe does not mean less sovereignty but more sovereignty because Europe means greater capacity for action.

Sovereignty is more easily defended with allies than alone. That is the great lesson to be learned from the history of the 20^th century. (…)

France and Germany, after so many tragedies, have decided to unite their destinies, to look together to the future. To go back on that strategy would be unpardonable.

As I blogged last evening, (which may be read immediately beneath this posting) sovereignty is not divisible, which is why the EU is now setting out to control it ALL.

Sovereignty is a unique entity, singly controlled, everything else is merely delegated authority, such as that British local councils obtain from Westminster, albeit the EU is endeavouring to also destroy that relationship and substitute its own authority!

France and Germany have chosen convergence. I shall never go back on that choice. That does not mean that one wishes to hang on the coat-tails of the other, or that both wish to abandon their identities to the point of merger.

Choosing convergence does not mean choosing imitation but choosing together to learn the lessons of each other’s experience.

Choosing convergence is about working together, sharing the effort to build at the heart of the European economy an area of stability and confidence that will be the engine of European competitiveness. I shall do everything to ensure this comes about.

Europe is no longer a choice. It is a necessity. But the crisis has shown up its weaknesses and its contradictions. Europe must be rethought. It must be put on a new footing.

This is a matter of urgency. The world will not wait for Europe. If Europe does not change fast enough, history will be written without it.

Of that France and Germany are convinced.

Europe needs more solidarity. But more solidarity demands more discipline.

The redacted version of the speech provided by the French Embassy in London, does not contain the passage about the new treaty, therefore as it is key, I must paraphrase from my own memory of watching the entire performance, neither is the quote in the two earlier links this blog has provided, it went more or less as follows - France and Germany have decided to enter into a new treaty, which they will invite the other countries to join! That surely is the crux of the matter and given all the other content, the reality available, could not be more clear.

My understanding of the sub-text aimed at his closest party supporters in the hall and the watching wider French nation was as follows: French banks are in danger, only Germany has the means to save them, we must accept German control to weather this crisis, the rest of Europe must plot their own course........ in other words Vichy worked before and France emerged fairly unscathed, this too might save our banks and France will eventually come through again.

I do not believe any British leader, of any party, at any time could sign up for a treaty with such underlying mood music. I am surprised that 24 other countries at first appear ready to do so, and will be further amazed if those numbers are maintained.