Munster MEP Pat Cox achieved a parliamentary coup in Strasbourg this week. As the parliament debated the debacle at the recent Brussels monetary summit, it sought ways to make its anger felt at the bullying tactics of the French without actually blocking the agreements reached. All amendments failed but Cox's passed by 214 votes to 213.
Cox proposed that the Dutch head of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, who has been persuaded to retire halfway through his eight-year term to make way for Frenchman Jean Claude Trichet, should delay his departure by a couple
of months. Thus, Jacques Chirac's boast that a Frenchman would hold a top job in the bank for the next 12 years would be scuppered. If Duisenberg delayed his departure past the four years, there would be a period when the French would have no one at all on the bank board. A subtle stroke, thought Cox's colleagues, and they voted accordingly.