HOSTILITY BETWEEN French president Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso over French Roma expulsions overshadowed a debate at the summit on reform of the EU budget rules.
Angry at the commission’s characterisation of the expulsion as being akin to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and Roma, Mr Sarkozy is reputed to have used the summit lunch to launch into a strident attack on Mr Barroso.
The controversy erupted when justice commissioner Viviane Reding said the French expulsion policy recalled “a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the second World War”. But Mr Barroso later distanced himself from the Nazi analogy attributing it to the heat of the moment.
EU sources said this was not enough for Mr Sarkozy. The French leader engaged in angry “histrionics” over the meal and made accusations that “the commission has done everything wrong”, they said.
Observers also said he strongly implied that the commission should not go ahead with mooted legal action against France over the expulsions, a policy which the Sarkozy administration says is fully in line with the law.
Mr Sarkozy made no secret of his anger last evening, telling reporters that Ms Reding was distorting history. “All the heads of state and government were shocked by the extreme views of the vice-president of the commission,” he said. He also said the subject was now closed.
The confrontation was widely expected after Mr Sarkozy, who was the first to arrive to the summit yesterday morning, suggested that Ms Reding’s home state of Luxembourg should open its doors to Roma migrants.
The poisoned relations between Paris and the commission follow accusations that the EU executive was turning a blind eye to the expulsion policy. Many of Mr Sarkozy’s critics believe the policy is a political ruse to distract attention from his flagging popularity.
The controversy continued after the summit, when Mr Barroso directed criticism towards Mr Sarkozy and said there should be “no distractions” at such meetings. “In the heat of the debate there were remarks that should not have been made,” he said of the original remarks from Ms Reding. “The vice-president of the commission has recognised this. Others should do the same.”
Amid continuing divisions between the major EU powers on reform of its budget rules, there was little sense of progress on new measures to improve the governance system or on the resolution of differences over sanctions on persistent rule breakers.
The debate was a “work in progress”, said Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
