President Sarkozy is still ever so angry with David Cameron for upsetting him and his friends, the Germans, in Brussels last week. The cheek of the UK to veto a new Treaty that would confirm the German-Franco alliance as firmly in control of Europe. Sure, bossy boots Angela Merkel would be in charge, but he, the French President, would still hold enormous power as her right hand man.
While last week the others, minus the UK, welcomed closer co-operation, it seems that on reflection the price might be too high for some countries, who now appear to regret their initial positive responses and are back-tracking like crazy on the German-French attempts for greater integration within the EU.
Meanwhile, France looks likely to lose its AAA credit rating. In its anger over this humiliation, senior French politicians and the head of France's central bank, who should know better, have unleashed a volley of undiplomatic broadsides against the British economy, suggesting that if any country is to be downgraded, it should be the UK.
Perhaps there is some truth in that, but it is the Eurozone's inability to tackle the financial crisis, rather than just hold meetings to discuss Treaty change, which is causing anxiety within the markets, leading to worries about France's ability to deal with its own debts.
At some point in the future governments will take revenge on the likes of Standard and Poor, the credit rating agencies responsible for the current downgrades that cause countries so much pain. These are commercial organisations, with enormous influence, who appear capable of weakening further any economy in difficulty. Are they just telling it like it is...or is it their actions that precipitates the problem?
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