Furious French slam Barroso’s ‘reactionary’ jibe:

11 years ago | Posted in: France, Latest Politics News | 1078 Views

France has reacted with indignation to EU Commission head José Manuel Barroso’s accusation that countries – such as France – are “reactionary” for wanting to keep cultural subsidies off the table in forthcoming free trade talks with the US.

The French media on Wednesday accused European Commission President José Manuel Barroso of deliberately failing to support EU states ahead of forthcoming trade talks with the US.

One respected French daily, Le Monde, openly accused the Commissioner of siding with the “Anglo Saxons” because he was angling for the leadership of either the UN or NATO when his manadate ends next year, positions that would require approval from the US administration.

At the heart of the argument is France’s insistence that its “cultural exception” – the idea that the country’s artists should be protected from international competition through state subsidies – is not negotiable in forthcoming free trade talks with the US.

France believes the “cultural exception” is every bit as important as the City of London is to the UK, because it allows the country to maintain a thriving film industry despite massive competition fromHollywood.

On Friday, a compromise was reached between EU leaders agreeing to the French demand to exclude cultural subsidies from talks, but which also stated that the Commission could come back on the question if necessary.

Without explicitly naming France, Barroso accused those fearful of a US cultural invasion of Europe of being “reactionary” and having “an anti-global agenda.”

“Some say they belong to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely reactionary,” he told the International Herald Tribune on Monday. “They have no understanding of the benefits that globalisation brings also from a cultural point of view,” he added.

Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said at a daily media briefing Monday that the word“reactionary” was not aimed at France but at “those who on the sidelines launched personal attacks” on Barroso.

Reaction to ‘reactionary’ jibe

For the French, to be called “reactionary” is particularly insulting. The word is used to describe views so old-fashioned as to be anti-revolutionary and “ancien regime” [used to describe the “bad old days” of absolute monarchy in France].

French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti said Barroso’s comments were “absolutely awful”, while right-wing European lawmaker Rachida Dati, who was a minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, demanded he resign on the grounds that he was “kowtowing to the United States.”

And in an unusually barbed headline on Wednesday, French newspaper Le Monde accused Barroso of being “neither loyal nor respectful” to the EU member states he was supposed to be representing.

The editorial claimed Barroso was cosying-up to the “Anglo Saxons”, accusing the Commissioner, whose EPP party is unlikely to put him forward for a third mandate in 2014, of “looking for a nice job as head of the UN or NATO.”

“So he has chosen to pander to the Anglo Saxons,” Le Monde said. “As head of the Commission, Mr Barroso has been a perfect reflection of Europe: a decade of going backwards.”

‘A dangerous precedent’

European officials have repeatedly warned that excluding any economic sector from the forthcoming talks could hand the US an early bargaining chip in what promise to be tough negotiations.

And speaking to the Financial Times on Tuesday, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate finance committee which is responsible for trade, said the concession to French demands had set a “dangerous precedent” that could undermine negotiations.

“That the European Union appears to have already taken issues, like audio-visual services, off of the negotiating table is of serious concern and something that will have to be carefully scrutinised during the upcoming trade talks,” he told the newspaper.

“We need a comprehensive agreement that will lead to economic growth, not settle for one based on the lowest common denominator. It would set a dangerous precedent for future trade negotiations and undermine the goal of establishing meaningful market access.”

sources:http://www.france24.com

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