REUTERS

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (L) talks with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (R) at a European Union summit in Brussels, in this file picture taken December 9, 2011. It was billed as a summit to save the euro, but may be remembered as the day Europe lost patience with Britain, as most of the continent threw its lot in with EU founding members France and Germany and committed to binding their economies ever more tightly. Britain has always had an uneasy relationship with its EU partners. But this was a low point. The first time in 39 years that a British prime minister had used a veto to block an EU agreement. David Cameron cast it as a bold and necessary decision to protect British interests. To match Insight EUROZONE-BRITAIN/ REUTERS/Yves Herman/Files (BELGIUM - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)

Paris

The warm smiles and backslapping when Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron feted their Libyan victory in September were a distant memory as the French leader shoved Britain aside to make way for a new treaty to save the euro.

The ease with which Sarkozy left Britain stranded as the rest of Europe opted to steam ahead with new budget rules shows how little the island nation counts for today in Paris, as France and Germany battle to end a devastating debt crisis.

Dogged by a history of wars and insults, yet bound by a mutual fascination and an underwater tunnel that ferries thousands back and forth each day, Franco-British relations have blown famously hot and cold for centuries.

But Cameron’s veto of EU treaty change proposals cooked up by Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could mark a new chill as resolving Europe’s debt crisis takes precedence.

Sarkozy’s terse explanation in Brussels of the decision to leave Britain out of plans backed by all 26 other EU members was at odds with the chumminess he built up with Cameron over their mission to help Libyan rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy showed genuine friendship in September by lending Cameron a helicopter so he could rush to the bedside of his father, who had had a fatal stroke in southern France.

But in October he snapped at him during euro crisis talks in Brussels, suggesting he “shut up” and stop interfering. Such was the speed with which Cameron was dumped from the new European master plan that some suspected he had been set up to use his veto so France could nail the speedy inter-governmental deal it really wanted.

Waned

Set-up or not, it was evidence of how Britain’s influence had waned since it held the EU presidency in 2005, particularly with the eurosceptic conservatives now in a coalition government.

“Cameron was used,” said Jacques Reland of the Global Policy Institute. “Sarkozy wants to be re-elected. He needed a deal. Cameron played his part and I’m sure Sarkozy is grateful. You can’t have feelings in politics.”

Cameron used his veto after Sarkozy and Merkel refused to exempt London from stiffer financial regulations, worrying that Britain fancied becoming an offshore centre within Europe. Paris and Berlin can now speed ahead with plans to ramp up fiscal discipline, paving the way for the European Central Bank to put a swift end to the debt crisis by buying up more bonds.

For Sarkozy, it was a dream outcome, as it could stop France being sucked further into the euro crisis five months from a presidential election and make it harder for opposition Socialists to paint him as economically inept.

For Cameron, isolation from the rest of Europe will sideline Britain from crucial decisions that could affect trade and jobs.

As British tabloids dissected video footage to see whether Sarkozy had snubbed an attempt by Cameron at a handshake, the British prime minister insisted relations were unscathed.

“There was obviously fundamental disagreement… but it was done in a very good-natured way,” Cameron said

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Relations are intact,” Sarkozy’s top diplomatic adviser, Jean-David Levitte, said, stressing that Britain’s divergence from Europe did not affect its partnership with France in defence and foreign affairs.

– Reuters 8P7