After Strife, France, U.K. Stress Common Ground

By WILLIAM HOROBIN

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, welcomes British Prime Minister David Cameron at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

The relationship has been in choppy waters in recent months as the two countries have diverged on Europe and economic policy.

Mr. Cameron angered Mr. Sarkozy in December with his refusal to sign up to an EU treaty designed to stem the protracted euro-zone crisis and prevent future ones. The two leaders were filmed failing to shake hands at a summit meeting of European leaders in December in Brussels and members of the French government later claimed there was now a two-speed Europe.

Subsequent sniping late last year from French officials about the U.K.'s economic strength and its triple-A credit rating heightened tensions. Deputy U.K. Prime Minister Nick Clegg described the comments as "simply unacceptable" and called for a change of rhetoric from Paris.

"I believe it's a relationship that is easily strong enough to survive the odd bump or bounce when we sometimes have a disagreement," said Mr. Cameron, after the Franco-British summit in Paris on Friday.

Related Video

Columbia Business School Professor Shang-Jin Wei visits the News Hub to preview this weekend's meeting of G20 finance ministers and points out key economic issues topping the agenda. Photo: Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images

"I've always been convinced of the importance of Great Britain, I've always thought the 'entente cordiale' should become an 'entente amicale'," Mr. Sarkozy added.

The "Entente Cordiale" was a series of agreements signed in 1904 between France and the United Kingdom, which marked the end of intermittent conflict between the two nations.

The U.K. isn't in the euro zone, but Mr. Sarkozy and his allies had hoped the whole of the European Union would throw its weight behind a treaty change and send a strong message to markets that were pushing the currency bloc apart. The U.K. meanwhile, refused to sign up as European peers would not give guarantees on loosening Brussels' grip on the regulation of U.K. financial markets.

In Paris, Messrs. Sarkozy and Cameron tried to emphasize common ground. They welcomed deals worth around €500 million ($656.7 million) signed between French nuclear giant Electricité de France SA and French reactor vendor Areva SA that marked another step in multibillion-dollar plans to build new atomic power plants in the U.K

The contracts underscore the French and U.K. governments' continued support of nuclear energy even as Germany and Italy last year halted their atomic plans following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. EDF is spearheading the U.K. nuclear revival, using Areva's reactors, with its plans to build a new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, southwest England.

"The deals signed today reflect our ongoing desire to work closely together with our French allies and the private sector on nuclear, and across the energy mix," said U.K. Energy Secretary Edward Davey.

The leaders also presented a united front on foreign policy, promising to look at new ways to help opposition to the violent crackdown of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And they said they will pursue their plans to cooperate on building a new drone aircraft together.

"The strength of a relationship is when you can have disagreements but actually then be able to go on working together on all the areas that you agree on," said Mr. Cameron.

Mr. Sarkozy said the two leaders had worked on "methods" to reduce the country's differences and move in the same direction on Europe, although nothing concrete was revealed on that.

"There have been differences between us, which are traditional subjects, that are linked to traditional opposing positions of France and Great Britain on the question of Europe," said Mr. Sarkozy.