France, Spain remain different over European Constitution, Iraq

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 07, 2003

France, Spain remain different over European Constitution, Iraq

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

French President Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar failed to bridge their differences on the draft European constitution and the Iraqi policy during their annual meeting Thursday in southern France.

Chirac has called on Spain to remain "as close as possible to the balance" of the draft Constitution proposed by President of the European Convention, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, according to French televisions.

"If we drift away from the logic of the Convention, the functioning of the European institutions will be less efficient," Chirac was quoted as saying.

For his part, Aznar said he does not understand that why the Constitution drafted by the Convention does not follow the principle of the 2000 Nice Treaty that gives Spain a similar voting power to that of the four big nations -- Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

Under the proposed new constitution, the weight is increased for the four big because they represent 60 percent of the EU's population.

The annual summit between Chirac and Aznar was held in Carcassonne, a medieval walled city in southern France where the two were accompanied by their foreign and interior ministers.

The summit came ahead of an EU summit in Brussels on Dec. 12-13,at which the European institutions will be on top agenda.

However, both Chirac and Aznar hailed the friendship between the two countries despite the differences.

France and Spain have a relation "like that two Latin sisters could have -- it is profound despite all the irritability that they could have," said Chirac at a press conference at the end of their meeting.

France maintains "very particular relations" with two European nations, with Germany "for historical reasons and for the reason of a common vision of the future of Europe," and with Spain -- a country with which France agrees on "90 percent of points of view," said Chirac.

On the remaining 10 percent, Chirac listed the differences overthe European Constitution and wished that an agreement could be reached before the end of this year.

On Iraq, Chirac also recognized that the disagreement remains between Paris and Spain. "We are ready to do our best for the return of sovereignty to the Iraqis. The quicker the better," said Chirac.

Aznar said Spain will maintain its diplomatic and military personnel in Iraq despite the aggravation of situation.

"There is no intention on our part to pull out our diplomatic personnel, our experts or our military forces. We have only decided to group our civil personnel into one place for security reasons," said Aznar.

France and Spain were at opposing camps over the Iraq war. Chirac fiercely opposed military intervention to oust the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, while Aznar sided with US President George W. Bush, backing the invasion and subsequently sending troops to help rebuild Iraq.

During the meeting, French and Spanish Interior Ministers Nicolas Sarkozy and Angel Acebes have decided to deepen bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism and drug-trafficking.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Is English invading Chinese culture? ( 20 Messages)

Chinese fleet visit heart of US forces in the Pacific ( 15 Messages)

Global survey: Chinese women sexiest ( 56 Messages)

Economist: China has no need to worry about possible trade deficits ( 3 Messages)

Japanese students, teacher make apology in Xi'an ( 17 Messages)

China expects to see trade deficit in near future: official ( 9 Messages)