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August 30, 2005
The French Want to Leave the EU.
The only way I can read this story is that the French want to leave the European Union:
François Loos, France's minister for industry, said in an interview with the national newspaper Les Echoes that his government wanted certain "strategic" French sectors to be protected from foreign takeovers.
While not declaring which sectors, he said that metal companies such as the nickel maker Ermet were important to the French economy, as was the food manufacturer Danone.
Both have been the subject of takeover rumours in the past few months, causing both President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to call for "economic patriotism".
If such a list were acted on, this would directly contradict EU laws governing the free investment of foreign capital around Europe.
The Single Market is the very heart of the entire structure. This idea goes directly against that. So it would seem that they wish to leave. My suggestion is that we have a big party and wave them bye bye. Couldn’t happen to a nicer country.
August 30, 2005 in European Union | Permalink
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» The Maginot Line from A Fistful of Euros
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» The Maginot Line from A Fistful of Euros
I can't help feeling that no sooner do I lift someone up than I find I have to knock him down again. I ended the last post offering a best case scenario excuse for Jacques Chirac, but now another topic... [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 30, 2005 11:10:49 AM
» The Maginot Line from A Fistful of Euros
I can't help feeling that no sooner do I lift someone up than I find I have to knock him down again. I ended the last post offering a best case scenario excuse for Jacques Chirac, but now another topic... [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 30, 2005 12:55:18 PM
Comments
No, this is actually quite interesting. There is in fact very little in the way of "EU laws governing the free investment of foreign capital around Europe". The Treaty of Rome establishes a single market in goods, and it establishes a "right of establishment" ie allowing you to set up a business in any member state.
What it doesn't do (and this is not an accident; there has been no shortage of attempts to get it off the ground) is establish a single capital market.
In the mid 1990s, just at the time when the OECD's Multilateral Agreement on Investment was bting the dust, the good people at DGXV decided that the "right of establishment" in the Treaty of Rome could be interpreted as a right to buy a controlling stake in an already existing establishment. They won a key victory against the Portugese government over Antonio Champalimaud's sale of his Mundial Confianca group's banking assets to Banco Santander of Spain. However, there was never a definitive ECJ verdict, the whole matter turned on some pretty shaky-looking jurisprudence and the Commission has been notably shy in trying to push the point against countries (for example Italy) that look like they might fight back. They're presumably hoping to build up enough precedent against the likes of Portugal and Greece to establish case law for when they take on the big battalions.
But the fact of the matter is that the single European capital market is a bit of an urban myth, and the rights of national governments to block overseas takeovers by companies based in other member states are much greater than a lot of people think.
Posted by: dsquared | Aug 30, 2005 8:39:07 AM
Now if we can just get the Germans to go with them........
Posted by: Chris harper | Aug 30, 2005 10:46:54 AM
So are shares not goods?
Why shouldn't a UK company be able to buy say a French company? Why they would want to I do not know!
Perhaps it would be something for Mr Stumbling to look at whether theirs a link between takeover activity and employment?
Posted by: Rob Read | Aug 30, 2005 11:50:18 AM
Obviously its not a clever idea to deny a company foreign investment like this, so can someone please explain how Nestle is such a success?
Posted by: Rub-a-Dub | Aug 30, 2005 1:57:57 PM
Obviously it's not a clever idea to deny a company foreign investment like this, so can someone please explain how Nestle is such a success?
Posted by: Rub-a-Dub | Aug 30, 2005 1:58:52 PM
Interesting as this is it really just boils down to another case of the Frogs getting in a hissy fit when the EU thing doesn't enhance La Gloire Francaise.
The whole euro "project" was merely an attempt by the French elite to extend their control to Germany and the smaller countries on the quiet when they finally realised the age of Napoleonic militarism was over.
Personally, I think the best thing the Brits can do is hang in there and sabotage every attempt by les crappauds to recreate the First Empire. Keep rubbing their noses in the inferiority of their "social model". Buy their bankrupt businesses. Embarass every (illegal) attempt by their government to shore up failing enterprises. Eventually they will get pissed off enough and leave of their own accord.
This is far more likely to sound the Union's death knell than an exit by the UK. Then with the Germans still in peacnik mode and France humiliated.... Britain will rule Europe.
Boohoohaha! Boohoohaha!
RM
Posted by: Remittance Man | Aug 30, 2005 2:27:06 PM
Well RM, this is precisly what some of us patriots do. Of course, we have to suffer Tim telling us we are all fools and knaves, but we cope manfully.
Posted by: rjw | Aug 31, 2005 12:17:18 AM
OK. I've had one of my "special smarties" and a little lie down and Nurse says I can play in the interblogweb thingy again if I promise to be good.
Seriously, rj, I'm probably closer to Tim's thinking on this issue than my last outburst might indicate. When the Euro enterprise does come crashing down it's likely to be a bit messy. The further the UK is from the big pile of poo when it lands the better.
Dreams of a British euro-hegemony are all well and good for my more maniacal moments, but realistically the country would be far more use to Europe as an independent, functioning economy when everything does go pear shaped across the Channel.
Sorry to disappoint you and all, but better out than in remains a good motto.
RM
And if, as a by-product, the country does become the leading power in europe so much the better.
Posted by: Remittance Man | Sep 5, 2005 12:15:41 PM
