Euro-Speak

I haven't seen much commentary in the blogosphere on the interesting remarks of President Chirac to his colleagues Schroeder and Putin at their recent meeting in Kaliningrad.

"The only thing they [the English] have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow," Chirac quipped, according to the paper, prompting laughter from Putin and Schroeder.

When asked about Chirac's reported comments on Monday, French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told reporters: "I have nothing particular to say."

Relations between France and Britain were already at a low point, with Blair and Chirac blaming each other for the failure of June talks on the EU's long-term budget talks.

Blair, of course, was absent - and so when the talk turned to such subjects as EU farm subsidies and Britain's role in resisting them, M. Chirac evidently felt it safe to be rather more frank than usual. The Reuters report noted:

Blair, who took over the EU presidency last week, has irked Paris with his drive to cut EU farm subsidies.

Chirac took the opportunity to snipe at British food. "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that," he joked, the paper said. "After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."

The race between Paris and London to host the 2012 Olympics is further testing relations. Blair wrote in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune on Monday that London was the "perfect venue" for the games.

The French newspaper Libération went further in its report:

"What about hamburgers?", asked Putin, who still cultivates a vestige of rivalry with the United States. "No, no, hamburgers, that's nothing", answered Chirac. And the French president recalled how the Scotsman, Lord Robertson, the former secretary-general of NATO, had made him taste a special ragoût (haggis) of his country: "From there, our difficulties with NATO..."