Finance rift deepens between UK and France
Nicolas Sarkozy cancels visit to London after Gordon Brown reportedly says he is too busy to see him
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Friday, 04, Dec 2009 10:32
By Matthew Champion.
Relations between Britain and France took a turn for the worse after Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to cancel a visit to London when Gordon Brown said he was too busy to meet him.
The French president had wanted a bilateral meeting with the prime minister to smooth over cracks in their relationship after disagreements over financial regulation.
But recent inflammatory comments from Mr Sarkozy led Whitehall sources to say Downing St was in "no mood" to rearrange the prime minister's diary to meet with President Sarkozy.
Recent weeks have seen a deepening row over financial deregulation in the City and the EU.
French finance minister Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying: "Nobody can say that no regulation, or soft regulation as Gordon Brown called it when he was chancellor, did us any good.
"Everybody agrees that the system must change."
Mr Sarkozy escalated tensions when he described the British as "losers" after the EU commissioner job for internal market went to former French foreign minister Michel Barnier.
"The English are the big losers in this business," the French president told Le Monde, adding that the "free-wheeling Anglo-Saxon model" of financial regulation was over.
Mr Barnier tried to play down the row to the Reuters news agency.
"There is no reason for this controversy as the rules of the game are clear. I plan to work with everybody," he said.
"I'm not an ideologist. I'm very practical. Everybody needs to calm down."