27 March 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Guardian Unlimited

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown today announced a joint initiative to equally fund education for 16 million children in Africa by the time of the World Cup in South Africa in 2012.

The two men revealed the plan standing on the turf of Arsenal’s Emirates stadium at the beginning of their Anglo-French summit. They have been joined by 13 French ministers who are holding bilateral talks with British ministers.

The summit comes towards the end of Sarkozy’s two-day state visit to the UK.

The French president and his wife spent last night at Windsor Castle as guests of the Queen and on their journey to Downing Street today they stopped to place a wreath at a statue of Sarkozy’s predecessor Charles de Gaulle.

It is thought the two leaders will have discussed Britain’s new generation of nuclear power plants. Sarkozy is keen to strike a deal with Britain for a joint nuclear power programme that aims to replace ageing power plants in the UK and to export technology to non-nuclear states across the world.

The French utility company — EDF — hopes to build at least four nuclear power plants in Britain.

Brown has said he would host a conference later this year for non-nuclear countries who aim to develop civilian atomic power programmes. The prime minister’s spokesman said an invite would be extended to Iran if it met its international obligation to cease uranium enrichment.

Today’s meetings followSarkozy’s speech last night to both houses of parliament last night.

In it, Sarkozy declared the birth of an Anglo-French axis as a force for progress in Europe and the world, on issues ranging from climate change and nuclear power to UN reform and the war in Afghanistan.

Addressing both houses of parliament, President Sarkozy delivered perhaps the warmest tribute to Britain given by any postwar French leader. Differences over the European Union and past rivalries, he said, could be overcome.

“In the name of the French people, I have come to propose to the people of Britain that together we write a new page in our shared history, that of a new Franco-British brotherhood — a brotherhood for the 21st century.

“If the UK and France together want more justice, the world will be more just. If the UK and France struggle together for peace, the world will be more peaceful,” he declared. To cement his proposed pact, he offered help in Afghanistan, drawing thunderous applause from parliament.

“France will propose, at the Bucharest [Nato] summit, to reinforce its military presence. We cannot accept a return of the Taliban and al-Qaida to Kabul. Defeat is not an option,” Sarkozy said. He did not specify the numbers of French troops involved, which will be announced at next week’s summit, but Nato officials say they expect 1,000 to be sent, either to the east or south of Afghanistan.

In Europe, Sarkozy argued, Franco-German friendship remained “indispensable” but it was no longer enough to keep the European Union vigorous.

For that, he said, “we need this new Franco-British entente”.

To that end, he called on Britain to get more involved in Europe. “I know it is a sensitive subject in Britain. It’s a sensitive subject in France,” he said.

Divisive debatesBut he argued that the divisive institutional debates about the EU’s future shape had been settled in the Lisbon treaty.

“Now Europe can devote all its energy to concrete projects: the struggle against climate change, energy, immigration, and the development of security and defence policy,” he said.

He also promised France was ready for reform of the Common Agricultural Programme, the EU farm subsidies which Britain has long wanted to overhaul. Sarkozy said the first phase of reform would take place under France’s EU presidency in the second half of this year.

Britain, with its historic links to America and the Commonwealth, could strengthen worldwide ties with Europe. “We need you inside Europe, not outside. We cannot build a democratic and effective Europe without the United Kingdom.

“Today, more than ever. Europe needs the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom needs Europe. Who can think that the UK would have more influence in the world if it returned to splendid isolation? Who could think that Europe would be stronger without British dynamism?”

On climate change, he declared, the two could lead the world, and in particular convince the US. “If the UK and France speak with one voice against climate change, this voice will be heard, even by those who doubt the seriousness of the threat to our planet,” he said.

“I’m thinking first of all of the US, because to prevent an environmental catastrophe the world needs America. Who better than its two most sincere friends to convince it to assume its global responsibilities, in the name of shared values for which they have shared so many sacrifices?”

On the reform of the United Nations and other global institutions, he said the two saw eye to eye on the need to make them “more just, legitimate and strong”. He suggested the G8 industrialised countries be expanded to a G13 or G14, by including China, India and Brazil.

British politicians across the spectrum were impressed. One minister called it an astonishing performance: “It is difficult to imagine any other French president delivering such a speech. It is interesting where it leaves David Cameron after the president said that Britain should be at the heart of Europe.”

One Conservative frontbencher said: “It was a superb speech. I’m not sure we remember de Gaulle so warmly, though. Britain gave him refuge and then he said ‘Non’ to British membership of the EEC.”

But another Tory said: “The speech was all about dressing up the European project in friendly language.”

Filed by Anita Li under Other, Development, The Environment, Climate Change