Background on the fascinating saga of my leaked email back in 2005 which was splashed over the front page of the Sunday Times.

What do EU Budget negotiations and Clint Eastwood have in common?

Lots.

Once upon a time the EU decided that it needed a new Treaty to move itself on to the ‘next stage’ of development. So a ‘Constitutional Treaty was drafted. And as there were controversial questions about its impact on national sovereignty, in some countries calls for a referendum became noisy.

Thus it was in 2004 that then PM Tony Blair announced that ‘the British people would have the final say’ on the Treaty. This was included in the 2005 Labour Manifesto:

It is a good treaty for Britain and for the new Europe. We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a ‘Yes’ vote to keep Britain a leading nation in Europe.

The announcement of a referendum on the Treaty in the UK came as an unwelcome surprise to France’s President Chirac – the more so since he had not been tipped off by us about the announcement. So he announced that France too would hold a Treaty referendum.

He timed it cleverly, for May 2005. His Plan was simple. To cruise comfortably to a ‘Oui’ victory then leave the Brits twisting in the wind during our EU Presidency in the second half of 2005 as we drifted towards an inevitable No vote and a ghastly crisis over our very EU membership. This prospect started to make some people in the FCO nervous.

But things did not work out as planned. Dieu neanmoins existe.

The French loudly said Non. 

Poor M Chirac: Le Ciel Lui Tombe sur la Tete. Never has French champagne tasted so sweet on British gums.

To profound French chagrin, this debacle meant that far from being their much anticipated British disaster the UK’s 2005 EU Presidency and British leadership became the EU’s best chance of pulling itself back on to its feet. 

One key part of this lay in agreeing during our Presidency the new EU Budget (‘Financial Perspective’) for 2007-2013. An important issue: this was the first new Financial Perspective negotiated after the historic 2004 EU enlargement to bring in to the Union new member states from former communist Europe, not least Poland where I was Ambassador.

It was agreed that a bigger EU meant a bigger Budget. But how much bigger?

Most people think that these vast and detailed and bad-tempered Budget negotiations are complicated. They aren’t.

Which brings us to the greatest ever Clint Eastwood movie line:

You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people my friend:
Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.

In the EU Budget process there’s two kinds of member states my friend: Those who Get – and Those who Pay.

And when all the blather, tantrums and polemics are cut away, which category decides the size of the new budget?

Let’s see ……

Oh yes. Those who Pay.

To be continued