If Anyone Cares to Remember

…the French government does things pretty much at their convenience…

…so this shouldn’t come as any surprise, although it is nice to see the Europeans called on it in print.

Europe is the citadel of hypocrisy. Considering Europeans’ contempt for the United States and George Bush for not embracing the Kyoto Protocol, you’d expect that they would have made major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions—the purpose of Kyoto. Well, not exactly. From 1990 (Kyoto’s base year for measuring changes) to 2002, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, increased 16.4 percent, reports the International Energy Agency. The U.S. increase was 16.7 percent, and most of Europe hasn’t done much better.

Just like voting down the EU Constitution. Once that “all for one, one for all” European Union impediment was out of the way ~ Chirac’s artful breast-beating to the contrary ~ they’ve gone about steadily gobbling up assets in the national interest.

Suez and Gaz de France on Monday outlined the details of the shock move to create a French national energy champion by way of a €73bn merger between the state-controlled electricity group and the power and water group.
…The confirmation of the merger comes just days after Enel of Italy revealed it was considering a hostile bid for Suez. Dominique de Villepin, prime minister, on Saturday withdrew his objections to a full merger of GdF with Suez, saying his support was motivated by “the strategic importance of energy for France”.
Combining GdF, which dominates the French gas market, and Suez, whose Electrabel subsidiary makes it the biggest electricity company in the Benelux region, would create Europe’s second largest energy group by sales after Germany’s Eon and the world’s largest liquefied natural gas group. The two groups said the merger would create annual synergies of €500m.
…The merger has outraged politicians in Italy and unions in France. On Sunday Giulio Tremonti, Italy’s economy minister, accused France of protectionism. “The tendency of European states to build protective barriers must be stopped. We still have time. If not, we risk an August 1914 effect,” he said, referring to the start of the first world war.

Yup. For such a big, happy family, I wonder that they have any time at all to look down their Gallic proboscises at us.

2 Responses to “If Anyone Cares to Remember”

1. Tainted Bill says:

   February 27, 2006 at 3:59 pm

   The Rainbow Warrior is the sole French military triumph of the 20th Century.

2. tree hugging sister says:

   February 27, 2006 at 4:01 pm

   (And they had to go OUT of the country to even accomplish THAT…)