EU in Chrisis?

The EU summit talks regarding the long-term budget for the EU have collapsed after no agreement was made regarding the UKs rebate and Frances refusal to negotiate farm subsidies.
A plan forwarded by Luxembourg was rejected by the UK as it would have meant the UK giving up 18 billion euros with no solid assurance that the French would agree to a reform of farm aid.

source

So just how serious is the split between Britain and France? Will it blow over and be business as normal when the UK takes over Presidency of the union in six months time or will this rumble on and cause real damage to the union itself long term?
Also after watching the news breaking on Sky it seems the French and Germans are putting the blame squarely on Britains shoulders. Are the Germans and French trying to deflect attention from Frances failiure to gain a yes vote in the recent referendum away from old Jacque?

[edit on 17-6-2005 by Janus]

(Love the avatar, Rossi is the man!)

I reckon it was all a big synthetic row and a distraction from the referenda results.

Nothing needed to be decided now so it wasn't.

I expect the calls for a 'time for reflection' to be heeded and despite the words of some little of actual substance to happen for a while now.

Originally posted by Janus
Are the Germans and French trying to deflect attention from Frances failiure to gain a yes vote in the recent referendum away from old Jacque?

The simple answer being yes, however this could however unlikely could spillout into a real political conflict drawing in real arguement within the EU.

I guess its a sit and wait game...

How serious do you think the rift is between the UK and the Franco-German alliance ( bit dramatic maybe but to a layman such as myself thats what the cozy relationship between France and Germany seems like ) is?
It seems as though the French President has received a bloody nose from his own people and now wants to not just deflect attention from his faliure but use the UK as a scape goat for that faliure.
Watching the footage of Tony on Sky he did seem a tad wound up after coming out of the summit meeting, some heated debate maybe?

[edit on 18-6-2005 by Janus]

Things may shift to the UK's advantage Chancellor Schroeder maybe heading out of office before the end of the year and Chirac is becoming more and more unpopular with his own countrymen if de Villepen can't form an effective government and he falls then bye,bye Chirac.