Mis-alliance
From Mr John Laughland Sir: It is rather odd of C. Francis Warren (Letters, 10 November) to adduce the Elysee Treaty of 1963 in support of his view that the Franco-German axis will continue to dominate the EU, especially if he thinks that this influence will be exerted in an anti-American and anti-British direction. When the German Bundestag ratified the Elysee Treaty, it unilaterally appended — as a result of intense American and British lobbying — a notorious preamble which completely destroyed the original treaty's Gaullist logic. Because it committed France and Germany to 'a close association between Europe and the United States', 'common defence within Nato', 'the admission of the United Kingdom and other states to the European Community', and the development of transatlantic free trade within Gatt, de Gaulle realised at the time that he had been soundly defeated. Now, everything on the Bundestag's Atlanticist wish list has been fulfilled.
John Laughland
London W6
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