PARIS -- For decades it was widely assumed that Europe needed an engine to go forward, and that France and Germany were best qualified to play that role. For the time being, however, this has ceased to be true. If any member aims to lead the European Union, it's Britain, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's views on the free market are winning ground, the last example being provided by Poland, where the conservative Kaczynski brothers have been swept into power. And the French and Dutch electorates' rejections of the EU draft constitution has freed Blair from holding the perilous referendum on the draft constitution as he had promised British voters.
The way French and German leaders from Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer to Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder managed to be close partners, and even friends, was quite an achievement, for two countries that have gone to war so often, but it could not last forever.