Hollande gives Cameron a little payback !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146089/Seven-snubs-Cameron--revenge-Frances-new-leader-ahead-face-face-talks.html

Seven snubs for Cameron... the revenge of France's new leader ahead of first face-to-face talks

• PM set to meet Hollande for first time after he publicly backed his opponent
• The new French president is set to snub seven key Cameron policies

By TIM SHIPMAN

PUBLISHED: 17:04 EST, 17 May 2012 | UPDATED: 17:04 EST, 17 May 2012

• Comments (0)
• Share

Snubbed: Prime Minister David Cameron is set to clash with new French president Francois Hollande over a number of key policies

New French president Francois Hollande will deliver seven snubs to David Cameron today after the Prime Minister publicly backed his opponent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Hollande will open up splits with Britain in key policy areas when the two leaders hold their first face-to-face meeting.

Diplomatic sources said that Mr Hollande plans to:

• Withdraw French troops from Afghanistan long before the British plan to leave.
• 
  
• Abandon his predecessor Mr Sarkozy’s support for Mr Cameron’s demands to freeze the European Union budget.
• 
  
• Push for a Europe-wide financial transaction tax, which will hit the City of London most severely.
• 
  
• Launch a fresh bid to end Britain’s EU budget rebate won by Margaret Thatcher.
• 
  
• Fight harder than Mr Sarkozy did to protect France’s Common Agricultural Policy payments.
• 
  
• Promote wider EU defense co-operation, including the prospect of a Euro Army long resisted by Britain.
• 
  
• Argue that EU countries should abandon austerity measures to boost growth.

*  *  *  * 

Officials say the French government has noted that Mr Cameron went far further than other leaders in publicly backing Mr Sarkozy to win the election – an act that has set back cross-Channel relations.

IMr Hollande’s demand for a European financial transaction tax would leech billions from the City of London. ‘That is one of Hollande’s four main economic policies,’ a diplomatic source said.

He will also signal a fresh attempt to abolish Britain’s EU budget rebate when negotiations open next year.

That deal will set the EU budget until 2020. Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy agreed it should rise by no more than inflation. But a diplomat said: ‘Hollande thinks they will need to increase the funds a little bit more than that.’ 

He plans to maintain close defense links with Britain, but he will unsettle the Ministry of Defense by calling for wider European defense co-operation. That raises the spectre of French lobbying for a Euro Army, which Britain has always resisted.

Mr Cameron and President Obama will both beg him to abandon his pledge to begin pulling French combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, with the final pull-out early next year.