On Friday night, François Fillon, the French prime minister, interrupted an official visit to Brazil to call Mr Clegg to “clarify” his recent comments that Britain’s credit rating should be reviewed.
The Deputy PM told Mr Fillon that his recent remarks and those by other senior French figures had been “simply unacceptable and that steps should be taken to calm down the rhetoric”.
The conversation came as a major credit rating agency warned the French that it could downgrade the country’s rating in the medium term.
Fitch Ratings affirmed France’s AAA rating but lowered its outlook for the French economy to negative, which usually means a downgrade is possible in 12–18 months.
David Cameron and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, enjoyed a “positive” discussion ahead of an official German visit to London next week. The conversation has added to speculation that Nicolas Sarkozy is becoming isolated in Europe.
Downing Street aides said that the Prime Minister has “no plans” to contact the French president and added that it was up to Mr Sarkozy to make contact in the wake of recent comments made by his administration.
Earlier this week, Mr Fillon said that Britain was in a worse economic position than France and the country’s central banker indicated that this country’s credit rating should be downgraded.
On Friday, François Baroin, the French finance minister, stepped up his attacks saying: “You’d rather be French than British in economic terms.” The comments are thought to be an attempt to put pressure on credit ratings agencies not to act.
However, the “megaphone diplomacy” has been shrugged off by Downing Street. “We have no plans to call but if Sarkozy wants to telephone the Prime Minister, I’m sure the comments of recent days will be raised,” said one government source.
Mrs Merkel yesterday telephoned Mr Cameron in the wake of the Prime Minister’s decision to veto a pan–European treaty and ahead of the German foreign minister’s visit to London for talks with William Hague, his UK counterpart, on Monday.
Mrs Merkel is understood to have made it clear that she wants the new treaty to focus on issues of “fiscal discipline” rather than the more over–arching plans put forward by the French. The German chancellor has also backed British officials being allowed to take part, but not approve, discussions on the new treaty.
However, Robert Zoellick, president of the head of the World Bank, said last night that European financial issues were “far from solved”. He said there was no “magic bullet”, but said Europe needs to create a fiscal union, through an expanded European Financial Stability Fund or by more flexibility from the European Central Bank.
His comments came as Fitch Ratings also placed the ratings of Spain, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, Ireland and Cyprus on “rating watch negative”, which means a downgrade is possible in the next three months. It also cast doubt on the eurozone’s ability to solve the debt crisis.
“Fitch has concluded that a ‘comprehensive solution’ to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach,” it said.
