French Prime Minister François Fillon, on a quick trip to Strasbourg on 6 July, reiterated in the wings of the European Parliament the French position that the EP’s scrutiny of the future European External Action Service (EAS) should not cross a certain “red line”. “We fought,” he said, for the diplomatic service “not to be an umpteenth service of the European Commission” and for it to ensure “harmonisation of all foreign policies”. He added: “We support scrutiny [of the EAS] by the European Parliament” but “without crossing a red line”. The journalists on hand, confined by the European Commission’s services to a corridor and allowed to ask only two questions, were unable to learn more about the French position. Fillon, who had come for a lunch debate with President Barroso and the European commissioners on economic recovery policies, only had the time to give a defensive comment on the crisis that is shaking France after accusations of illegal financing of the governing camp.