FRANCE: The time has come for Europe to be far more ambitious, France's minister for Europe tells Lara Marlowe as Giscard D'Estaing publishes his first full draft European constitution
The French Minister for European Affairs, Ms Noëlle Lenoir, will spend today in Dublin, where she is to meet her Irish counterpart, Mr Dick Roche, the Joint Committee for European Affairs, and the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox.
Ms Lenoir will discuss outstanding issues on the Convention on Europe, which is due to present a draft constitutional treaty on June 20th, and the Irish presidency of the EU during the first half of 2004.
That will be a critical time for the future of Europe, encompassing the accession of 10 new states, the annual Lisbon Agenda examination of European economic and social policy in March and the possible conclusion of a Treaty of Dublin, which could become the constitution of Europe.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is scheduled to visit Paris on September 12th as part of his pre-presidency consultations.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms Lenoir says she does not know if Mr Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, the chairman of the convention, will present a finished document to the European Council by the June 20th deadline. "It's 50/50," she says.
"France is not involved in the timing. A couple of months is not a big issue when you're drawing up a European constitution. The more time that passes, the closer our positions come together."
Two issues crucial to the balance of power between small and large EU countries have proved most difficult to resolve in the convention: attempts to reduce the size of the EU Commission and the proposal to replace the revolving six-month presidency of the council with a known European leader, nominated by heads of state and endorsed by the European Parliament.
Ms Lenoir stresses that her predictions on these two issues were only personal opinions. "At the end of the day, I think the convention will consider that every country - the 25 members - should all have a commissioner," she says.
Her prognosis will come as a relief to Europe's smaller countries, who fear losing influence if the Commission were reduced to only 15 members, as proposed by the Convention.
Maintaining one commissioner for every country "seems a logical step in the acculturation of these [new member\] countries in Europe", Ms Lenoir explains. "It would help them get accustomed to the way institutions function and give them the visibility they need for their public opinion."
France was also considering a Benelux proposition to appoint 15 commissioners and 15 associate commissioners who would also participate in decision-making.
Ms Lenoir believes the proposal for a president of the European Council will pass. "Everyone realises that it's the European Council that sets the political pace of European construction," she says. "You cannot have endless Inter-Governmental Conferences and conventions. The people on the European Council are those who are recognised politically and not only in their countries. French citizens don't know the Swedish agriculture minister or the Portuguese finance minister, but everybody knows Aznar and Blair."
The French minister rejects allegations that Mr Giscard, a former president of France, pursued a French agenda in the convention. "His positions seem balanced to us," she says.
"It's true that we submitted very few amendments [when the 12- member presidium presented draft articles this spring\]." But this was out of a desire not to trammel up the process.
"We want the convention to have been useful," Ms Lenoir says "because the convention is truly a democratic forum. The Inter-Governmental Conference is less transparent, so we want the maximum possible number of differences to be sorted out in the convention."
(The IGC will complete any matters not resolved by the convention and will begin under the upcoming Italian presidency.)
Although France has long campaigned for "a tighter, more operational Commission" and the broadest possible extension of qualified majority voting, Paris did not insist on these issues because "we want Europe to work".
The common foreign and security policy was the only area where France took a strong stand, she says. In January, President Jacques Chirac and the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, proposed that the EU's foreign policy - but not its defence policy - be decided by QMV.
Their suggestion was not accepted by the convention, so France proposed an amendment to make more CFSP issues - especially proposals made by the future European foreign minister - subject to QMV. This is one of the questions to be resolved by June 20th.
"We didn't accept [the convention's proposal on the common foreign and security policy\] because for us, one of the most important things for Europe is to be master of its own political destiny, even if this works against us when we're not in the majority," Ms Lenoir says.
"We think it is time to be far more ambitious. Our position evolved on everything else because we really want the convention to be a success. Vis-à-vis the citizens of Europe, at a time of slow economic growth and growing inequality, when the euro is over-valued, it's really not the moment to give the impression that Europe is adrift. Europe must be a ship that stays on course."
Putting a brave face on the Iraq war, Ms Lenoir says the discord it provoked was salutary for Europe. "The Iraq crisis was revelatory; it showed how states positioned themselves in relation to the European political project."
As for the east European candidates - who supported Washington rather than Paris and Berlin - Ms Lenoir believes progress in European defence would anchor them more firmly in the EU.
"The countries that emerged from the Soviet bloc feel an even stronger need for security than we do," she says. "They turn more naturally towards the transatlantic relationship for security."
Ms Lenoir says the Iraqi crisis "is to an extent resolved, since the United Nations resolution [voted last week\] reflects a consensus between Europeans and Americans." Henceforward, she adds, "we'll no longer talk about the position of this or that European country in this crisis. Now we're working in a more consensual way, on a European level."
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said however last week in Paris that Washington had not forgotten French opposition to the war. "On our side, there is a very strong desire to make our relations [with the US\] work," she says, noting that President Bush will be Mr Chirac's guest at the G8 Summit in Switzerland next week.
A lawyer by training, she spent "some of the best months of my life" teaching at Columbia University in New York.
"We feel no hostility, no acrimony towards the Americans, but there is a reflection about Europe and it doesn't mean that Europeans should put themselves in a closed chamber and not worry about the rest of the world."
Since the Nice Treaty referendum, the Irish are regarded as champion communicators on European issues and Ms Lenoir hopes to pick up a few pointers from Senator Maurice Hayes and Mr Patrick Mara, who ran the Irish information campaign.
"If I were making an advertisement for Europe, I'd choose Ireland because of the transformation of the society, the way it has interacted with the rest of the world, despite being an island," she says. "Our image of a traditional Ireland has been totally changed, by two women presidents, by economic dynamism, by the showcase of Dublin. There are very good Irish people at the Commission, [the EU Secretary General David\] O'Sullivan and others. Ireland fits like a glove into the community mould."
If so much flattery is not enough to make Ms Lenoir's Irish hosts blush, there was even more praise. "I like Pat Cox a lot," she adds. "He is very well liked in France and by the President of the Republic. He's a good president of the parliament who has a lot of personality, who is very open, with a fantastic human touch."