IRELAND: The French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, will start his one-day visit to Dublin today with an hour-long meeting with the Taoiseach in Government Buildings, followed by consultations and lunch with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, at Iveagh House.
In the afternoon, Mr de Villepin will call on President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin. He will then deliver a speech on Franco-Irish relations, Europe and the world at City Hall.
Mr de Villepin's staff said he wanted to visit Ireland regardless of the Irish presidency of the EU, but European issues, particularly enlargement and the difficulty in reaching agreement on a European constitution, will figure high on the agenda. France is eager that any compromise brokered by Ireland would not drastically alter the draft document agreed last year by the Convention.
The French foreign minister may bring up Paris's ambition of extending qualified majority voting (QMV). France's desire for fiscal harmonisation in the EU is one of the few issues on which Paris and Dublin do not see eye to eye. Decisions on tax issues are still taken by unanimous vote, not QMV.
Mr de Villepin can be expected to try to reassure his Irish hosts that President Jacques Chirac's talk of "pioneer groups" in no way implies exclusion of countries such as Ireland.
French officials expressed admiration for the ambitious working programme that the Irish presidency has established for itself. They praised the Irish commitment to multilateralism and reform of the United Nations - key elements of French foreign policy - as well as the desire to increase development aid to Africa and take European initiatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "All these issues dovetail perfectly with our concerns," a spokesman said.
France is still suffering the consequences of its defiance of Washington before last year's Iraq war, and Mr de Villepin will be eager to hear from Mr Ahern and Mr Cowen how they propose to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. He will also want to discuss the European Security and Defence Policy and Irish proposals for economic reform in the EU.