FRANCE: Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who would be president, yesterday proposed a plan to salvage parts of the European constitutional treaty while freezing enlargement and defining a "strategic partnership" for jilted would-be members such as Turkey and Ukraine.
Mr Sarkozy, the interior minister, deputy prime minister and president of France's ruling UMP party, is a leading candidate to succeed president Jacques Chirac in May 2007.
Speaking to more than 1,000 journalists at his new year's reception, Mr Sarkozy proposed an idea that has been making headway in French official circles, but was not expressed officially. "We must establish, working from the initial text, a shorter text based on the first part of the treaty, which would have as its sole objective organising the functioning of a 25-member Europe," he said.
Mr Sarkozy said an "evaluation mission" should tour European capitals to draw up this tightly- drafted text, in consultation with national parliaments, political parties and representatives of civil society. He said the shorter, more consensual text should be approved by the French parliament - not by referendum.
"It may be less ambitious, but we cannot remain without institutions," he added.
The French and Dutch 'no' votes "were in part provoked by people's hostility to a Europe without borders," Mr Sarkozy continued. "I regret that European leaders have not taken account of this.
"I believe it is necessary not to proceed with further enlargement as long as new institutions have not been adopted."
It was too late to stop Bulgarian and Romanian accession, Mr Sarkozy said, but consideration of applications by Croatia, Macedonia, other Balkan countries and Ukraine should be frozen.
"For those of our neighbours who do not have the vocation to become members, we should begin defining the status of strategic partnership with the European Union," he said, naming Turkey and Ukraine. Mr Sarkozy opposes Turkish accession; Ankara says it will accept nothing less than full EU membership.
Mr Sarkozy will discuss his proposal for a European "engine" comprised of "the six main countries - Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland and France - who represent 75 per cent of the population of the Union" with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on February 16th.
Asked whether he wasn't slighting Europe's little countries, Mr Sarkozy said the Union could be divided into "clubs" of countries: Spain and Poland at approximately 40 million; Italy and Britain at 60 million; a club at 80 million . . . "Below that, you have the Netherlands at 15 million, Belgium at 12 million . . .
"It's a mistake to think that a country with a population of four or five hundred thousand has the same impact," Mr Sarkozy said. "If you say all are equal, you end up with a meaningless system. That doesn't mean those with fewer inhabitants don't count . . . They must be able to associate themselves with all initiatives taken by the bigger countries. But they must not be able to prevent the others taking decisions."
Mr Sarkozy also proposed a strengthening of the French president's office, which he hopes to win next year. He wants the constitution to be changed to say the prime minister "co-ordinates" rather than "directs" the government - the president's job.
Mr Sarkozy is often accused of pro-American leanings, and several of his proposals for the French presidency appear to be imported from Washington: a limit of two five-year terms; a president who would explain his policies directly to parliament (currently forbidden by the constitution) and parliamentary approval for presidential nominees.
The press waited anxiously to see whether Mr Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, would attend his press conference. (She did not.)
Mrs Sarkozy was her husband's cabinet director until she moved to New York with a French public relations executive last summer. She returned to Paris - and Mr Sarkozy - with the couple's eight-year-old son on January 2nd.
This week, the couple made headlines by appearing together at L'Esplanade, a cafe frequented by journalists and politicians.
"I will not comment on my private life," Mr Sarkozy said when asked whether Cecilia would return to her job at UMP headquarters.