Today's Date:

THE MINISTER – Well, I think we had a difficult task during the last months. We had to try to find a common position on Iraq. Unfortunately it hasn't been possible, the war happened and now we are in a new phase and we are working very hard to have all the international community back together, working together for the reconciliation and the reconstruction of Iraq.

THE MINISTER – I think at the time the international community said that there was a risk of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction that's why we decided to have a collective process, to have a multilateral process, to have the UN with the inspectors trying to find out the truth. And we have been having a very strong statement in the UN with many others in trying to heed the inspectors – we said: "they are the eyes, they are the hands of the international community" in order to find out the truth, it's always very difficult to know exactly what's going on in such countries. We need time, we need patience, we need experience and expertise and we thought the inspectors were the best in a position to find this truth. That's why we were willing to stick to this process that was decided by resolution 1441. That's why we thought, at the time, that there was no reason to go forward for a military intervention unless everything has been tempted, unless we had the certainty that it was not possible through this political process of the UN to find the truth.

THE MINISTER – I think we are all willing to learn from experience. It has been difficult times and now there is a different situation in Iraq and in the Middle East. We all face the difficulties of the task and there is one thing that I am sure: we need to be united if we want to be efficient. The only way for the international community to be efficient is to be united and legitimate, that's why we think we have to work in common in Iraq, that's why we need to have a political process that it is supported by everybody. We met in Paris with the Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan, and he decided to send a team back to Iraq in order to help this political process. We are really willing also to help this process and, really, we do consider that after the end of June when Iraq will have a provisional government it might be important to have an international conference in order to have all the countries of the region. We need to have everybody going in the same direction and we need to have the international community back together because the stakes are very high, the challenges are very high, terrorism is still a big, big challenge for all of us, so we need to be all together if we want to win.

THE MINISTER – We have to be very careful because the Middle East is a very complex region and there is a huge diversity of situations. The situation in Iran is not the same in Saudi Arabia, is not the same in Lebanon, not the same Syria or in Egypt, so trying to have just a strategic, global view of this region, you can make mistakes if you do that. You have to be very concerned by each situation, try to assess each difficulty and of course try to work together and go and help every government to reform, to evolve to go through democracy, but we cannot dictate our will to the region. So we need dialogue, we need reform, but we have to go in a very peaceful way, in a very good understanding, we have to be very careful, not to create more opposition. There is one thing we learn from the past months, there is some kind of analogy to many people of this region, many groups and more force will raise more violence. We think that in the peace process, if you are going to only bet on the security policy, security policy will not give you more security, security policy will give you more uncertainty, more violence, more terrorism. You need to have also a real peace strategy, you need to have a two-track policy, of course to have security, but on an another hand you have to work very closely in defending a peace strategy. That's exactly what we want in the Middle East and that's why we think we should go back to the UN initiative of the peace process.

THE MINISTER – You see, America is an independent country, Americans are going to decide who is going to be their president and I'm sure they'll make the right choice.

THE MINISTER – I don't think it is so much a matter of which administration is going to rule. I think we have to face reality, it is a difficult world. And it is difficult for everybody. There is one key which is needed. If you want to be efficient, if you want to solve the problem you need to work together. It has been difficult during the last month, we need to do better, we all want to do better. I'm going to be in New York in a couple of days, I'm going to meet with Colin Powell and discuss many of the items, many of the challenges we have to face and I think this is the real key. Diplomacy can do much. But we have to work together and I think it has to be the key word. We know that at 25 we are going to be stronger but we need to get a capacity of deciding together, we need to have a common rule that's why we need a Constitution. If we are going to get this common rule then Europe is going to be able to face the challenges of the world in a much stronger way.

THE MINISTER – Certainly not.

THE MINISTER – No, because I think there is a way, an evolution of history at least in terms of opening the economy, multiplying exchanges with the rest of the world. This is the history, we have to face it. It's true for everybody and for every country. But I think we have to face what happened, which is very important. What we've done during in the last twenty, thirty years among Europeans has been very important. We've gone a very long way, of course we want more. The question is we have to face at the same time the challenge of enlargement and the challenge of the new rule of the Europeans: how to work together at 25? Of course, you cannot work at 25 in the same way we were working at 15 or at 6. You have to change the rule if you want to be efficient so we want a more democratic Europe, we want a more transparent Europe, we need a more efficient Europe. That's why I think it's so important for the Europeans to have today a Constitution.

THE MINISTER – It's very easy. First because we all consider that we have only one president. This presidency is the Irish presidency and we all respect the capacity, the wisdom, the leadership of Ireland to lead Europe during these six months. It's very important. There is no discussion about it. Why are we meeting? We are meeting because we need to talk, we need to discuss the different possibilities. For many, many years, for decades, there has been the Franco-German couple. Some people have been criticizing this couple, some people have been saying how good it has been for Europe. Of course, we need to maintain this capacity, it's important also to have this same discussion with the British so we are willing to have this capacity of dialogue enlarged. Of course, it's not for these countries to decide for the rest of Europe. It's not one solution which is going to be discussed at three and the rest of Europe. No, it's only a matter of proposing. During the last months, the German and the French have been proposing a certain amount of solutions for the agriculture policy, for the institutions, for the Turkish candidacy, this has been helpful for the Europeans, it's not in any way dictating what the Europeans have to do, it's just a matter of proposing, trying to have these countries who may face some difficulties between them to discuss further more and then trying to keep the ball rolling and of course the Irish presidency is going to be well informed of everything that we have been discussing. Transparency and dialogue and full responsibility, these are the keys so in anyway this is against any part of Europe, this is done closely, in full transparency but I think we are facing such a challenge that all of us in bilateral way or maybe at three or at four, we need to meet in order to get closer to a solution. I've been meeting my colleague from Poland with Joschka Fischer, we are going to meet with Ana Palacio in a couple of days, all this is part of the process of dialogue. Of course the Irish presidency needs to be informed at every step, the Irish presidency is going to take the lead, and tell us how it wants to manage and discuss things, it is the responsibility of the presidency and we all respect that.

THE MINISTER – Well it's very difficult for a Frenchman to explain that. It might be easy for a friend to explain that and give his own vision. I think that France for many centuries had a certain sense of history and of responsibility. The Revolution of 1789, a certain sense of universalism. We believe that we need to take full responsibility for what we are and how we see the world that's why when we believe in something we stand firm on principles. Today we believe that we need to find different way of dealing with the problem of the world respecting principles, respecting the law not force. These are very strong elements which we believe and I think it's important to stand still.

THE MINISTER – I don't think in any way it is against anybody. It's a matter of conviction, of belief. Today I believe that we share among Europeans the same belief and we are very happy to be able with our European friends, to be able to defend this belief in many different ways when we are dealing with Iran, when we are dealing with the problem of the Middle East. I think all together we share most of the time the same views but of course there is the identity of each country and in our identity there is a very big belief that we should stick to the principles like history gave us. We've gone through very, very difficult times in our history like many countries, like Ireland, through wars, civil wars, world wars, and from all this of course experience taught us that we need sometimes to stand firm on a certain number of values. So we believe in these values and we want to defend them./.