Today's Date:

Foreign Policy

Interview given by Michel Barnier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the "BFM" radio station (excerpts)

Paris, April 5, 2005

THE MINISTER – President Chirac will represent our country at that very moving ceremony, and the composition of the government delegation accompanying him will be decided soon.

THE MINISTER – No, frankly, I haven't been surprised. Such world-wide emotion was to be expected at the death of a man who was – I was going to say – the man of almost two centuries, the one which has ended and the one which is beginning, and was a world citizen.

Over and above the personal emotion anyone can feel, regardless of whether they believe in Heaven, as a citizen, I have lasting gratitude for that man who did so much for peace and for what promotes peace, i.e. the dialogue between world regions, dialogue between religions and dialogue between civilizations. That was one of his battles, particularly when it came to young people, addressing the world's youth. And then, as foreign minister, I want to pay tribute to that pioneer of European reunification.

THE MINISTER – What I've just said clearly proves that he was far more than the pastor of the Catholic Church. He of course fulfilled that role – and how, with what charisma, and with what faith! But he was far more than that in those battles, which were constant (...) vis-à-vis that dialogue. Remember those pictures where we saw him embracing the leaders of all the other Churches and encouraging dialogue between all religions, which, fundamentally, is a factor promoting peace and stability in our world. And then, the battle for justice, remember those pictures in the poorest districts of South America and elsewhere! Indeed I think that, because of the length of his pontificate and the charisma and force of his messages, his words, John Paul II played a very great role in the changes which have occurred in our world.

THE MINISTER – In the Convention, chaired by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and even in the Presidium I was a member of, we had very long fascinating debates on this. (...) And in the end, we came up with a turn of phrase acceptable to everyone: those who wanted no mention of Christian origin or roots and those who wanted to put everything, even sometimes including the name of God in the European Constitution as is the case in some national Constitutions. We finally achieved the right balance acceptable to everyone: the reference to religious heritages.

THE MINISTER – I was certainly not going to seek anything from the Americans, just as they don't seek anything when they come here, as Condoleezza Rice did a few weeks ago, and President Bush did when he made his first visit to the European Council in Brussels. It isn't a matter of knowing what we're going to seek from each other, but of what we Europeans and Americans, we French and Americans, together, can do to take up the world's challenges, those ahead of us: the challenges of terrorism, security, poverty, development and the great diseases which have to be combated. These are the great challenges facing the world. Are we Americans and Europeans tackling them together?

THE MINISTER – Yes, we are allies and I've often said that alliance doesn't mean allegiance. We have to talk to each other, frankly and often, and it's with this mindset that we meet to take up the challenges. This is what we did when the Americans chose, in the United Nations framework, to set in train a democratic and political process to end the tragedy in Iraq, and we are today supporting this political process. At the top of the agenda for us Europeans and Americans, and for us Americans and French, there is the pivotal conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Peace in the Middle East is necessary, is possible provided the Europeans and Americans – who have a fundamental role to play in the Middle East with the Arab countries, with the Russians and other members of the international community – pull together.

THE MINISTER – There's the dialogue which has resumed between Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, and this is already a sign of hope.

THE MINISTER – There was a conference in London which I took part in to support the Palestinian Authority in its reorganization, its reform, its imperative to reduce insecurity. There's the withdrawal from Gaza which Ariel Sharon, courageously, has decided to implement. These are the tasks: to make a success of the withdrawal from this first Palestinian territory in Gaza; there are also the efforts the Palestinians are making to reduce insecurity and reform their organization. There are also elections in Palestine in July (...). And we have to be there to support this dialogue and this process because they are extremely important. It's important for peace to return and for there to be concrete moves towards the creation of this viable Palestinian State, living peacefully alongside the State of Israel.

THE MINISTER – We were talking just now about peace in the Middle East. Things are moving everywhere, and, of course, what's happening in Lebanon is very important. Our sole objective in Lebanon, and I mean our sole objective, is that country's sovereignty, is for the Lebanese people at last to have the control of their destiny in their own hands. For this, there have to be free elections, and before these elections, the Syrian troops and Syrian services absolutely must have been withdrawn. So we note Syria's confirmed pledge to withdraw, to pull her troops and intelligence services out before 30 April. We're waiting for the report the Secretary-General's special representative, Mr Roed-Larsen, is due to make to the United Nations, for the effective concrete timely implementation of UNSCR 1549. Once again, what's important is for Lebanon now to regain her complete political sovereignty.

THE MINISTER – When people ask me that question, first of all I speak frankly; we are totally mobilized and will stay mobilized until Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun can come home. We have been from day one, exactly as we were in other circumstances – and these kidnappings aren't like each other – for your two fellow journalists Messrs Malbrunot and Chesnot.

THE MINISTER – The circumstances we're in are difficult and of course different because all these kidnappings aren't the same, aren't carried out for the same reasons or by the same groups. I can just say that we are mobilized in Baghdad and in Paris, we're working, we're trying to find leads, initiate dialogues.

THE MINISTER – And for the rest, I'll remain discreet, once again, their safety depends on this discretion.

THE MINISTER – I take very seriously all these polls which give a snapshot of the state of public opinion, the concerns, questions, moods, sometimes, ill humour. (...) In order to add an international dimension to our national debate we need to know what's happening in the other countries and listen to what others are saying about our own problems. This book – we had the idea of writing it several months ago – is a collective one and contributes to this effort of explanation. What do we need today? To understand, understand in order to vote.

THE MINISTER – But the European Constitution is in fact, for me, a tool – and what a tool – for carrying out a project. And what I wanted to do in this little book was to restate what the project was and address the concerns and questions of the French about it. It was in fact initiated, has been built for the people but without them for 50 years, with one exception: the referendum François Mitterrand organized over ten years ago. There have been very few popular debates and this is why I really approve of President Chirac's decision to take what I have called the necessary risk of democracy.

(...) What do I note? That the French are both concerned and interested. They know that the idea of Europe is right, they know that we will protect ourselves better and more by being together rather than each acting on our own and each country for itself, but they don't understand what goes on and how things are done in Brussels. So I wanted to address a number of preconceived ideas, questions and criticisms.

THE MINISTER – And they are wrong. Compared with what there is today, the Constitution text, which I'm very familiar with, includes only advances, that means that if we don't have this Constitution, we won't have any advances, particularly on social Europe. There are dozens of articles in this Constitution which take forward social Europe, security – which the French need – , political Europe, the foreign and defence policy, democracy and political and democratic control over what happens in Brussels (...).

THE MINISTER – There are no backward steps, there aren't all the advances I'd have liked, but there's only progress and no backward step compared with what we have at the moment. So we need this text to improve things and particularly to create rules. I'm not dreaming of a Europe which is a sort of huge supermarket with as its only rule, tax and social competition.

THE MINISTER – I say that it's precisely the opposite and that we need, to improve things, to bolster our continent's social advances and unity – I'm not talking about uniformity – we need the rules and advances in our Constitution. As regards the enlargement, I'm well aware that it's a concern, but we can see that these countries which have just joined us are developing fairly fast, and perhaps part of the growth we lack here is taking place over there. A few hours ago I was still in Slovakia where I met heads of French businesses, like Peugeot-Citroen, which are creating jobs in Slovakia and at the same time creating some in France.