Today's Date:

THE MINISTER – (…) Ladies and gentlemen, I’m determined for this new year not to be a year of transition. In a world in total flux, in a world where fault lines are shifting extremely quickly, there can’t be a year where nothing is done. Our ideas, our means of action must be constantly adapted to maintain our country’s influence and, above all, the values it is intent on defending. So, more than ever before, this year must above all be a year when initiatives are taken, a year of action (…).

EU/AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY/ENERGY

Initiatives on Europe, first, to help get the EU back on the path of political ambition and enable it to regain our compatriots’ trust.

Yesterday, Catherine and I had a meeting with Mrs Plassnik, the new president of the General Affairs Council, the Austrian Foreign Minister. The Austrian presidency, which has just started, will have a major issue on its agenda: Europe’s future. The moment has come to tackle the fundamental political challenge, i.e. from now on, tell our fellow citizens clearly where Europe is going and what it wants; and the fact that we voted “no” here in France doesn’t mean there isn’t this desire for Europe. Maybe we weren’t able sufficiently to get across our desire for Europe?

We have to think together about the institutions. We also have to press forward together with concrete projects which meet people’s expectations, like Galileo a few weeks ago: this means moving forward in terms of economic governance, particularly in the euro area; it also means progress in research, education, immigration and also energy; when we see last week’s gas conflict between Russia and Ukraine it makes us wonder where Europe’s energy policy is, when we see the 100 billion US dollars allocated to basic research on biotechnology and the 100 billion US dollars going to nanotechnology, it makes us wonder where Europe’s research policy is. There also needs to be a genuine defence- and foreign-policy ambition for 2006, areas where Europe mustn’t wait any longer but on the contrary mobilize to maintain its position in the international community.

Underlying this work programme, as everyone can clearly see, is our need to address a twin deficit vis-à-vis the French public: first of all the inadequacy of the results the European Union has so far obtained on jobs and growth, which, given the expectations and efforts deployed, have disappointed our compatriots, and, secondly, the uncertainty about Europe's future and the European Union's borders. On enlargement, we can no longer today proceed on a case-by-case basis, without a precise idea of what we want to do: we need a comprehensive vision of a galvanizing political project and a clear redefinition of the common policies. This calls for neither pessimism nor resignation: here is an opportunity to grasp to put the European project back on the path of progress and success. Admittedly, the challenge is immense: it's up to us to show ourselves worthy of it. I am convinced that tomorrow Europe will be what we make of it in the next few months.

MIDDLE EAST

In the Middle East too I’m determined to act on this desire for active involvement. There are many sensitive issues there: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – indeed our thoughts go also to Ariel Sharon (…) –, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran (…) all matters on which France will have to be active both in the region and at the United Nations. I myself will go to the countries in the area over the next few months to reaffirm there the major principles which have inspired our country's policy in the region, and work for the patient, resolute quest for stability and security so cruelly lacking today.

ASIA/US/LATIN AMERICA

But I also want to promote our influence in the other parts of the world – Asia, where I shall soon be accompanying President Chirac to Thailand and China, the United States, which I intend going to again in March, and Latin America. Everywhere I shall be careful to listen to and understand the priorities of all these partners who are essential to our diplomatic action and our influence. But going beyond these political aspects, I’m also determined to work alongside our firms and compatriots abroad, supporting their efforts to promote French expertise and know-how.

AFRICA/DEVELOPMENT AID/PLANE TICKET LEVY

Finally in Africa, where I’m also hoping to go in the near future, we'll have to go on making active efforts not only to resolve the crises which, sadly, are continuing to develop in both the west and east of the continent, but also to encourage everything which can contribute to the development of a region with a substantial but still ill-exploited potential.

These thoughts about Africa lead me naturally on to another area of French diplomacy: development aid. Here, France is playing a leading role, particularly in the establishment of innovative financing mechanisms: as you know, last December Parliament passed the bill bringing in a solidarity contribution on plane tickets. France has thus set the example and helped give concrete content to the New York declaration. We now need to pursue the momentum so that at the ministerial conference scheduled for Paris in late February other countries join in our initiative.

Concurrently, I launched an in-depth debate on the allocation of this contribution by proposing to use the product of the levy to establish a financial facility for purchasing medicines to treat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Out of 6 million men and women who need these medicines, only 1 million can benefit from them. So we have to remain mobilized to reduce this "health divide" which is both undermining the stability of States and endangering peace and sustainable development.

FOREIGN MINISTRY MODERNIZATION/FRENCH FUNDAMENTAL VALUES/FRENCH LYCEES/FRENCH LANGUAGE/CUBA/BELARUS

Another field of action I wish to pursue is the modernization of the Foreign Ministry in order to tailor its goals and methods to developments in our contemporary world. (…)

Finally, the Ministry is tasked with contributing, on a case-by-case basis, to the resolution of individual problems in the name of principles at the heart of our Republican Pact and our conception of man: justice, humanity and freedom. And I’m returning briefly to this subject because these are the fundamental values of France and the French.

Let me take the example of the French lycées: for 15, 20 years, every foreign minister has faced the problem of the budget and heard the finance minister tell him "we haven't got any money to develop the French lycées, French primary schools and collèges [for pupils between approximately 11 and 15]. And when I go to Cairo and see that three quarters of the ministers speak French, when I go to Brazil and see that three quarters or four fifths of the ministers speak French, whenever I see a Head of State or government who tells me "if you do nothing for 15, 20 years you will no longer have these ministers speaking French"… You see, the role of the French language is a fundamental element of the action I'm conducting here. It isn't a subsidiary one. The aim isn't just to help the children of French people living abroad. It's also to get foreigners, including the elites, to send their children to these lycées so that we see our capacity for influence and outreach unchanged. I shall soon be talking to you about the proposal to create 5,6,7 new lycées without it costing Bercy [French Finance Ministry] anything at all, simply through a public-private partnership with the "Caisse des Dépôts" [French savings and banking institution which manages National Savings Bank funds and local community funds]. Finding new funding, new mechanisms to defend the French language in the world is one of this ministry's missions. So yes, this Republican pact, this conception of man is a French conception.

Because these words have a particular significance for our country, because they are at the heart of our extremely special relationship with the world and are also in conformity with our European commitments, I have taken the opportunity to impress on my Cuban opposite number [concerns on] the fate of the political prisoners in his country. I have also just had a meeting with the sole opposition candidate in the forthcoming election in Belarus. That's also one of the Ministry's missions. (…)./.