Today's Date:

EU/AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY

THE MINISTER – I'd like to begin by telling Ursula how happy I am to have this meeting with her here at the Quai d'Orsay. We have been able to take a comprehensive look at the European Union, its prospects and the issues of greatest interest to us today, and I'd like to thank her for beginning, this year, her visits with France.

This visit to Paris comes at the start of the EU's Austrian presidency which promises to be decisive for building Europe, after a difficult year. I'm personally convinced that 2006 can and must be a key year for putting the EU back on the path of political ambition, and I know that Ursula Plassnik will play an important role in ensuring that we succeed.

I wanted to assure Ursula of the strong support we'll give all the Presidency's initiatives which are capable of injecting, re-injecting impetus into the European project. The Austrian presidency comes after the agreement obtained in December on the EU's financial perspective. It's an agreement which is fundamental to the development of the new States and economic growth of the whole of Europe and, throughout the negotiations, was the subject of close consultation between Austria and France.

ENLARGEMENT/EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL/EXTERNAL POLICY/EURO AREA/PRAGMATIC ADVANCES

On all the other items on the European agenda we talked about, I was also struck by the closeness of our two countries' views and especially the Austrian presidency's determination, on every issue, to give new momentum to the EU, taking into account the expectations expressed by our fellow citizens. I'm thinking about the fundamental enlargement debate, which now includes the European Union's absorptive capacity. The enlargement debate is obviously inseparable from the one on the institutions.

I have in mind too Austria's wish to make headway with the European social model in the framework, for example, of the discussions on the services and working time directives.

Finally, there's our common commitment to a more active, more ambitious European external policy, which implies, of course, that we give ourselves the requisite means.

On all the issues we talked about, we firmly believe that we have to move forward pragmatically to give the EU new momentum, whilst addressing the concerns Europeans face in their daily lives. In the field of economic governance, for example, initiatives can very probably be taken to strengthen the political dimension of the euro area. We must above all move forward on project-based Europe, European research and universities, and on demographic, immigration and security issues.

ENERGY/GAS

And then, as we saw recently with the gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we must move forward on energy. This showed how urgent it was to bring in a genuine European Union energy policy.

In all these spheres, we have to demonstrate to our citizens the added value of European action.

FRANCE/AUSTRIA/EUROPE

This visit also confirmed the extremely trustful nature of our bilateral dialogue. For us, the high quality of our bilateral relationship, together with Austria's place at the heart of central Europe and her great knowledge of the Balkan region make her a partner of key importance for Europe. Finally, the wealth and diversity of our cultural and even linguistic relations – since Austria actively promotes the French language (…) – is another factor drawing us closer together. Mrs Plassnik will later be visiting the remarkable exhibition at the Grand Palais "Vienna 1900", devoted to four major Viennese painters.

Once again, I want to express my full support to the Austrian presidency and assure it of our determination to work with it to drive the European project forward. (…)

IRAN

THE MINISTER – As you know, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have, with the support of the European Union and G8, engaged in a difficult process to resolve the nuclear proliferation crisis created by Iran. Mr ElBaradei has today confirmed the removal of the seals on the sites, material and equipment for producing enriched uranium. The resumption of these very sensitive nuclear activities, whose purpose is precisely to enrich uranium, is today a matter of grave concern. It clearly runs directly counter to the requests of the IAEA Board of Governors set out in their resolution of 24 September 2005.

I remind you that no identifiable civilian need can today justify resumption of these activities in Iran, whilst the doubts on the nature of the nuclear programme's objectives have not even begun to be addressed. These have even been strengthened by the IAEA's most recent discoveries in Iran last November.

In view of these uranium enrichment activities which run counter to the IAEA Board of Governors' requests, we are calling on Iran to reverse that decision immediately and unconditionally. Iran has to understand that the whole international community is today very gravely concerned.

As President Chirac stressed this morning, the international community must imperatively enforce compliance with the commitments made to ensure everyone's security, and Iran would make a serious mistake if she failed to take the hand we are holding out to her.

I remind you that the IAEA resolution of 24 September 2005 set out clear principles, Iran has violated these international commitments. Matters falling within the remit of the United Nations Security Council have emerged.

We have, however, decided to explore all avenues for resuming negotiations with the Iranians. We had a meeting with them in December in Vienna.

The Iranian decision very seriously undermines the European efforts and pursuit of the discussions begun on 21 December in Vienna with the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

The December 2005 European Council emphasized that the long-term improvement or deterioration of European Union relations with Iran will depend on the progress made on all the matters of concern.

Javier Solana, my British and German counterparts and I have decided to meet again shortly to discuss the situation and decide on the action to take./.