Today's Date:

ENLARGEMENT

(…) This European Council will essentially be devoted to EU enlargement. We think it's imperative for the Europeans together to give serious, careful thought to the subject, now that the fifth enlargement is drawing to a close with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on 1 January next year.

Everyone here knows that, after the years of war in the former Yugoslavia, the European Union made commitments, notably at the Zagreb summit in November 2000, vis-à-vis the Western Balkans.

But this presupposes two things: firstly, the candidate countries must scrupulously comply with the requisite conditions; secondly, and this is crucial, the European Union must ensure it has the capacity to bring in new members, without jeopardizing the operation of the institutions, the common policies, their financing, or, above all, the ambition of the European project.

France's message at this Council will be that the pursuit of enlargement, desired by a number of our partners, will not be possible without the wholehearted support of the European peoples. This is particularly true of our compatriots, who will in future be consulted by referendum. In fact in July this year, at our instigation, the European Council firmly reiterated that the pace of the enlargement must take account of the EU's absorption capacity. We now need to ensure this is done.

TURKEY

As regards Turkey, as you know, the negotiations were opened on 3 October 2005; only time will tell whether or not Turkey will be capable of reforming and joining us by subscribing to all our values. But in 2006 everyone recognizes that the pace of the reforms has slowed down in that country. Turkey is not honouring the obligations incumbent on her under the terms of the Association Agreement and its Additional Protocol.

We now need to draw the appropriate conclusions from this for the conduct of the negotiations, in accordance with what the Europeans unanimously agreed in a declaration on 21 September 2005.

Yesterday, the General Affairs Council discussed the message to be sent to Turkey following that country's refusal to fulfil her obligations regarding Cyprus. As France had proposed, the Council has agreed to freeze the opening of eight chapters and any provisional closure of chapters, so long as Turkey fails to honour her obligations.

As we were hoping, this is a firm message urging Turkey to honour her commitments.

IMMIGRATION

The second challenge which will be discussed this week is that of immigration. The influx of illegals in Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece has made migration a dominant issue over the past six months. Faced with this vast immigration which knows no boundaries, the European Union was able – and we can only welcome this – to show solidarity. It's this spirit of collective solidarity which dictated the comprehensive approach defined by the European Council a year ago.

What's important today is to give careful thought to this comprehensive approach and its implementation. The European Commission recently presented several proposals on this and we'll be able to support the bulk of them: strengthening maritime borders, better linkage between migration and development policies, implementation of the Rabat Action Plan and also stepping up the dialogue with the countries of origin and transit countries.

But it has to be clear that the primary responsibility on migration matters must remain with the States which have to be able to decide for themselves, depending on their own circumstances, in the light of their labour market and their absorptive capacities. In this respect, we cannot accept either common management or a European definition of quotas.

GERMAN PRESIDENCY PRIORITIES

As from 1 January next year, Germany will have the EU presidency; she has set herself concrete objectives concerning the completion of the single market. We can count on Germany to strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy. We shall fully support the Germans in that mission, with due regard for the acquis communautaire.

Moreover, we share many of the German presidency's priorities: on energy, which will also be on the agenda of the forthcoming European Council, and on external relations, with the new strengthened neighbourhood policy, which includes the Mediterranean, Western Balkans and Central Asia.

As regards institutional issues, we must make headway in our discussions on the Constitutional Treaty and possible ways forward. The German presidency should, during the first half of 2007, give a progress report on these debates on the Constitutional Treaty. We are urging it to do so, since it's essential for decisions to be taken on institutional reform at the latest in the second half of 2008, i.e. during the French presidency.

Finally, the future German presidency will have the task of preparing a political declaration which will be adopted by the EU leaders in Berlin on 25 March.

DECEMBER EUROPEAN COUNCIL

The European Council will discuss the problem of energy policy and, in the first place, energy independence. The European Council will then have to talk about international security, with, in priority, the Middle East and Lebanon. More particularly as regards Lebanon, France will reaffirm her commitment to a sovereign, independent and democratic Lebanon. We are keen for our partners to provide unanimous support for Mr Siniora's government and for him to play an active part in the success of the Paris III Donors' Conference on 25 January next year.

IRAN

On the subject of Iran, which will also be discussed at the European Council, we'll have the opportunity to take stock of the discussions under way in the Security Council. For us, the aim is to pass a resolution which should be a first stage in the adoption of sanctions measures against the Tehran regime. But, as you know, these measures are proportionate, reversible and progressive. They target only the nuclear and ballistic sectors.

Over and above the Iranian nuclear issue, may I repeat here my utter condemnation of the conference on the Holocaust now taking place in Tehran. We are seeing here the resurgence of revisionist ideas which are quite simply unacceptable.

MIDDLE EAST

As regards the Middle East, the European Council is expected to talk about three issues:

Firstly, the necessary support for Abu Mazen, secondly, the attitude the European Union will have to adopt in the event of the formation of a government reflecting the Quartet's principles and, finally, the issues which need to be discussed and the measures taken to get the peace process in that part of the world going again.

AFRICA

As regards Africa, the European Council will discuss what we've done, one year after the launch of the European Union Strategy for Africa at the December 2005 European Council. The European Council is expected to welcome the smooth conduct of the election process in the Democratic Republic of Congo – which the EU supported and assisted by, inter alia, deploying the Eurofor mission – leading to the establishment of a new Parliament and investiture of the President of the DRC, Mr Kabila.

The year now coming to a close marks a new start. In this respect, the European Council will have to reiterate the EU's wish to remain committed alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So those are France's main issues and objectives on the eve of the European Council. Let me conclude by paying tribute to the Finnish presidency which has skilfully and efficiently led the EU's work throughout the past few months./.