French keen to seize initiative

In the immediate aftermath of the EU Commission's resignation, Paris advocated leaving the outgoing Commission in place in a caretaker capacity until after the June European parliamentary elections. France wanted a package deal on three appointments: a new President of the Commission, a new President of the EU Parliament and a representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

But the uproar over the report which prompted the resignations and the prospect of months of administrative chaos quickly persuaded French leaders that the presidency of the EU Commission could not wait. The French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, said yesterday that today's summit must "seize the initiative . . . so that something better for European institutions comes out of these events".

France's obsession with completing institutional reforms before enlargement to 20 or more member-states will influence its choice for the new Commission president.

Asked what qualifications France seeks in a Commission president, Mr Vedrine said: "We want a president who . . . can lead a renewed Commission, probably reorganised, that would keep to its role, perhaps refocused on its true tasks and that can give new momentum to this key element of European institutions." The French believe that mushrooming programmes which the Commission did not have the human or financial means to control caused the downfall of the Santer Commission.

President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin will represent France in Berlin. Since their cohabitation began in June 1997, the two men have been careful to speak with one voice abroad, but at the same time, both have the 2002 presidential election in mind and would be happy to score points with voters in France. As the hero of the farmers' lobby, Mr Chirac will also have his eye on the unions that staged demonstrations against the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 100 towns across France yesterday.

Nurturing relations with Britain and Germany is another priority. Despite the French Left's misgivings about Tony Blair's so-called third way, and despite London's siding with Washington over the bombing of Iraq, the December 1998 Franco-British agreement on defence in St Malo, the co-chairing of the Kosovo peace conference by the British and French foreign ministers and the joint mission by the two men to former colonies in Africa this month have created a sense of rapprochement.

France's relations with Germany were strained by the May 1998 battle over the European Central Bank presidency and the close relationship between Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and Mr Blair also makes the French uneasy.

French rejection of the March 11th "agricultural compromise" could tie up much of the summit schedule. "Agenda 2000 forms a whole and everything is open as long as overall agreement has not been reached," a spokeswoman for President Chirac, Ms Catherine Colonna, said. The compromise proposal of €314 billion for the Common Agricultural Policy over the next seven years overshoots the objective stated on February 26th by €6.3 billion, French officials note.

And they are dissatisfied that France's goal of limiting structural and cohesion funding to €200 billion has been exceeded by up to €16 billion.

Two key French proposals that were ignored in the March 11th text are likely to resurface in Berlin. Degressivity, that is the gradual reduction of direct payments to farmers, and the reorientation of the CAP away from market support and towards rural development would weaken the US case in World Trade Organisation negotiations next year, France argues.

Under degressivity, direct payments would be reduced by between 1 and 3 per cent a year, but small farmers would be exempted. Three-quarters of the money thus saved would be returned to the overall EU budget, to reduce the burden on net contributors like Germany, and the other quarter would be channelled into rural development.

If the envelope for structural and cohesion funding can be limited to €200 billion or less for the seven-year period, Paris is examining the idea of special programmes that would ease the transition for Ireland, Northern Ireland and Portugal.