The French authorities are taking an ambitious and realistic approach to the presidency

On July 1st France assumed for the next six months the presidency of the European Union. Its first task will be to ensure the continuity of the EU's work, so it will be taking up the is sues from where the excellent Portuguese presidency left off, moving them forward and finding solutions, while putting its own stamp on them.

On the institutional front, the Union is at a watershed. In the years to come, the entry of a large number of new members is going to lead to a change in the magnitude, if not the nature of the European enterprise, raising not just hopes, but also a risk of paralysis and dilution. Everyone is now aware of the need to avert these risks.

Indeed, this has triggered a very rich debate on the future forms of Europe's organisation, with numerous contributors. President Chirac has, in his turn, just put forward some proposals. Strictly speaking, this issue isn't on the agenda of either the presidency or the Intergovernmental Conference. Nevertheless, we shall have to prepare the ground so that this debate can develop after our presidency and lead to solutions, when the time comes.

This is why the French authorities are taking an ambitious and realistic approach to the presidency, mindful of the need to ensure all EU members are on board so that we can achieve new progress.

The French presidency will make a determined effort to increase the EU contribution to economic growth, promoting innovation and achieving full employment, address more effectively, point by point, the expectations of ordinary people and make a success of the indispensable reforms needed for its smooth operation, today and in the future - an essential task on which everything else depends.

A more effective and stronger Europe

Obviously, of all its objectives, the greatest hopes are pinned on the French presidency making a success of the Intergovernmental Conference on the reform of European institutions. It will do its utmost to achieve this for the Nice European Council.

The challenge is to enable the EU, already experiencing some difficulty in moving forward, to function effectively, i.e. to take decisions and especially to prepare its institutions for enlargement.

Making a success of this conference means extending the sphere of qualified majority voting, necessary to prevent paralysis; reweighting the votes in the council by making these reflect more accurately the weights of member-states so that its decisions may be totally legitimate; and both limiting the size of the Commission and establishing a clearer hierarchy within this collective body in order to guarantee its future effectiveness.

In Feira, "enhanced co-operation" was added to these three interdependent issues: here, far less stringent conditions are needed so that member-states which decide to do so can co-operate on specific projects or even move faster towards integration.

Concurrently, the French presidency will make a determined ef fort to get down to the nuts and bolts of the enlargement negotiations with each of the candidate countries, with the aim of drawing up, between now and the end of the year, an accurate picture of what has been done and what is still outstanding, so that the EU can establish for each of them a scenario mapping out as accurately as possible its path towards accession.

A stronger Europe is also one which plays an ever growing and increasingly significant role in the world. Our ambition is to make the EU both a model and a player in the effort to control globalisation. It must help bring about the necessary improvement in the regulation of international trade to the benefit of every country, ensure cultural diversity and step up the battle against financial crime.

Reflecting a more proactive Europe, controlling its instruments for external action, the European defence project has seen a great deal of progress over the past year. It must now be made a practical reality through EU members' operational commitments of military capabilities and the establishment of permanent structures allowing the Union to take decisions and act abroad, with all the necessary capabilities at its disposal.

Finally, let's go on opening up the EU to the outside world by strengthening its links, in the first place with its closest neighbours - the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Russia - but also with Asia, which is to host some important summits, Latin America, where people have great expectations of it, and Africa, where its co-operation is more necessary than ever before.

A modernised European economy and stronger social model

Economic modernisation and social cohesion are closely linked. With this in mind, France will take forward, in the wake of the special Lisbon European summit, the concrete measures which will help develop an innovative and competitive European economy.

Achievement of these objectives requires interalia strengthening the role of the Euro 12 and giving it a higher profile. This also calls for progress in co-ordinating policies and harmonising taxation and regulations. Affirming the European social model by adopting a social agenda setting out a five-to-10-year work programme will be one of our major tasks. It will go hand in hand with stepping up the battle against all forms of exclusion.

We must also build a European area of knowledge by encouraging the mobility of students and teachers, and address the challenge of the new information technologies so that Europe can become "the continent of innovation".

A Europe useful to its citizens

To do everything possible to ensure people's safety is an essential aim. Food safety, protection of the environment and the safety of air, road and sea transport are all areas where people are expecting action. We want to address their concerns.

Further headway is needed on building a Europe of justice, freedom and security, starting with the implementation of the measures decided on at last October's Tampere Council in Finland. Concrete measures will be taken on immigration policy and the right of asylum, including the definition of the penalties to be imposed on those responsible for trafficking - some thing for which the Dover tragedy has highlighted the urgent need.

For us to have a genuine European area of justice, we must have mutual recognition of court judgments and rulings, with special attention given to the situation of children of divorced parents of two different nationalities.

The charter of fundamental rights, now being drafted and which we hope to see proclaimed at the Nice European Council, will be a major political act and signal, provided it takes on board not just the political, but also the economic and social rights of our citizens.

To achieve these objectives requires the wholehearted efforts of everyone, institutions and memberstates. The presidency's sole aim is to contribute to this mobilisation.

This will be the task to which I, as president of the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers, and at my side, Pierre Moscovici, our Minister for Europe, will be resolutely devoting ourselves throughout the next six months.