EU:A self-described 'militant for a political Europe ', socialist Pierre Moscovici talks to Lara Marlowe.
Few French politicians have as much European experience as Pierre Moscovici. Minister for European affairs during the 1997-2002 Jospin government, he has twice been elected a member of the European parliament and twice a deputy in the French National Assembly.
A self-described "militant for a political Europe", he is the socialist party's national secretary for international relations and a serious candidate to succeed François Hollande as party leader.
Moscovici will share his views on the Reform Treaty and president Nicolas Sarkozy's foreign policy with the Institute for European Affairs and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) today. Attendance at the IEA event, in which the Dutch minister for European affairs Frans Timmerman will also participate, is by invitation only. The DIT talk is a public one.
"France had disappeared from European radars since the referendum on the Constitutional Treaty of May 29th, 2005," Moscovici says. "The previous president, Jacques Chirac, lost all credibility on the European stage because of the French rejection, which was also addressed to him." The simple fact of having a new president "turned the page" for France in Europe, Moscovici continued. Once again, France is "audible" in Europe. President Sarkozy is making France heard "with his qualities and his faults".
Moscovici counts "energy, movement and the ability to propose things" as Sarkozy's qualities. On the downside, he calls the president "a champion of self-satisfaction".
The Reform Treaty is "absolutely necessary to pull Europe out of the rut," Moscovici says, even if it is a "mini-treaty" in which "some rejoice, because they want a mini-Europe. Others like me, who are militants for a political Europe, regret the decline of a certain ambition."
Moscovici prefers the term "modifying treaty" to Reform Treaty or Simplified Treaty, as it is known in France. With 269 articles and about 140 pages of text, it remains complicated, he notes. "It's the internal rules and regulations, the tool box, the mechanism for decision-making that the Europe of 27 needs," he says. "Even if it doesn't change the face of Europe, it is the indispensable condition for relaunching Europe. But it's not sufficient on its own."
The Reform Treaty will solve Europe's institutional crisis, but not its political and moral crisis, Moscovici says. For that, the EU needs "a mystique, leaders for whom Europe is a mission and not merely a constraint."
The most important changes in the treaty, Moscovici says, are the creation of a president of the council for two and a half year renewable terms, the election of the president of the commission in EU parliamentary elections, the extension of qualified majority voting, the advent of double majority voting in 2014 and the creation of a virtual foreign minister for the EU. The Charter of Fundamental Rights will be annexed to the treaty, and will be legally binding for all except Britain, which opted out.
"It's difficult to say whether it's a 'Nice Treaty plus' or a 'Constitutional Treaty minus'," Moscovici muses. "It's a good synthesis that should reassure those who voted Yes and relieve those who voted No."
Ireland is the only EU country that will hold a referendum on the treaty. While stressing there should be no meddling from outside, Moscovici notes that "all Europe is watching; there is a responsibility of Ireland towards all of Europe". The French vote weakened France, he adds.
"We were on the sidelines for two years. I'm not preaching, just recounting our experience. The French No was costly for France."
Moscovici says Sarkozy's foreign policy is "insufficiently European, still too national".
He cites the cooling in relations with Germany, constant criticism of the stability pact and the European Central Bank, and Sarkozy's failure to fulfil France's commitments on public finances.
He also faults the president for paying lip service to human rights while cosseting dubious leaders. And Sarkozy "is much too close to George W Bush, who is a discredited president at the end of his term."
Le Monde newspaper last week named Moscovici as one of six contestants to replace Francois Hollande as leader of the socialist party. "I am interested," he admits.
In addition to his experience in government and parliament, he would bring to the job "the will to modernise the party, to make of it a truly social democratic party, not an ideology from the previous century".
Moscovici was once a student of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former socialist finance minister who now heads the International Monetary Fund in Washington. He would not be Strauss-Kahn's cat's paw in the party, he promises. That said, "If I am first secretary, I will remain his friend. I continue to think he is one of the best, if not the best, to be president of the Republic."
Pierre Moscovici will give a public talk entitled Is France back in Europe? The International Policies of Nicolas Sarkozy, at DIT in Aungier Street, Dublin at 6pm today, room 3067/3068.