FRANCE: The French Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, will breakfast with members of the Institute of Directors and the Ireland-France Chamber of Commerce in Dublin this morning, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris
His journey is the result of their invitation, though Ireland's EU presidency transformed it into an official visit, including a courtesy call on the President, Mrs McAleese, and a working lunch with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Mr Raffarin (56) is one of the few French politicians whose heart can truly be said to lie with the private sector. He started his career in the marketing department of the Jacques Vabre coffee company and became a successful public relations executive before a six-year stint in the European Parliament.
For five years preceding his appointment as Prime Minister in 2002, Mr Raffarin was vice-president of Démocratie Libérale, the French party which most enthusiastically embraces free market economics. In his address to Irish business groups, he is expected to praise Ireland's economic success .
Foreign affairs are the preserve of the French President, who will receive the Taoiseach at the Élysée on June 2nd for a last meeting before the crucial June 17th-18th European Council. But European issues will nonetheless dominate the lunch which the Taoiseach will host for Mr Raffarin in Government Buildings.
The new minister delegate for European Affairs, the former astronaut Ms Claudie Haigneré, and Ms Pascale Andreani, Mr Raffarin's adviser for European affairs, will accompany him, as will the minister delegate for external trade, Mr François Loos.
Ms Andreani was a French member of the convention which drew up the constitutional treaty, and is probably better versed in the intricacies of the text than any other French official.
Mr Raffarin's delegation can be expected to stress, yet again, France's desire for the widest possible use of qualified majority voting instead of decisions taken by unanimity.
And despite his credentials as a free marketeer, Mr Raffarin will reiterate France's desire for greater co-ordination in European social policies.
Mr Ahern and Mr Raffarin will also discuss the "Lisbon process" of achieving economic reforms within the EU. Mr Raffarin's mandate to reform the French economy has provoked social unrest and led to the right's defeat in regional elections in March. On May 6th, he called for "more dynamism, but also more listening and less brutal reforms".
The European budget is also on today's agenda. France is one of five European countries, along with Britain and Germany, who insist on capping European spending at 1 per cent of Europe's GDP. Mr Raffarin says it would be unrealistic for Brussels to increase its budget while demanding economic rigour of member-states.