THIS weekend's EU summit at Dublin Castle was held at the suggestion of the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac.
At his press conference on Saturday night, Mr Chirac expressed pleasure at the outcome. "It was pleasant in addition to being well organised," he said. French and Irish policies in the EU often coincide, and France has made no secret that it is delighted with Ireland's role.
"The Irish presidency has been excellent so far," Mr Chirac said. "The work here was remarkably well prepared, and I praise them without reservation.
According to French observers, Mr Chirac is concerned that the French electorate may have to grapple with parliamentary elections, ratification of the new EU Treaty, the switch to a single currency and applications from aspiring EU members all at the same time. The result, he fears, would be to create unnecessary confusion in the minds of voters.
Like other large EU states, France feels the present system of allowing each member to name at least one EU commissioner risks paralysing the EU once enlargement takes place. Instead of the present 20 commissioners, France would like to see only 10.
France, like Germany, wants to see an extension of qualified majority voting, which does not allow an individual state to veto EU decisions. Britain prefers unanimity as the basis for EU decision making.
Also like Germany. France is strongly promoting both flexibility and subsidiarity in EU reforms.
Flexibility would allow some member countries to proceed with integration at a faster speed than others, while subsidiarity would leave responsibilities not taken by the EU to the member states.
One of France's pet projects is a "Monsieur or Madame PESC" to personally represent Europe in foreign and security policy - PESC is the French acronym for Common Foreign and Security Policy.
At Dublin Castle, Mr Chirac explained the French rationale: "Europe proved its weakness - not to say its non existence in the Bosnian crisis," the French president said. "The idea of a (PESC) representative is a French initiative, to have someone who would be the face and voice of Europe."
France wants the person designated for this position to be a politician of stature, but Germany would prefer a career civil servant to fill the job. Britain opposes the idea.
Despite its wish to designate an EU foreign policy representative, France gave the Italian Prime Minister's proposal for an EU envoy to the Middle East a frosty reception. When Israel and the Lebanese Hizbullah engaged in a two week war last April, France's unilateral diplomatic initiative annoyed the Italian EU presidency.
As Mr Chirac noted poetically at the close of his press conference, each member state hopes to achieve different things in the Inter Governmental Conference.
"Each one sees the sun at his own window," the French president said. "Each will make his own proposals."
