Europe's statesmen were sitting on the stage of the local cultural centre in the eastern French industrial town of Sochaux for a public meeting on the future of Europe. Mr Jacques Delors, former president of the EU commission and "father of the euro" received the loudest applause. Mr Delors used to say that Europe was like a bicycle; if you stopped peddling, it would fall over.
Mr Bronislaw Geremek, the early Solidarinosc militant and former foreign minister who heads the European Affairs Commission in the Polish Diet, thought Europe was like Tarzan of the Jungle - "all muscles and strength, but not so good on the communication front". Would there be an end to such cliches?
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Mr Janos Martonyi was closer to the mark when he compared the EU to Pinnocchio, "the little wooden boy who began to walk and talk and even began to legislate". Why, you might ask, do European leaders chose such clunky metaphors?
The school-marmish description by Mr Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner for Institutional Reform and Regional Policy, was my favourite. Europe started out as six countries in a mini-bus. Then there were 12, then 15. Soon there will be 25. All without any maintenance on the runaway bus. "It is important that someone stops to check the engine," he continued. Now no one seems to know where the bus is going. "Maybe some countries should scout ahead, be the trail blazers - I am thinking of the common defence policy, of certain areas of foreign policy."
The French Minister for European Affairs, Mr Pierre Moscovici, had brought Ministers from the 15 EU member states plus the 13 applicant countries together in his home constituency for the first full meeting of what is known as "the European conference". Ireland was represented by Minister of State, Mr Dan Wallace.
By staging two conference meetings under its presidency - the second is on December 7th, before the closing summit gets under way in Nice - Paris wants to reassure the countries of central Europe, the Baltic, Turkey, Malta and Cyprus their views on institutional reform are being considered.
In their closed-door sessions, the aspiring members expressed views similar to those of smaller EU countries, including Ireland. They want each member to have a commissioner, and they are anxious lest "enhanced co-operation" results in a two-track Europe led by larger nations. The French argue that a commission of 25 or more will be unwieldy. But the Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mr Jan Kavan claimed a decrease in numbers would not improve the efficiency of the commission.
The applicant countries are restive about the slow pace of enlargement. Mr Geremek, the avuncular Pole, made an impassioned plea during the public debate. "The EU keeps saying that the decision has been taken and that we will become members. But we say WHEN? Is there a timetable or not? We want it to depend on US. Not someone to turn around and say, `we have budgetary problems so we can't let you in', or `there are going to be elections in this or that country so you'll have to wait'."
The ministers from applicant countries did not receive any encouragement from Mr Gunter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement. Mr Verheugen raised an uproar in September when he suggested present member countries might hold referenda to decide whether they could accept new members. He has since relented, but his words in Sochaux hardly constituted a warm welcome. There was "no point in the applicant countries joining if they can't fulfil our economic criteria" - i.e. if they're not rich enough - he said. Another stumbling block: "They must apply European law. That's more than 20,000 legal acts." If the applicants clear these and other hurdles, "between 2003 and 2005 we will be able to take on board about 10 applicant states," he concluded.
EU enlargement has contributed to tension between France and Germany, whose relationship is the core of the Union. This week, Spiegel magazine accused Paris of deliberately delaying the admission of new members. Traditionally, the east European countries have been regarded by France as falling under Germany's influence. But officials at the French foreign ministry insist the opposite is true. "It's disingenuous of the Germans," one source said. "France is trying to conclude the accession agreement by mid-2002 so the 2003 deadline can be met. It's the Germans who suggested waiting for a `big bang' in 2005 or 2006. They want Poland to be included in the first lot, and Poland won't be ready until then."
The success or failure of the French presidency hangs on Mr Moscovici's ability to complete the reform of Europe's institutions at the Nice summit in two weeks. Franco-German discord over the voting power of individual EU countries is a major obstacle to an agreement. Germany feels that with 20 million more people than the other big EU countries, it deserves a bigger voice. France recalls Konrad Adenauer's plea four decades ago that the two countries retain equal voting power whether or not Germany reunited, whether or not France integrated its colonies. Berlin advocates a "double majority" system. In one vote, EU countries would be equal regardless of size; in the second, votes would be weighted according to population. Paris says this would be too complicated and that smaller EU countries are suicidal in their support for it.
Franco-German squabbles include German annoyance over the French president's and prime minister's inability to keep their rivalry out of European affairs. But German criticism of the French presidency is the hardest to digest, and French awareness of it reached a high point on Thursday, the day of the Sochaux conference. The right-wing newspaper Le Figaro devoted a full page to worsening Franco-German relations. Germany's European Affairs Minister, Mr Christoph Zoepel did his best to smooth things over by praising French handling of institutional reform in the closed-door session at Sochaux.
Mr Moscovici, who organised the Sochaux conference, is standing for mayor in next March's municipal election. Turning the working-class town built around a Peugeot factory into "the capital of Europe" for a day is sure to help his chances. The French minister called an article about him in Die Zeit "hurtful, unjustified and slightly anti-semitic". The German newspaper implied that as the son of a Romanian Jewish immigrant he had chosen the socialist party out of political opportunism and said that he took a strong stand against Jorg Haider's extreme-right wing party in Austria because he is Jewish.
