Muscled approach to negotiations paid off in the end for French diplomacy

THE French were nearly as pleased with the Dublin summit as the Irish. The forceps delivery of the monetary stability pact marked a triumph of the more nuanced French political approach over the mechanical, solely economic approach of the Germans. And as the French repeatedly pointed out, President Chirac even influenced the name of the agreement. At his suggestion, it was called the Stability and Growth Pact.

The French prided themselves on having contributed to the prickly debate on institutional reform by sending a joint Franco-German letter to the Taoiseach earlier in the week. "We found two documents on the table," President Jacques Chirac said at his press conference. "The draft treaty prepared by the presidency and the Franco-German letter, with its demands for real reform of European institutions."

France's desire to promote institutional reform ruffled a few feathers at the summit. Although French officials insisted that a mid-week letter to the presidency was a standard practice used by governments "to get across their preoccupations", German sources found it annoying, following so soon after the Franco-German letter. President Chirac's unorthodox suggestion on Friday evening that member-countries participate in the presidency's drafting committee caused surprise and was quickly dropped.

So did the French leader agree with his Foreign Minister, Herve de Charette, who had criticised the "level of ambition" of the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) and by extension the Irish draft treaty?

"I always share the opinions of my Foreign Minister," Mr Chirac said. "At one point we were all concerned ... that we have a document that allow us to conclude the IGC in time."

The European Council has given itself until the end of the Dutch presidency in June 1997 to complete the revised Maastricht treaty. The French had feared that the Dublin summit would simply endorse the draft treaty, without moving the debate forward. These fears were allayed when they saw the text of the Irish presidency's conclusions.

"I must say the Irish presidency swept away our worries with great efficiency and elegance," Mr Chirac continued. "When we arrived (in Dublin) everything was in place to make the summit a success. That's why I began by saying `Bravo the Irish presidency'." Mr Chirac seemed eager to dispel the ill will created by Mr de Charette's remarks. He repeated `Bravo the Irish presidency' three times during his press conference.

The conclusion of the Stability and Growth Pact was by far the most significant achievement of the summit, for the French as well as everyone else. The French consider the Franco-German alliance to be the "motor" of Europe, and the tension with Germany over post-EMU economic discipline seemed to threaten this.

The pact was "a success brought about by Franco-German cooperation," Mr Chirac said. "Everyone knows there was a divergence of views on the stability pact. This was resolved in a way that is satisfactory for the Germans well as for us. I think we have made the euro an instrument of growth. The euro is now credible thanks to the stability pact, and it is visible thanks to the banknotes which were officially approved by the summit."

If Germany is the economic motor of Europe, the French would like to think that France is the political motor. The French had feared that automatic sanctions for economic carelessness, as proposed by Germany, would wipe out all room for political discretion.

That the ministers' power of review was maintained could set a precedent for another debate, over co-ordination with the future European Central Bank. France would like to see a council, probably composed of the European finance ministers, to help to formulate central bank policy. Germany sees such a body as a threat to the independence of the central bank.

President Chirac has taken a strong interest in the fight against drug abuse, and France has some of the strictest penalties in Europe. This has led to conflict with the Netherlands, which has the EU's most lenient drug laws.

When the Dutch abstained from a recent inter-governmental programme on drugs because they found it too restrictive, France also abstained, saying the programme was too modest.

Mr Chirac singled out the Netherlands for criticism: "There is one country - Holland - which has a completely different concept of drug policy from the rest of the Union," he said. "To get the Dutch to move on this is extremely difficult."

The Taoiseach helped to resolve the dispute in his December 10th visit to Paris and at the summit.

"Dublin reinforced the image of a new Europe that wants to reform its institutions," the French president concluded. "We want a Europe capable of defending itself when its interests are threatened a Europe capable of defending its' borders, which can stand up for human rights. We especially want a social Europe that defends its citizens. This is what was accomplished in Dublin."