FRANCE: Pat Cox is the French government's favourite Irishman, and whenever he visits Paris, they roll out the red carpet, as Lara Marlowe discovered.
Mr Pat Cox, the Irish President of the European Parliament, is sitting on the terrace of the Café Marly, overlooking the glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre.
He and three aides could be tourists wearing sunshades, their jackets tossed over a chair. But they've just come from the Élysée Palace, and lunch with President Jacques Chirac.
A mobile telephone rings. News from Brussels, where Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the president of the convention, has announced compromise proposals intended to pull the nascent European constitution out of crisis.
"Giscard excludes a text with options (to be presented at the Thessaloniki Summit on June 21st)," Mr Cox's spokesman, Mr David Harley, tells his boss. "Giscard says it's largely due to the support of MEPs. Every country will have a commissioner."
Mr Cox applauds by pounding his hands on the table top. "That's considerable progress," he says excitedly. "The EU Parliament certainly wants the convention to succeed."
Although Mr Cox has not been directly involved, 16 MEPs (of 105 members of the convention) have served as a counterweight to members of national parliaments and governments who oppose Mr Giscard. And Mr Cox has played his usual role as mediator and conciliator.
French governments have traditionally held little regard for the European Parliament, preferring the Council, where France and Germany tend to dominate. Yet Mr Cox was the first of only four leaders to be consulted by Mr Chirac on the convention over the coming week. The other three are the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Constantine Simitis(who holds the EU Presidency), the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
Mr Cox is the French government's favourite Irishman. When he succeeded Mrs Nicole Fontaine as President of the EU Parliament in January 2002, he somehow personified the French cliché that Europe brought Ireland into the 20th century. Commentators praised his bonne bouille (slang for "cheerful, friendly face") and the fact that he has six children.
That a watch-maker's son from Dublin could rise to the top of a democratic institution representing hundreds of millions of people seemed proof that the European dream works.
So when Mr Cox visits Paris, they roll out the red carpet. At the Élysée, the Garde Républicaine greeted him in red-plumed helmets. Before lunching on langoustines aux artichauts et aux aspèrges and coq au vin de bourgogne with Mr Chirac, Mr Cox was received by the Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and the European Affairs Minister, Ms Noëlle Lenoir.
A police escort forced a path before Mr Cox's car in traffic jams caused by transport strikes. Yesterday he took the unusual step of issuing a statement expressing his "personal support for the reforms proposed by the Raffarin government."
Demonstrations and strikes prompted by the attempt to increase the number of years that French people must work before enjoying full retirement benefits have wreaked havoc in the country for the past month. "The French government is, in my opinion, on the right path," Mr Cox announced, adding that he congratulated Mr Schröder for pushing through economic reforms in Germany.
But wasn't this interference in domestic politics? "No, the details are none of my business," Mr Cox replied. "But the largest three states in the euro zone are France, Italy and Germany. They count for 71 per cent of GDP, and if they don't engage in this process of reform, the whole euro zone will pay a price. "There's a wider, common European interest."
One moment Mr Cox is boyishly irreverent; the next, he switches to the slightly pedantic economics professor he once was. So it was in character for him to deliver a lecture on "The Future of Insurance Regulation and Supervision in Europe" in Montparnasse. And he was going on to Barcelona for a business leaders' conference this weekend.
At a reception at the Irish Cultural Centre, he spoke of the importance of preserving cultural diversity in Europe.
Mr Cox first met Mr Chirac at the March 2002 Barcelona summit. "Several times since then, I found myself sat beside him at official dinners. Apart from politics, we just get on very well together," he says. "The fact that I'm francophone helps; he speaks English well, but as Président de la République he likes still to use the language of Molìère."
In a private half-hour meeting and over lunch, the two men discussed the crisis in the convention and legislation which Mr Cox is trying to push forward, to establish a single status for all MEPs, and legal standing for European political parties.
Mr Cox wants the June 2004 elections to be the first truly European poll. Although candidates will stand in their own countries, he believes Europe-wide parties would give citizens a greater sense of belonging.
Throughout the serious discussions, the Irishman observed his surroundings. After the cheese course, "une élégance" was listed on the engraved menu. It turned out to be a small, crystal bowl with one rose petal floating in it.
"There was a magnificent display of multicoloured roses on the table - mauves, pinks, white, red - a mountain of roses," Mr Cox said, describing the lunch. Did he ever imagine such things, when he was growing up in Dublin?
"No," he replied. "Everything I've been doing for a long time now, I never imagined. Today is part of that whole sense of wonder."