BELGIUM/FILE: French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy woos EU with plan for mini-treaty to solve constitution crisis

Brussels is looking for a candidate in the French presidential elections with a solution to the constitutional deadlock created by France's vote against the new European Constitution. Nicolas Sarkozy seems Brussels' first choice. Europeans are watching the French presidential election campaign anxiously to see whether France will come out of its long sulk over Europe. French voters provoked a crisis of confidence when they rejected the bloc's constitution in a 2005 referendum, venting anger at Europe's failure to protect them from globalisation and fearing the treaty would open the door to more problems. The new president will have to try and find a way forward, but so far European Union officials are worried by what they see. The three leading candidates -- conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou -- have all been to Brussels to set out their European ideas. Sarkozy and Bayrou presented their programmes for Europe in the library of the Brussels-based policy forum Friends of Europe. Sarkozy, the frontrunner in opinion polls, has advocated a quick deal on a slimmed-down treaty salvaging the main institutional reforms of the constitution that he would put to parliamentary ratification, not a referendum, by the end of 2008. "This mini treaty would have the advantage to offer a way out to the countries who voted 'No' without humiliating countries who voted 'Yes'," Sarkozy said during his speech to Friends of Europe. However, his criticisms of the European Central Bank (ECB) have raised eyebrows. He has repeatedly blamed the ECB for the strong euro and appeared to undermine its independence, saying he would push for a change in the way the currency is managed. Sarkozy is also remembered in Brussels as a nationalist finance minister who used state intervention to protect ailing engineering giant Alstom from takeover by German rival Siemens. Sarkozy is opposed to EU membership for Turkey, while Royal said she was in favour in principle of Turkey joining the bloc, but at a later stage. Bayrou, lying third in opinion polls, has positioned himself as the most pro-European of the mainstream candidates. He wants an "inner circle" of EU countries based on the euro currency zone, to move ahead faster in economic and political integration. He also wants to put a simplified constitution to another referendum perhaps in 2009, an idea that causes concern. Giles Merritt, secretary general of Friends of Europe, said he was pleased that Sarkozy's proposal was for a mini treaty to be approved by the French National Assembly, rather than being put to a referendum. "I think what worried people in Brussels about Bayrou's speech was that he wants another referendum whereas Sarkozy has said we will have a mini treaty and we will push it through the Assemblee Nationale, with just a parliamentary vote," he told Reuters. "Obviously, anybody who is saying, you know, I have the solution to unlock the constitutional deadlock is going to be pretty popular here in Brussels. So at the moment, Sarkozy I think by a short head, is ahead in the race with Bayrou behind him and Segolene Royal coming in third." Europe has barely registered as a campaign theme. The leading candidates have outlined widely differing visions but almost all of them have taken pot shots at EU institutions, notably the central bank and the strength of the euro. Europe is an issue on which it seems hard to win votes but easier to lose them. A recent survey by the CSA institute found 71 percent of French people were proud to be European. Yet 55 percent voted against the constitution in the 2005 referendum. Europe poses the biggest headache for the Socialist Party, which was deeply split over the constitution. Royal backed the treaty, but some key party leaders and a majority of rank-and-file Socialists rejected it. She wants Europe to focus on new social, economic and environmental polices to win back citizens before returning to the constitutional issue and holding a referendum in 2009. "The big question, the question mark, is 'what does Segolene Royal propose?'" said Merritt. "Does she have a plan for Europe? That, we do not know." The EU has great expectations for whoever may win the elections. "What we do hope for in Brussels is that the new occupant of the Elysee Palace will be a new leader for Europe because there are very few leaders these days. In Berlin, Frau Merkel is developing somewhat into a European leader, but we need someone in Paris of the same stature, showing the same enthusiasm," Merritt said. Enjoying the sunshine in the park next to the European Parliament, a group of political science students said they appreciated the novelty of the political campaigning in France. "There is a big change with what used to be, with the incumbent Chirac being there for fourteen or fifteen years. Now you've got two new candidates so it's supposed to be a big change, a big fracture, from how it used to be, from the old school French politics," Thomas Thackray said. "I find it interesting that this time you have three candidates instead of two, three main candidates instead of two. Some French would actually say that you have four main candidates with Le Pen, but I don't like to include him in the possibilities." Thackray's friend Morgan Larrivain noted. Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right Natinal Front, was deprived of his right to take up his seat in the European Parliament in a decree signed by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in 2000.

ITN Source | April 16, 2007

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