Cahors, 12/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - President Chirac, during his press conference with Tony Blair following the Franco-British summit in Cahors, last Friday, posed the problem of the finality of Europe, by agreeing over the terms of "federation of nation-States" dear to Jacques Chirac. In fact, Jacques Chirac stated: "We are, after Nice and with the enlargement", at a time when it is necessary to seriously question ourselves over what kind of Europe we want (…) I can see through listening that everything leads us towards deepening the European process, to deepen Europe, to further integrate (…) it is greater integration, this wider deepening effectively leads us towards what some could call a federation of nation-States." He added to this: "Nobody can envisage to bring into question the nation-State (…) as a person of international law. On the other hand, each does see a deepening, the integration leads to a system that is already a sort of federalism." Tony Blair pushed in order to underline that the strengthening of cooperation between EU Member States was in the interest of all.
During the Cahors summit, France and the United Kingdom adopted a joint declaration allowing for in particular the British to carryout their own controls when leaving, in Paris, on the Eurostar for London, in order to enhance the fight against illegal immigrants.
Furthermore in Cahors, France and the United Kingdom decided to enhance the cooperation between their airforces, notably with regards to the recognisance and rescue missions, military air transportation and observation means. (Paris and London had created in 1995 a European Air group - EAG - able to carry out combined operation, which was joined in 1998 by Italy and in 1999 by Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands)