Paris, 04/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On his visit to Paris in the context of his rounds of EU capitals before the Laeken Summit, European Council President Guy Verhofstadt said that Monday morning he had had talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Middle East. At the beginning of November, the violence had decreased, and "peace talks should have been resumed then", he considered (The situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan will be among the subjects dealt with in Laeken).
As for President Chirac, he considered the sketch of the Laeken Declaration to be good (see EUROPE of 1 December, p.6) and, regarding the candidacy of Valery Giscard d'Estaing as chair of the Convention that is to prepare the future IGC, he said, according to BELGA: "Europe needs experience and intelligence, and Giscard has both". Mr. Chirac also raised another issue on which the summit will have to decide: that of the headquarters of several future EU agencies. Thus, wile defending Lille's application as headquarters of the European Food Authority, he said that were another city to secure the Authority (Helsinki, Parma and Barcelona are contenders), "we are prepared to host the Maritime Safety Agency", in Nantes (the other candidates are Genoa, Lisbon and Pireus, whereas France had so far not clearly stared whether it was joining the fray with Nantes or Marseilles).