Paris/Brussels, 08/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - In the Raffarin government being formed in France, the new European Affairs Minister is Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (replacing Pierre Moscovici, who is remaining as the French government's representative on the European Convention). Xavier de Villepin has been appointed Foreign Minister, Economics and Finance Minister Francis Mer (CEO of Usinor), Nicolas Sarkozy Interior Minister, Dominique Perben Justice Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie Defence Minister (the first woman Defence Minister in France); Agriculture Minister Hervé Guimard and Social Affairs Minister François Fillon. An MEP, Tokia Saifi (Liberal Democrat in the EPP-ED group) has been appointed Secretary of State for Sustainable Development.
The former President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, is reported to have turned down the position of European Affairs Minister because rather than continuing to depend on the Foreign Minister, she feels the European Affairs Minister should report to the head of government since European policy was more than simply part of Member States' foreign policy. (The debate over the role of European Ministers in their respective governments has been relaunched by rumours that Chancellor Schröder is planning to create a Minister for Europe at the federal chancellery.)
European Commissioner Michel Barnier, who is very close to Jean-Pierre Raffarin (he dined with him on the eve of the formation of the new government) has turned down the post of French Minister of Education, Youth and Research (which has now been awarded to the philosopher Luc Ferry) because he wants to be able to carry out his mission in Brussels properly, namely institutional reform, regional policy post-2006 and the application of the new regional policy to the new Member States following the next round of enlargement of the EU.