Paris, 30/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - French President Jacques Chirac, who spoke on Thursday in Paris during the annual conference of French ambassadors, again denied the fact that France wished to prevent EU enlargement from going ahead on time. He insisted the EU should "stick to a timetable" and complete membership talks in December. He stressed that enlargement meant reviewing the way the EU works and above all reiterated his proposal for a Council President elected by the Heads of State and Government for a "sufficiently long duration" instead of the current system of rotating Presidency every six months.
Mr Chirac also restated that France would not "allow enlargement o serve as an excuse for bringing forward reform of the Common Agricultural Policy" before 2006. "France is ready to talk about it, but the debate can only take place with the new members", he added. Furthermore, he proposed that the EU should have a Minister for Foreign Affairs with the Council President, who would combine the authority of the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (currently Javier Solana) and that of External Relations Commissioner (currently Chris Patten).