Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's glorious return to Brussels: a speech on the importance and perspectives regarding European citizenship and a major interview in Le Soir newspaper. This occurred last week and I'll begin with the interview because the former president of the Convention made some bold comments about some quite controversial subjects. I'll leave it up to one of Europe's wise men to speak.
1. The Unreadable Treaty. Asked about whether the Lisbon Treaty was in his opinion a step backwards compared to the Constitutional Treaty of the Convention he presided over, VGE replied, “Almost every word is identical on the institutional part. But it is difficult to speak about a simplified treaty, as it has become illegible. This has an important psychological importance for Europeans. They often get the impression that Europe is being carried out without them or despite them. This is not going to improve things in this respect”.
2. Regrettable removal of symbols. Asked about getting rid of the Union symbols, VGE replied, “It's a regrettable retreat. Imagine France abandoning La Marseillaise and Great Britain getting rid of God Save the Queen. It's the same thing at a European level. Europe has a population of 500 million and is looking for elements of unity. Why then get rid of its flag and anthem? It's completely negative”.
3. If the United Kingdom rejects integration…In addition to the remarks made about the symbols, VGE also stated, “We can't pursue integration with people who don't want it. It's an historical paradox. For their own reasons, reasons I respect, certain countries do not want European integration. They don't use the European currency, they don't belong to the Schengen area or recognise the legal value of the Charter of Fundamental Rights: this puts them in different situation”. Asked about the specific way in which Franco-British relations can be fostered, he replied, “It is an interesting relationship, with a major country, but with which we cannot expect any progress at the level of the European Union”, whereas in his opinion, “there will be no European Union without an intimate relationship between France and Germany”.
4. Importance of the future stable presidency of the European Council. VGE believes that the Lisbon Treaty's creation of a stable presidency of the European Council is a significant development, “This is in fact an historic event! It is a formidable event!...It would be necessary for the appointment process to resemble a democratic process where men and women can present their candidacies and explain their programmes…This could be done before next year's European elections. Then, in the following three months, the Council could choose the best candidate. This would be, as we know, an appointment made at qualified majority voting, without the right of veto”.
According to VGE, there are two possible “profiles”. The first is that the stable president is a “master builder”, namely, “an experienced man or woman would could probably only have a single mandate of two and a half years, who would set up the system and set out the rules and environment”. The second profile is that of, “an operational president, who guides the system and provides the necessary impetus”. For this second profile, VGE cited Angela Merkel or possibly Guy Verhofstadt. But to begin with he believed it preferable to make the first profile a priority and, “first of all appoint someone who would have the symbolic and emblematic task of primarily embodying the presidential role”.
5. Implicit candidacy. The interviewer expressed his opinion that VGE himself could very well correspond to the “first profile” and asked him if he would a candidate. The latter replied that, “It's you saying so” and added that age should not be a factor for consideration.
6. The Union for the Mediterranean, a simple extension of the Barcelona process. Asked about the Union for the Mediterranean project, VGE explained, “the first project appeared to me to be obviously unacceptable. The very word, Union, evokes our four freedoms, free moment of people, goods, services and capital. It was a chimera! The countries concerned don't get along together either and sometimes have political regimes that would be considered incompatible if they were in the European Union. Thanks to Angela Merkel, the European Council has provided the project with a dimension that could prove useful and which is ultimately the extension of the Barcelona process”.
7. “Pause in enlargement”, good neighbourhood for Turkey. A pause in the EU's enlargement is “indispensable”. VGE does not share the opinion that the EU ought to continue its expansion due to the fact that its demographic weight will become increasingly lower. On the contrary, he believes that by continuing to expand, “this kind of Europe would be too heterogeneous and too economically weak”. On the question of Turkey, he affirmed, “Negotiations should continue with Turkey but in the way the US negotiates with Mexico: between neighbours, not in view of accession: negotiate to set up a system of mutually beneficial relations”.
8. China and the Olympic Games. Those who violently disrupted developments of the Olympic Games in China or who call for a boycott, “have not seen how they have wounded the Chinese people and not the Chinese leaders. The Chinese people have been preparing this big celebration for seven years. They know that China has changed, undoubtedly not sufficiently in the right direction. And therefore they don't understand. The demonstrations have often been very confused and have produced some violent scenes and the Chinese people have been genuinely hurt. The wisest thing to do for the instant would be to keep quiet and express our disagreements, if there are any, via the diplomatic route. These Olympic Games should be lived as a global celebration of sport”.
What European citizenship should mean
Philippe de Schoutheete (whose action taken at a senior European level is well-known) made the welcoming speech for Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as an associated member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. De Schoutheete referred to Mr d'Estaing's major contribution to the construction of Europe through the creation of the European Council, the single currency and the draft Constitutional treaty.
Following this speech, VGE spoke about European citizenship, a very broad concept that, “can cover everything” and affirmed that, “whatever is said, Europe is much more than just a free trade zone”. People are not yet getting a feeling for it; this citizenship has been granted but it is, “felt weakly and sometimes not in the right way” (as in the famous case of the “Polish plumber”, who significantly contributed to the French no vote” in the referendums on the constitutional treaty. The younger generations are not aware of what the end of the intra-European wars mean or the disappearance of the very idea of armed conflict within the EU. Successive enlargements have increased the scale of differences. Although the inclusion of Spain, Portugal and Ireland was very rapid, it will take at least 20 years for the assimilation of the Eastern countries to be completed. For some people, “Europe is devoid of any image, it is a distant technocratic and administrative machine, without a body or face. With presidents that change every six months, citizens see Europe as a depersonalised zone. The single currency is a solidarity and identifying factor, among others, but it needs time to be felt.
With the innovations provided in the Lisbon Treaty and the stable presidency, feelings for European citizenship could make progress, according to VGE, but on the condition that the opportunities that arise are made best use of: a real procedure for choosing the president of the European Council, with candidates and televised debates and the definitive appointment of a top rank figure, a pioneer for European construction. VGE also has the impression that some Heads of government do not want any of this solemnity or visibility. The case of the anthem and flag are a sign of this.
VGE believes that more soul is required so that, “people know what it means for them to be European citizens” and that they, “get used to acting as such” and learn to know and understand the institutions, the European Parliament, Commission, better, whose images have sometimes been blurred. VGE believes in the generational waves that can build and understand Europe in its different stages: after the wave of enthusiasm and wave of being used to or indeed indifferent to, he calls upon a new generational wave, which understands the meaning of European citizenship, and truly feels it. We shouldn't, however, expect any immediate miracles: this wave might not fully express itself until between 2010 and 2035. This would then become a new springtime for Europe.
(F.R.)