Sarkozy's visit to planet Europe, garden side

(B2) After an hour of vibrant conference in front of a crowded press room, if the objective was to show the return of France to Europe, it was achieved. Everyone was convinced of it. France had regained, thanks to Sarkozian verve, its place… at least in the concert of European media. Besides, wasn't that the essence of the President of the Republic's visit to Brussels, the form of which was undoubtedly more carefully prepared than the substance. A large handful of sympathizers had thus managed to settle in the places reserved for the press and did not hesitate to applaud at the end of the conference, as one would do in any electoral meeting. Completely incongruous fact in a European forum and which shocked several European journalists accustomed to more " neutrality ". So much for the Court side.

On the garden side, the picture is not as successful. The President of the Republic remained vague about his intentions, both on a " economic governance initiative » than on the « Europe that protects ". Even on Turkey, if " its place is not in the European Union ", as Nicolas Sarkozy repeated, France should not block the opening of new negotiation chapters with Turkey - a " technical question “, we are assured at the Elysée —. As for the closure of the chapters, in any case, it is frozen as long as Ankara does not honor its commitments vis-à-vis Cyprus. And no agreement on any content of a "simplified treaty" has been reached, contrary to what has been said.

A dinner of dissonances

The one-and-a-half-hour dinner that followed the public performance, the evening before last, with the President of the Commission, José-Manuel Barroso, and the Commissioners for the Economy, the Spaniard Joaquim Almunia (PS), and for the Transports, the Frenchman Jacques Barrot (UMP ex CDS) — was “ lively, enthusiastic, very political “As confided by a close friend of Barroso. But without concrete solutions to the key. " Consensus does not mean agreement. We still have work commented, exegete, the spokesperson for the European institution, Johannes Laitenberger. Moreover, " it is not necessary to have a 100% identical view on all subjects but to have 100% conviction that we must move forward »… Or how to politely express dissonances…

About the Turkey,

Nicolas GROS-VERHEYDE.

Extended version of a paper published in Ouest-France this morning