Chirac takes soundings in preparation of IGC stance

Date: 30/11/1995

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac is holding high-level domestic political consultations to prepare France's stance at the upcoming Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on EU reform.

Starting with former Commission President and Socialist Jacques Delors, Chirac has invited party leaders and senior politicians from both sides of the political divide to a series of individual interviews at the Elysée.

The president's own party, the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), wants to stake out its position at a special conference in February 1996.

But for the Gaullist RPR, this exercise will be fraught with great difficulty. Not unlike the UK Conservatives, the party is deeply divided between a flag-waving national wing which rejects the Maastricht Treaty and political modernisers who see a further sovereignty transfer to Brussels as inevitable.

In the run-up to France's crucial 1992 treaty referendum, the Gaullists were split, with the present parliament President Philippe Seguin leading the battle for a 'No', while Chirac, albeit publicly voicing misgivings, threw his weight behind the 'Yes' campaign.

With the notable exception of National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Chirac has excluded no significant party leader from his pre-IGC consultations, asking even Communist Robert Hue for advice on what should be done to reform the EU.

While leaders of pro-European centrist and liberal parties mostly declared themselves reassured about Chirac's commitment to Europe, members of the RPR delegation hinted at possible differences between the president's agenda and the Gaullist party line.

“We have been struck by the constructive energy behind the attitude of the president, who has reassured us about his European commitment and his great resolve,” said André Santini, a senior member of the liberal UDF, after meeting the president.

André Rossinot, leader of the centrist Radical Party, stressed Chirac's commitment to achieving monetary union by 1999 and explained that the president would fight to “boost the functioning of (European) institutions, foreign policy and defence”.

Less easy going on Chirac was Seguin, staunch defender of all things French and eloquent critic of economic orthodoxy as espoused by the Maastricht Treaty. The president of the Assemblée Nationale, widely believed to be one of the candidates-in-waiting for Alain Juppé's job as prime minister, spoke out strongly for the increased involvement of national parliaments in EU decision-making. This, declared Seguin on the Elysée's doorstep, would contribute to reducing the “democratic deficit” from which the EU suffers.

National parliaments, he said, should be involved both “upstream and downstream” from the Council of Ministers' deliberations.

While stressing his suggestions were still open for debate, Seguin left no doubt that he could make life difficult for Chirac if the president were to ignore altogether his feisty supporter's views on where Europe should go.

Chirac's well-known capacity to weather a storm of protest and act in the face of strong opposition might well be tested again before very long.